These days he looks more than ever like a kid with new shoes.
He has just released
a
two-episode documentary about his roots;
He has launched his
own foundation
(focused on sustainability, product traceability and developing a circular economy) and launches
El Círculo
, the thug and street delivery with which he wants to conquer Madrid.
Or "burst it", if we are faithful to the words that a Carlos Maldonado
come up
laughing (or not).
The chef from Toledo, who
just two months ago revalidated his Michelin star at
Raíces
(Talavera de la Reina), acknowledges that "Madrid is a lot of Madrid. It is true that you feel a certain fear, we know that it will not be easy, because this league is first and there is a lot of everything, but I trust Madrid.
We bring a different style, a product that is worth it and of quality"
.
This is, in roman paladino, a
casual
and warrior proposal, with "unique" hamburgers like stars that have already triumphed in El Círculo, the home delivery service
that he set up in the Raíces kitchen during the worst times of the pandemic
and that "we saved when the hostelry was closed".
Now, the completely renewed brand of Carlos Maldonado ("new and more powerful image") arrives in Madrid through Cuyna, a network of kitchens specializing in delivery, and with the Glovo platform, which
already distributes its "peculiar" burgers
(prices: from 10.95 to 24 euros).
In
El Círculo everything revolves around the "chicha"
.
"We make our burgers with different types of meat, all of great quality, which we
select directly at the source and which Cárnicas Otero provides us with
. There are lamb, bull, wild boar and deer, and in some we combine up to three meats," says the chef, which adds the differentiating point.
"They are meats that we season ourselves,
some with up to 36 different spices
," says the chef.
The Violence Burger.
Cheerful, expressive and expansive, he goes into detail: "
Each one is macerated with its own ingredients and at different times,
so none of them taste the same, neither because of the meats, which are different, nor because of the dressings they rest on. For example,
the one with Manchego lamb is Moorish style
, with those smells and flavors of turmeric, cumin... that take you to Morocco. Or
the one with three heads
, pork, cow and sheep, which we let rest
48 in cayenne pepper
. These two are my favourites", admits the chef.
Meat and dressing.
This is the winning combination with which this chef -"addicted to stress who, when I'm calm, I'm nervous because I don't know what to do"- throws himself into
taking over Madrid City
, as he likes to call it, with a menu inspired by the
Divine Comedy
.
The nine circles of Dante's hell
give name to each of the delivery bites, although at the moment not all of them will be available in the capital.
Let's go first to the burgers:
Lujuria (of bull meat with fried egg
, chimichurri sauce, melted cheese, tomato, salad dressed with mustard vinaigrette and crispy onion),
Limbo (a Thai free-range chicken
battered with crispy corn with pickled jalapeños ),
Violencia (double hamburger made with pork, beef and sheep meat,
melted cheese, double onion rings) and
Traicion (beef with cheese
, crispy bacon and smoked bacon and mozzarella bolognese, with grated Manchego cheese and French fries ).All with brioche bread.
Hell (or Eden, depending on how you look at it) continues with Fraude -a traditional wink-.
with Provencal potato wedges with melted cheeses, smoked bacon
with
Madrid
-style tripe ;
Greed, a spectacular
rack of ribs weighing between 1.1 and 1.3 kilos,
and Perrito Cerberus, a
22-centimeter sausage
made from talavera sheep, pork and veal
rested in cayenne.
Some very special tripe.
"We will introduce the rest of the circles little by little," points out this Michelin star, a lizard's tail who was a friar before being a cook: a lifeguard;
vigilant;
street vendor of hams, sausages, cheeses...
"
The objective is to cover almost 80% of Madrid.
At first, we wanted to go like a whirlwind, in a total
destroyer
plan , but although we have the perfect logistics, we have to go little by little. We have started with
the kitchen of Vizconde de Matamala
(Manuel Becerra area), we will immediately go with the next one," Maldonado points out.
"
You have to have everything under control
, it's not the same to get 22 menus [those served in his Raíces restaurant] than 5,000 hamburgers", speaks that more mature Carlos who sees in
El Circulo a return to the origins, to that
food truck
-" well, a van, alone"- with which after winning MasterChef he toured Spain selling hamburgers "a cascoporro. A cajelleo cuisine and very sincere",
And from Madrid to..."Barcelona, Valencia, where Cuyna has kitchens, or Murcia, where it will be set up shortly," he concludes.
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