La Finca, that armored corner of millionaires, footballers and golfers in Pozuelo de Alarcón, has been trying for years to become something more than an elite urbanization. The plan was ambitious: to become the new gastronomic reference in Madrid. A mini Dubai with zip code 28223.
Things seemed to be serious when Dabiz Muñoz announced that he would move DiverXO, Spain’s most mediatic three-Michelin-starred restaurant, there. It wasn’t a corridor rumor, it was an official announcement. But the Madrid-born chef never opened at La Finca. In 2024, after years of silence, he posted on Instagram that he was canceling the project: “A difficult but necessary decision”. There will be no DiverXO overlooking the golf course.
Nor did the plan of Dani García, another of the big names in Spanish cuisine, last long. The chef from Marbella, with two Michelin stars on his resume, closed his restaurant Lobito de Mar in May, barely a year and seven months after opening it in the LaFinca Grand Café shopping center.
Aurelio Morales and his arrival as an advisor
Despite these setbacks, the complex is not throwing in the towel. And the new bet has a name and surname: Aurelio Morales. The chef from Alcalá de Henares, who has worked at elBulli, Miramar and won a Michelin star at Cebo, has joined the project as gastronomic advisor to Mena, the flagship of the Lew Brand group at La Finca.
His signature is already noticeable in a menu that includes cod confit with Madrid-style tripe, grilled turbot with bilbaína or a lasagna of crab and crispy artichoke. Dishes with refined technique, embers and a lot of personality.
The chef’s consultant, Goncodi Gastro, has designed the menu and is also in charge of training the kitchen team, which will be in constant contact with Morales to ensure his style in every dish. In parallel, the restaurant has reinforced its wine cellar with more than 300 references and a classic cocktail bar. All this without leaving the fire of the wood-burning oven and the embers, the soul of the restaurant.
The latest adventures of Aurelio Morales
Morales lands at La Finca after closing his cycle at Abya, that restaurant on Madrid’s Golden Mile built on the Saldaña Palace with an investment of 50 million euros. A pharaonic project from which he said goodbye in October 2024 to start a new stage, still without a final destination. “
His passage through Abya was not the first that he decided to close of his own accord. In 2022, he also surprised by leaving Cebo, where he had achieved a Michelin star in 2017. His curriculum is a collection of own names: in addition to elBulli and Miramar, he has passed through AbAC or Francis Paniego’s Echaurren. At Mena, Morales does not cook every day, but he does leave his mark on every dish.