The revolutionary new menu at DiverXO in Madrid
“Is this something you eat or drink?” This question is not surprising in a fine dining restaurant when we have no idea what the ingredients of a dish are at first glance. However, the daredevil of Spanish cuisine, Dabiz Muñoz, has now gone beyond all limits: he has presented a menu that is entirely liquid, with only traces of chewable elements.
Author: Ágnes Németh
Photo: Dabiz Muñoz Instagram
The flying pig and the stoned lobster
46-year-old Spaniard Dabiz Muñoz has already earned four Michelin stars, one after returning from London to his first restaurant in Madrid, and three for DiverXO, making it the only three-star restaurant in the Spanish capital. “Go forward or die” (Vanguardia o morir) is something like the master chef’s motto, and now he has taken another big step forward.
Even before this, a dinner at his restaurant was described as a roller coaster ride, full of almost eerily exciting dishes. The restaurant’s website is just a crumpled white paper-like surface where you can book “the flying pig menu” for €450 and choose from three types of drinks, the cheapest of which is €300 (€250 for non-alcoholic drinks). They don’t reveal any more than that, but we can expect dishes such as “drunken crayfish partying in Jerez” or “lobster waking up on the beach in Goa.”
His fusion cuisine, which also incorporates Asian elements, uses mostly local Spanish ingredients, but he will try his hand at anything from around the world if he feels like it. His concept was also successful in London, but he had to close his restaurant there during Covid. The Madrid restaurant is visually unusual, with its bright yet cozy nooks and futuristic shapes.
Watch the debut of the liquid menu here
“Supermegahyperaromatic!”
One of Spain’s most important gastronomic events, Madrid Fusion, took place recently (January 26-28), where Dabiz Muñoz presented his liquid food line. I wasn’t there in person, but it must have been a big deal because the news was everywhere at once, it was talked about on the morning radio show, it was trending on Instagram, and of course the newspapers reported on it too.
“What we do is liquid cuisine, which coexists organically with solid cuisine. Two parallel worlds that intersect, separate, contradict or reinforce each other, depending on the moment. It’s like eating two menus in one, or two menus at the same time,” the chef was quoted as saying by a journalist from El Español. “The DiverXO team put aside their preconceptions and began to explore other avenues: industrial culinary arts, cocktail making, technology, food engineering, biochemistry, science, philosophy… “If we want to create a new discipline, we have to draw on different disciplines,” argued the chef. The result is a creative, technically complex liquid menu that speaks its own language,” continued the El Español reporter.
One of the dishes presented was peat nut saké with fried caviar. The kefir water is fermented three times until it reaches a flavor reminiscent of a mushroom and cheese pasta. The master said, “You have no idea what this drink is, you just feel that it’s incredibly special, supermega hyperaromatic!”
Another liquid madness is butter champagne, made from the lees of a 2000 vintage champagne, flavoured with browned butter, vanilla, and spices, and even a little vinegar spritz. Its texture deceives the eye and the mouth, evoking the brioche aromas of aged champagnes. And lest the concept become too rounded, oysters marinated in non-alcoholic manzanilla and ponzu shake the unsuspecting consumer out of their champagne dreams.
Money is no object
The flying pig menu costs €450, which is the standard, fixed menu. The newly introduced nine-course Metamorphosis 2026 menu also costs €450, and the chef recommends ordering both and tasting them side by side. If you can’t manage two 9-course meals, he suggests a hybrid solution, which includes one whole menu and half of the other. This version costs €700 (without drinks, because the drinks mentioned are actually food), which, as Carlos G. Cano, Cadena Ser’s gastronomic journalist, pointed out, is 75% of the Spanish minimum wage. And if we order drinks, even the most modest €300 selection, we’ll have spent another month’s minimum wage.
At the moment the new Metamorohosis menu is not available to reserve, though they have promised so. You had better contact to restaurant.
