The 'Mexiterrania' of Edgar Rodríguez

Itziar Lecea/Ciutadella - The Mallorcan chef from Can Simoneta won the national cooking competition applied to the Vaca Vermella de Menorca last March 3, with a dish that surprised the jury. The first to be surprised, however, was this Girona resident in Mallorca, who assures that it is very possible that Menorca's red cow will enter the tasting menu for this coming season.

A SELF-TEACHED COOK
Born in Girona, raised in Alicante, and living in Mallorca for 16 years, Rodríguez is a 30-year-old who defines himself as self-taught. But his career has certainly given him a good deal of the experience that led him to stand out in the Menorca Vermella Cow National Cooking Competition, held in Ciutadella.

"I started working at a restaurant in Artà, Cafè Parisien, as a kitchen assistant, while I was studying. After a year, I was offered the position of head chef. After two years I moved to Santanyí, to premises very focused on tourism, with very simple cuisine. But it was there that I ran into a head chef who introduced me to modern cooking. From there I went to a hotel in Canyamel, the Bellvitge, where I had a boss from the Basque Country, who showed me the basics of traditional cooking, and right after that I was in the pastry department for three years. From here I did an internship in Germany, as a baker. It was a place with Michelin stars, where I learned a lot, even though I had few opportunities to train", comments Rodríguez.

It was on his return from Germany that he focused his career towards what it is today, with the meeting with chef David Moreno, trained by Andreu Genestra. "When I returned to Canyamel, chef David Moreno entered Bellvitge, who was the person who instilled Mexico in me. We were both offered the Can Simoneta project, and we accepted, him being the most visible part, and me as second in the kitchen. It has been five years of very good progress, giving prominence to the kitchen to the point that last year we opened Can Simoneta Grastronòmic, which is what I do, aside from managing the kitchen of the hotel Also last year we got a Sol Repsol and in 2020 we had a mention in the Michelin Guide.”

THE 'MEXITERRANIA' OF CAN SIMONETA
The progression of Can Simoneta until reaching the current Gastronòmic project has a clear enough objective. "We're trying to show what Mexican cuisine really is beyond Tex-Mex or burritos," says Rodríguez.

"We are trying to make a Mexico-Mallorca connection, since they use a lot of fresh produce, they use a lot of vegetables, a lot of meat. What we have done is Mediterranean cuisine, but with Mexican touches. Little by little we have been transforming it to really show what is eaten in Mexico. I was able to go with David Moreno to the country, and we transformed the concept until we reached "Mexiterrania", where we always use as much product as possible from zero kilometers and transform it with Mexican cooking techniques."

THE CONNECTION WITH THE MINORCAN RED COW

A week before arriving in Ciutadella, Rodríguez and his competition partner, Benito Torres, had never tried cooking with Menorcan red beef. And they didn't quite know how they could be among the eight finalists who participated.

"I could say that we came to win, but the reality is that we started the dish wanting to do our job well. Yes, we saw that the level was very high, with people who came from restaurants with a very high standard, so the only claim we had was to make the concept of mexiterrania known. During the competition we focused a lot, and we had a very good synergy with Benito Torres, who accompanied me, which I think was decisive in being able to get the plate out well."

A dish they called "smoked red cow with soft cheese, sobrasada and chilies". "I wanted the name to be very open, not to close us off and not to give any clues as to where we were going," says Rodríguez, who convinced the jury made up of chefs Sergio Fernández, Koldo Royo, Joan Bagur and José Cortés, the president of the Association of Gastronomic Journalists and Writers of the Balearic Islands and director of Foodies on Menorca, Bep Al·lès, and the co-founder of the online guide Cómete Menorca, Sión Bosch.

What is clear to him is that this competition has resulted in a good discovery at the product level. "I had never tried cooking with Menorcan red beef before the competition, and I must say that I was very surprised. It has a very good infiltration, it doesn't coagulate, so it doesn't taste like blood, it's a meat that can be seen to have a lot of quality. And I can't rule out being able to include Menorcan red on the Can Simoneta tasting menu this coming season."