Hospes Hotel – Madrid

Inaugurated last year and after just a few months in business, Senzone Restaurant at Madrid’s brand-new Hospes Madrid luxury & boutique hotel, has made a major name for itself on the gastronomic scene of the capital of Spain. One good indication of this fame is the Restaurant Revelation of the Year 2007 award that it picked up during the fifth Metrópoli Awards gala ceremony. This was not the only title scooped by the restaurant. It also received the Best Sommelier prize, awarded to Rut Cotroneo, who is in charge of the surprising and very complete wine selection at Senzone, boasting labels from all over the world.

Managed by the young, yet experienced hands of chef Francisco Morales, who was recently awarded the “21st Century Chef” prize as the revelation young Spanish chef, Senzone Madrid opts for healthy, natural fare. Customers enjoy a balanced combination between local ingredients and the freshest and most suggestive dishes, in an idyllic setting with views onto the hotel’s indoor courtyard. Access to the restaurant is through the Senzone Cafeteria or the Chill-Out courtyard. The seating capacity is for 40 diners.

The menu at Senzone is characterised by its unmistakable preference for availing of the best raw materials at all times. It therefore includes the best market produce and is open to the chef’s proposals depending on the time of the year. Balanced dishes with surprising details and combinations, which are very well designed and tested. Francisco Morales’ cooking stands out for its character and ambition, which in combination with his talent and sensitivity in drawing up the recipes makes this restaurant an inevitable choice for gastronomy lovers. Francisco Morales and Rut Cotroneo are the artifices of a very contemporary, brilliant offering, in which exquisitely minimalist “tapas” and portions constitute a veritable tribute to traditional Madrilean gastronomy.

Delicious starters like the poached egg with cauliflower purée and Granada’s Riofrío caviar, razor clams pickled with seaweed, or the strips of cuttlefish with fine green beans and garlic oil. Tasty fish, such as the sea-bass with green couscous and tender grilled garlic shoots; or the crusty cod with tender stewed onions and lentils and crispy bacon. Juicy meats like the Bresse chicken with cream, the cod and cooked oats, the Loire Coquelet or the parsnip in lime sauce. The highlights among the desserts are the creamy crunchy pistachio and rambutan pie or the chocolate cake with mascarpone cream and crystallised raspberries.

Aged just 26 years old, the Cordobese chef Francisco Morales has dedicated his whole life to cooking. Before starting his training, he took his first steps at his parents’ catering business. Then he went on the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Mugaritz, in San Sebastián (2 Michelin Stars) and El Bulli, in Roses (3 Michelin Stars).

Rut Cotroneo, aged 33 years old, has shown several indications of her excellence as a sommelier: for example, her “National Gastronomy Award”, which was granted by the National Gastronomy Academy and the “Best Sommelier of the Year” prize granted by Madrid`s Chamber of Commerce at Madrid Fusión Gastronomic Summit 2007. With solid training behind her, Rut has developed her brilliant professional career in some of the most important restaurants in the world, such as El Bulli (Rosas), The Fat Duck (London), Mugaritz (San Sebastián), or Hacienda Benazuza (Seville). She has been a member of the Senzone team since 2007, where she works as sommelier at the restaurant located in Hospes Madrid luxury hotel.

Ruth Cotroneo was responsible for designing both the drinks and spirits menu and the wine list at Senzone Restaurant. The offering is varied, ranging from the best-known whisky to the most atypical Calvados. The wine-list is characteristic for its dynamism. In preparing it, Ruth showed a preference for small, less well-known wineries, offering interesting and surprising wines. Of course this does not mean that the unmistakable classics have been left out. Ranging from Californian wine and passing through the main Spanish wine-producing areas, with a special emphasis on the wine from the criaderas and soleras of Andalusia, to the French wines. There are a total of 250 labels in the wine list at Senzone Restaurant.

All of the gastronomic venues in the Senzone group are managed by the Senzone brand, under the management of F&B Director Isaac Mestre Rovira, and the general management of Antonio Pérez Navarro (Chief Executive Officer in the Fuenso Group, to which the brands Hospes, Senzone, Bodyna and Atmost belong), both of whom work day by day towards achieving the highest standards of exquisite service and products at all Senzone venues.