Sven Elverfeld, chef of Wolfsburg restaurant Aqua welcomed Quique Dacosta, chef of the eponymous restaurant in Denia, Spain, for the first ‘cooking up friendship’ in his restaurant.
“Quique and I have not had the opportunity to cook together and therefore I was very happy about his idea to visit me at restaurant Aqua,” said Sven.
“This dinner gives Sven and me the opportunity to share our knowledge and passion for our profession and to surprise guests with a unique menu,” said Quique.
Currently the Spanish chef is travelling across Europe and stopped yesterday at the 3 Michelin star restaurant in Wolfsburg. Together, Sven and Quique prepared a menu solely for one evening. The two 3-Michelin star chefs have a long-term German-Spanish friendship despite the fact that they had never cooked together.
With excellent craftsmenship Sven, together with his team is known for a defined style and apart from trends Elverfeld creates a symbiosis of tradition and modernism. The Michelin Guide awarded the Aqua restaurant three stars and the restaurant has 19 Gault Millau points.
In an interview with Food and Wine Gazette, we had described Sven as a chef with a conscience and an impressive work ethic (he rarely if ever misses a service in his restaurant). “I was lucky because when I was young my parents travelled a lot by car and whenever we went we would stop to eat. In all these countries like Italy, France and Yugoslavia, food is one of the most important things in life. It does not need to be fine dining but to just be able to sit and eat together and communicate.”
In 2013 restaurant Aqua has been redesigned by renowned American architect Elliott Barnes with an additional window that opens into a private garden area, where a large shell filled with water creates a quiet Zen-like atmosphere.
Quique Dacosta was born in 1972 in Jarandilla de la Vera, started his professional training as a chef in 1986. In 1988 he began working in what is today his restaurant, El Poblet (now Quique Dacosta Restaurante) which initially offered Spanish cuisine and then evolved to a more local marine cuisine. With this new turn, he starts to build a distinctive kitchen which contextualizes Alicantine, Valencian and Spanish innovative food and today, he is recognized all around the world for its artistic expression of the kitchen. He is also owner of the restaurants El Poblet (1*), Vuelve Carolina and Mercatbar in Valencia and is fully immersed 2017’s season with the newly launched menu, DNA, The search at his restaurant in Denia.
Today, Quique Dacosta is considered to be one of the leaders of avant-garde cuisine in Spain. He has won awards and accolades from being in the top 50 list of the World’s Best restaurants to having three Michelin stars. It is hard to believe that he started working as a chef in the restaurant which he now owns at the age of 17 and never cooked or trained anywhere else. It all started in 1989, when he joined a family restaurant by the name of El Poblet in 1989 without any previous experience as a chef. 10 years later, he bought the restaurant in Denia, close to Alicante and Valencia.
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