Categories Pastry Chef Articles
Idoia Lacambra’s ‘rogue’ desserts with a marine flavor from the restaurant Aponiente
If a restaurant has been characterized by exploring the sea in all of its ramifications, it is the three-Michelin starred restaurant Aponiente. Located in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz, Spain) and run by Ángel León, this renowned temple of gastronomy has been opening up multiple creative paths for years. Thanks to its research work, the kitchen enjoys new ingredients such as plankton, surprising effects such as marine bioluminescence, or innovative techniques such as cooking with living salt. This always restless attitude has also been transferred to its sweet cuisine. The goal: to maintain a marine coherence from start to finish, which is a great challenge once the dessert and petit four sequence arrive.
To achieve success in this new approach to the sweet world, Ángel León not only relies on pastry chef Idoia Lacambra, but also on the talent of David Gil and the entire I+Desserts team. A collaboration that he defines as “a total success.”
Photos: Álvaro Fernández Prieto
Who is Idoia Lacambra?
Idoia Lacambra’s first contact with Aponiente was in 2015. While studying hospitality at Eshob (Barcelona), she did an internship at the restaurant and ended up being hired as head of the cold section for several years.
With the idea of a change of scenery, she moved to Madrid where she worked at the award-winning El Invernadero by Rodrigo de la Calle and StreetXO by Dabiz Muñoz. After the pandemic, she returned to Cádiz and rejoined the Aponiente team, initially in the appetizers area. Since David Gil joined the company as a pastry consultant, Lacambra has been seduced by the sweet side and is currently in charge of the dessert section.
Three desserts that go against the rules
In so good.. magazine 31, we challenged eight chefs to prepare creations that did not follow the rules, desserts that were ‘rogue’ in their combination of flavors, in their composition, in their aesthetics, or in their message.
Aponiente, with Idoia Lacambra at the helm, accepted the challenge and presented great desserts where marine protein is integrated in an absolutely natural way.
Moray eel mochi
The key to this dessert is the use of the skin of the moray eel, which we manage to de-flavor by steeping it in an infusion of milk, cinnamon, and lemon for 48 hours. In this way, we obtain a skin, already flavorless and previously steamed, with a texture similar to that of conventional mochi dough. The crisp is also achieved by taking advantage of the scales which we previously fried and crushed.
Discover the recipe in so good.. magazine #31
Squid kakigori
The novelty in this case is the use of the Japanese shaved ice machine, in which we introduce a block of frozen squid slices. We obtain a superfine frozen sheet that we dip both in the spicy shichimi togarashi and in the citrus provided by the yuzu powder, also frozen. To this we add the sweetened egg yolk so as to balance the other flavors.
Discover the recipe in so good.. magazine #31
Kombu tatin
A tatin with marine elements composed of kombu seaweed tarte, seaweed caramel extraction of glucose, and croissant gelato. In the ice cream croissant, they use the enzyme technique that David Gil has been working on for years.
Discover the recipe in so good.. magazine #31
