It doesn't take a second to respond. Quickly and without hesitation, Nacho Manzano knows perfectly what his first gastronomic memory is and with which dish he premiered to the kitchen.

The first is the meals on request that his mother made at home, a few kilometers from the center of Arriondas. That house, converted into a restaurant, and where Nacho and his sisters were born, was a meeting point in the area. A kind of grocery store where you could buy everything: a shirt, a wine or order food.

"The house took on a special dimension when my mother made those meals," he recalls. He wears a white jacket with his name embroidered and in his eyes you can sense a look that reaches those days when his mother cooked rice with pitu, the native Asturian bird, which his father bought from the neighbors of the area.

That rice joins some tortos, the first dish that Nacho cooked when he was only 13 years old, when he lent a hand to his parents. Those responsible for that first approach to the stove were some doctors who extended the after-dinner until it hooked it with the night. "You'll see how they want to have dinner," his father predicted to Nacho.

The game of cards whetted the appetite of the doctors and the imagination of Nacho. Some typical Asturian tortos like those made by his mother, "very suflados", crowned with a scrambled cheese, black pudding and poached onion -what was in the pantry- satisfied the hunger of the doctors and ignited their vocation. "It was a before and after," says Nacho, who was clear that he wanted to set up a restaurant.

Both recipes, present in the menu of several of his restaurants, such as Gloria, the London Ibérica or Casa Marcial itself (chosen by users of The Fork as their favorite restaurant in 2022), are an example of how nostalgia, "but well understood", travels in the chef's kitchen, which also has three suns in the Repsol Guide.

Nacho's sisters: Sandra, Esther and Olga.Siro García

The vocation became an apprenticeship when his father sent him to Gijón at the age of 15 to Casa Víctor, the restaurant of a good friend. At that time there were only two options: study or work. "I wasn't a good student," he admits.

In that kitchen he learned the "old way, pinche". From there he keeps a "bittersweet" memory. He learned a lot. Not only to do certain things, but also what I didn't want to do.

In 1993, at the age of 22, he returned to the small village of Arriondas to fulfill a promise he made to himself: to open Casa Marcial and literally transform the rooms where he played with his sisters into a gastronomic temple. It is his version of that food to order, of the maternal tortos and of the Asturian sea and mountain.

From Gijón he brings the "inexhaustible thread" of tradition to pull it and reach the avant-garde. Since then he uses nostalgia as fuel to develop his gastronomic project. "My cuisine is absolutely personal and intimate," he summarizes.

Through dishes such as seaweed, llamapas, cow sheets or sea urchins, he "tells the story of where he lives", but also of where he is and where he is going. "We cook memories of childhood, of the environment." And he does it with a clear objective: "The kitchen cannot reach only the palate, it has to provide an emotion".

Landscape and paisanaje

In the spacious and bright kitchen of Casa Marcial, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary, two more engines are used, synchronized with nostalgia: family and territory. None of them is conceived without the other two.

Her sisters, Sandra, Esther and Olga, and her nephew Jesús, are fundamental in the development of the project, not only of Casa Marcial, but also of the other establishments: Sandra, as head waiter; Esther, as chef; and Olga, in the administration.

As in all families, they also argue. But the "loyalty and capacity" of work has "no limits or edges". They are the "best partner" and the greatest "guardians of tradition." Without forgetting to look forward, with Jesus, his 23-year-old nephew, chef and member of the R+D department of the group.

That gaze is also set on the territory and is basic for the development of its cuisine. "Nature sets the pace," says Nacho, who conceives the menu as a dialogue with the Asturian landscape. That's why there are no fixed menus printed at Casa Marcial. The dishes are adapted to what Nacho sees from the "open window" to Asturias that is his restaurant.

Interior of Casa Marcial.L. B.

"You have to force yourself. If you have a menu with timeless things you miss the environment, "he summarizes. In this "ecosystem" is equally important as an ingredient vegetables, meat or fish, tangible products, such as the northeast wind, which although it may be annoying, cures the slaughter or fish. This adaptation to the "microenvironment" is what allows, according to Nacho, "to see several Martial House during the course of the year."

Adapting allows Manzano to play with other products. Although most come from several kilometers around, they do not close the door to experiment, try or use ingredients from other areas. "We are not Taliban of what we are here, I do not set limits, I want to be open to other products, techniques, inspirations," he explains.

The restaurant also assimilates the territory in its liquid part. Where other great chefs welcome diners with a glass of champagne, Nacho does it with a glass of cider. A personal bet of yours and the sommelier Juan Luis García to value this drink. "That we receive you with a glass of cider I see it much more sensible," says Nacho. "We do it without complexes because it is our drink," he summarizes.

Spain emptied

With two Michelin stars, unique in the whole Principality, Casa Marcial has put Asturian cuisine on the map and this small village, surrounded by green meadows and a few kilometers from the sea.

The recognition is important because "it makes the work visible" and produces "personal satisfaction", but Nacho admits that "he forgets after 24 hours" to have received an award. "I never cook thinking that I am a National Gastronomy Award or that I have two Michelin stars," he confesses. His leitmotiv is not to keep the stars or achieve one more, but "to be a little better every day".

Like a cyclist, Nacho Manzano never stops pedaling so as not to fall. He has a "clear conviction that things happen that make the restaurant a little better every year."

Casa Marcial also contributes to the area, paying off a kind of debt to the environment through the people who pass through its kitchens. "We have inspired others to value areas like this in their places of origin," explains Nacho, who has seen many workers pass in his more than 30-year career.

Green meadows and orchards, neighbors of Casa Marcial.Siro García.

"Models like this restaurant," which they then replicate in their countries or areas of origin, "fix population in rural areas." A model "very important for the depopulation" of these areas: "They generate a job and an activity that suits them like a glove".

This activity also has to do with the sustainability that the environment allows, something that they achieve in a "natural way". A relationship that comes from the past. "To be sustainable you've had to have scarcity in your life," he adds.

Taking advantage of all resources, "but being generous", is key for Manzano, "get the most out of it with maximum excellence". Only in this way can Casa Marcial be maintained, being "sensible in every gesture" and with the "circular economy" as a basis.

Sustainability also has to do with the team that works in the restaurant. More than 12 people make up the kitchen brigade of Casa Marcial that, like everyone, has undergone a change after the overwhelming passage of the coronavirus. "There is a before and after the pandemic, the industry has to put the batteries," he says.

The marathon days and with few days of rest "passed to better life". "Whoever doesn't see it has a problem," says Nacho. The chef seeks a "lasting model over time", in a profession "vocational, special: for few people". The 70-hour weeks of yesteryear are over, "but with the usual 40 it does not arrive."

Nacho giving instructions in the kitchen. Siro Garcia

Manzano tries to compensate for the effort with more holidays and strategic closures, such as Christmas or before summer. It is in the summer when the restaurant, which serves 35 diners per shift, has more work.

Having a motivated team is essential to get a kitchen that leaves a mark. Not only on the palate, but also in memory and with which customers use an unsurpassed recommendation algorithm, word-of-mouth. The "best social network", as Nacho describes it.

That method has already worked to fill the restaurant since it opened and has always been the most effective to convey what it means to go to Casa Marcial. Because getting there, through the green landscape, is also part of the experience.

"I never ask how they're eating; I ask how they are going through it", clarifies Nacho, who wants to achieve what he has been pursuing since he first smelled that rice with pitu: "I am obsessed that the memory lasts".

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Learn more