Fornalutx has been in the headlines this summer as the town that, shock horror, doesn’t want hundreds of cars parked in the centre of it messing up the air quality and ambience. But there’s actually plenty of places to leave your car outside of the town, both on the road, and in car parks. So my husband (who took all of the photos for this week’s article) and I drop our car there and wander in. It’s hot and we are early so we stop for a refreshing beverage and then wander around the town. There’s not really so much to see in Fornalutx, the tiny, narrow, winding lanes with rows of plants on either side are charming, and the old Moorish water way of channelling water is interesting, but until you get up to the top of the town you can’t really appreciate where you are. As we climb up to the top of Can Verdera Hotel we can see the terraces and mountains that surround Fornalutx, and the view puts us in our place: when you are there you feel that you have been given an immense privilege to be able to see and appreciate the beauty of the Tramuntana.
The pop up event that Marcos has invited us to is as part of a table for 20 people event entitled “Ritma Festival”. The table is decorated beautifully, with tall candles in the centre making it a little difficult to see our neighbours, but you can peek through and chat, or pretend that you can’t see them and hide, so I guess you can make it work for you either way. Before we begin the meal, Marcos stands at the top of the table and introduces himself.
“Three years ago, I was the executive director of a Dutch company. I was living in the Netherlands, and we were selling marketing music for restaurants. I worked there for 16 years. I was travelling a lot, taking almost 200 planes a year. But I was always alone and I was always going to restaurants. I visited three stars, one star, no stars, and as well as street food places. I think you can learn a lot from people’s food, how they cook it, what it smells like, it speaks for them.
“So I decided to quit my job and I went to the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastian to train as a chef. Then I worked in Galicia before returning to Mallorca. I decided to build my own restaurant in Palma, but two weeks before it was due to open the engineer told me that he made a mistake with one of the rules from the council. And I could not open it! The restaurant already had reservations for almost two months because people were curious to know what I would present, but still I could not open. And now the whole thing is with the lawyers. So that was how my life as a chef began!
“So instead I chose to work in some different restaurants, and then in January this year I decided to adapt my original restaurant concept of Ritma (@ritma_mallorca) and make it into what I have called a “nomad cuisine”. In the end Ritme is me, not a building, where I go, Ritma goes.
“I don’t tend to work inside of restaurants now, I work in magic places, like where we are now. The hotel proposed to me that I should offer the concept here. At the beginning I was sceptical that it would work because it is far away from Palma, and it would be warm as well. But as soon as I saw the terrace here I knew that it had to be mine.”
Looking at the menu it was definitely very inspired by the sea, and even included something which I have managed to avoid for my whole adult life, an oyster. Not wanting to be rude, when the course came, I ate my oyster, but I think it might have been wasted on me as I didn’t really appreciate it. When I told Marcos that was my first ever oyster his eyebrows shot up and then he told me that I had started at the top of the oyster quality standards, so I guess that will also be my only oyster. Why have another one if it can’t be improved upon? I asked Marcos about his cooking style and he said, “I see a lot of similarities between the produce from Galicia and Mallorca, so much of it is from the sea. The way I cook is a fusion of quality seasonal products that are from the Atlantic, and from the Mediterranean. I work with fish, raw things, and cooked things. I use the old way of cooking. Ancestral food. I use fermentations, curations. I use salt and seawater for cooking. I use fire.” Which he did, cooking on an outdoor fire on the terrace in the view of the table.
As the delicious, and beautifully presented courses, started to come to the table, so people started to relax and turn to their neighbours to talk. It’s a very sociable way to eat, sitting elbow to elbow with others who you haven’t met yet. You sit with your party, but on either side of that there will be people who you haven’t met before. “The idea of this concept,” said Marcos, “Is that you are also sharing your moment with other people. You're going to meet people, laugh, things. Maybe now you're going to be shy, but in half an hour, when you have your drinks, then you're going to be talking with all of you.” During the evening we chatted with a couple from Germany on their “Babymoon”, a couple from Denmark and Spain who lived in Palma and worked in the yachting industry, and a family also from Denmark who were on their summer holidays.
A win on many levels, the only thing I would have changed is I would have booked to stay in the hotel for the night, someone had to stay on the right side of the law and be able to drive home, and that someone was me. So I did not enjoy much of the wine that was served, but I found the experience to be just as magical as Marcos had hoped it would be. We left with new friends and a beautiful memory of a lovely place. A great way to experience Mallorca, through the setting and through its produce.
After a break for August, the Ritma evenings will continue in September, you can contact Hotel Can Verdera, or Marcos (@marciano_friki_fooder ) directly for more information. Send him a WhatsApp on 661 834 314.
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