Joshua Parfitt
THESE are the dishes that won 26-year-old fishmonger Aleix Puig Masterchef 2019.
The seventh edition of the hit show was held in Denia and featured local three-Michelin starred chef Quique Dacosta.
The three plates, named ‘Where I’m From’, ‘Where I Am’ and ‘Where I’m Going’, chart the three phases of Aleix’s now nationwide famous life.
The first dish consisted of chopped, home-smoked sardines on a tomato bizcocho, with frozen basil and a black garlic sauce.
The starter touched on culinary themes of Aleix’s youth, in Barcelona.
The main dish was based upon Aleix’s working life as a fishmonger with his mother.
It featured exquisitely prepared cockles, clams, barnacles and mussels, alongside ponzu-marinated scallops and lobster in a turbot consomme, with kimchi and freshly-prepared mayonnaise.
The dessert dish blew the judges away with a dish rooted in Aleix’s upbringing, but encapsulating his wildest dreams.
The dish was built from crema catalana with two ‘moon stones’ – made from orange liqueur, cocoa butter and breadcumbs and frozen in liquid nitrogen – with violet-flavoured ice cream and broken bits of frozen mulberry and raspberry.
The three sumptuous dishes won Aleix the tournament, and a tidy 100,000, in the UNESCO designated Creative City of Gastronomy.
