In a world where gastronomy is not enough to taste, where even the eye demands to be seduced and where the experience is not the experience but everything that surrounds it, the desire to eat beautifully is born, to feel that each bite occurs in a scenario that accompanies and amplifies the flavor . Eating ceases to be a simple act and becomes a holistic experience: kitsch, aesthetic and memorable.
Maché, which today appears among the finalists of the prestigious Restaurant & Bars Design Awards, embodies this union of food and architecture, flavor and scenography. Its proposal is not limited to a creative menu. In fact, it is far from that, although it will also be the restaurant that will host Sensory Feast, a plan that mixes cuisine and technology.
A prize for beauty (and beauty itself).
Since 2009, the Restaurant & Bars Design Awards have been recognizing the most fascinating gastronomic spaces on the planet, where the interior design is (at the very least) on a par with the menu. In this edition, eight Spanish spaces have been nominated for their originality and beauty. Among them, Maché stands out in the capital in the Heritage Building category, for interiors located in historic buildings.
Maché, located in a building that was the headquarters of the General Association of Employees and Workers of the Railways of Spain, merges stately architecture and visual craftsmanship: high ceilings, noble moldings and a series of stained glass windows designed by the Maumejean Brothers. Maché, by the way, is part of the Casa de las Artes Meliá Collection hotel.
This aesthetic commitment is complemented by a tribute to the seven fine arts: painting, sculpture, music, dance, architecture, literature and cinema, which are insinuated in every corner and in the cultural program of the venue.
Maché’s menu
Chef José Luis Costa displays a menu where Madrid and Spanish cuisine coexist with international touches. From the classics – Iberian ham with glass bread, gildas, reinvented salads – to seasonal proposals such as seasoned tomato raff or smoked burrata, everything is presented with a contemporary air. The gildas are the cheapest item on the menu and two units cost 10€ -the recipe is not designed with frivolity: it has anchovies and anchovies from the Bay of Biscay. The hamburger (aged beef, Comté cheese and Iberian jowl) costs 20€.
Another finalist space that has also conquered the awards.
Another Madrid gem mentioned in our pages was the Mesón Cuevas del Vino Museum, a restaurant installed in subway caves in Chinchón, also nominated as a heritage building.
Its surroundings are a living excavation: wine cellars and wine presses next to the largest wood-fired oven in Spain, capable of cooking dozens of dishes at a time, all in an atmosphere that is part museum, part traditional dining room, with affordable prices and a history that resonates in every wall.
The aforementioned Museo Mesón Cuevas del Vino and Maché are finalists in the same category -it’s called Heritage Building and it’s for restaurants or bars located in historic buildings. And we will have to wait until October 27 to find out if either of them wins the award.