Carande: a high-altitude bet in the mountains of Madrid

«I got all my culinary ethics from Hilario Arbelaitz«. With this decisive declaration of intentions, the Madrid chef defines himself Carlos Carandeowner and ideologist of the restaurant that bears his name in the town of Navacerrada, one of the most charming in Madrid’s Guadarrama mountain range.

A graduate in Business Administration, Carande decided during an Erasmus in Vienna that cooking was his thing and, upon his return, he enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu and then went on to DStaGE by Diego Guerrero and that mythical and longed for Super cool that has left such a mark on her. In 2021, just before turning thirty, she opened her personal project (“although the first year, due to the pandemic, doesn’t count,” she says), with an ambitious and risky bet that is far from the norm in the area.

Carlos Carande

«My idea is to tell stories through the product. I cook what I feel like at any given moment, depending on the season. And, of course, when you travel it is inevitable that there are influences from here and there.» If we add to these postulates a notable technical skill, a certain creativity with an iconoclastic touch and a fair amount of common sense (and some excess to polish, more the result of the desire to please than anything else), the result is that Carande is a project worth following closely, destined to create a lot of buzz.

Located in the most welcoming square in Navacerrada, that of Doctor Gereda, its large windows contrast with the typical mountain stone buildings that house the very traditional inns nearby. And the interior opts for a furious and modern minimalism, with white walls and abstract paintings.

The dining room has eight tables, exactly the same as the terrace, because customers have the option of moving from one space to another throughout the meal, depending on important issues such as temperature or smoking. In addition, there are four tables next to the bar at the entrance for more informal snacks.

The offer consists of a long tasting menu (130 euros) and a short one (85), not necessarily mandatory for a full table, and there is also the possibility of eating à la carte.

After a notable assortment of breads, oils (arbequina, picual and cornicabra) and butters (French salty, unsalted from Soria, sheep from Córdoba and goat from Cádiz)The appetizers are a high-end starter, packed with technique and flavor. Vichyssoise with marine vinaigrette, Huelva prawns and roe: freshness, acidity and intensity. Tomato sorbet with Moroccan black olive soil and Arbequina oil aged in a Palo Cortado wineskin: contrasts in flavor and texture. Cherry tomatoes candied with sugar and salt with homemade sardine garum, ajoblanco and oil infused with shiso: an explosion of umami.

Tomato sorbet with black olive soil

The canvas of enlisted men is, quite simply, a top dish. Carpaccio of the crustacean (the Atlantic cousin of the red shrimp) with three sauces: sweet and sour with lime and grapefruit, emulsion of its heads with ginger and Thai green curry. It also has a handful of osetra caviar, which I don’t know if it’s necessary.

Enlisted personnel sheet

Exactly the same thing happened to me with the sando (a nod to Japan, a country that Carlos is passionate about). Made with croissant bread made with butter from Guadarrama, the red tuna tarantelo and tamari sauce (made from soy sauce) are more than enough filling, so it is better to enjoy the quenelle of caviar in one spoon and then focus on the sandwich.

The homage to a popular appetizer such as sardine with tomato is a kind of deconstruction that refers to more techno-emotional times, although the result is impeccable in terms of taste. Marinated and seared sardine, tomato emulsion and quenelle of country bread ice cream.

Sardine with tomato

The grilled monkfish loin is more controversial due to the excess of accompaniments: wild asparagus spaghetti, a dashi-like atmosphere of freeze-dried morels, boletus and bonito, collagen pilpil with saffron and tiles with squid ink. One by one, all the elements work, but combined they take away from the star of the show, the fish; by the way, an excellent piece that is perfect for cooking.

To close the salty part, irreproachable and incontestable academic classicism: Bresse pigeon in three cooking methods (breast, sirloin and leg)) with an outstanding consommé of carcass and entrails and a red endive with orange that cleanses, fixes and gives splendor to the palate between bites. A great dish.

Bresse pigeon

At dessert time, the chef pays two tributes. The first, to Pedro Subijana, with a refreshing version of his gin and tonic sorbet. The second, to his grandparents, “he was a spy in Morocco”, with a light and very spiced sweet pastry cake with marcona almonds, cinnamon and a kind of custard.
Like other chefs of his generation (read Coco Montes, from Madrid’s Pabú, or Carlos Casillas, from Ávila’s Barro), Carlos Carande is passionate about wine and, thus, has set up A very interesting, exciting and very varied wine cellarat more than reasonable prices, where the extensive section dedicated to sakes stands out, the result of that passion for Japan that we talked about before, of course, but also of how well this rice wine combines with your food.