Quique Dacosta is a three-Michelin-star chef known for his avant-garde approach to cooking. Based in Dénia, Spain, he has turned his flagship restaurant, Quique Dacosta Restaurante, into one of the world’s top dining destinations. His cooking is inspired by the Mediterranean, combining tradition, innovation, and local ingredients. Beyond his restaurants in Spain, London, and Morocco, he leads the gastronomy at Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid, where his restaurant Deessa earned two Michelin stars within a year. A published author and ambassador for Action Against Hunger, Dacosta continues to shape the culinary world.
Please introduce yourself to our members.
My name is Quique Dacosta. I own a restaurant in Dénia with 3 Michelin stars, called Quique Dacosta Restaurante, currently ranked number 14 in the world according to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Here, we develop a cuisine deeply rooted in this territory and its pantry. This is a unique area within Spain's gastronomic richness, where haute cuisine has been discussed from a different perspective, as we began championing the movement in the region about 30 years ago. We view cooking as a dialogue with and for the diner, approaching it from a broad sense of beauty. For me, cooking is my way of communicating with the world, just as a writer uses words, a musician uses music, or a sculptor uses their art. We believe only the medium changes. This is the guiding thread of gastronomy as I understand it.
Tell us about your current project.
Quique Dacosta Restaurante is a place of great uniqueness, anchored in Dénia, a seaside town with a strong culinary tradition, which I have embraced. From here, we have been building a narrative, creating a pyramid of restaurants that revolve around a philosophy and address business and gastronomic concerns that I couldn't express in my 3 Michelin-starred restaurant. More casual concepts focused on produce or paella, such as Vuelve Carolina or Llisa Negra in Valencia, ArrosQD in London, different concepts in Mandarin Oriental Ritz Madrid and in Royal Mansour Tamuda Bay, other gastronomic establishments like El Poblet or Deessa (each awarded two Michelin stars). Each place tells the story of who we are in that region.
Tell us about the restaurant scene in Dénia.
Dénia is a very small town, with only 50,000 inhabitants. Any neighborhood in a big city is larger. But because it's small and has a seaport where cultures of all kinds have arrived, the pantry is extraordinary, as is the recipe collection. Being a tourist town, there is a diverse and valuable gastronomic offering. So much so that Dénia is recognized as a Creative City of Gastronomy by UNESCO. And not only Dénia, but the entire Valencian Community, which has three provinces, each with its well-differentiated pantry. With sea and orchards, but also unique livestock, mushrooms, and truffles. We are, therefore, in a place that surely has earned the right to be represented in haute cuisine. And Dénia, in particular, is a magical town that also hosts second homes for people from many parts of the world, thanks to its climatic conditions. Something that also helps Quique Dacosta Restaurante have significant international acceptance.
What are your three favorite restaurants in Dénia and why?
My favorite places in Dénia are:
- Las Rotas, a beach full of small coves where there are several restaurants that share the same philosophy, the Dénia cuisine. Rice dishes, prawns, salads, simple preparations, traditional salted fish. The leader of this group would be El Pegolí.
- In the town center is Pont Sec, which offers a legendary dish like the coca bread, made with produce from the orchard, a rich variety of inland Dénia cuisine.
- A more casual place would be Magazinos, an old printing house and toy factory, where there is a variety of tapas restaurants to enjoy popular cuisine, with a very good atmosphere.
What's a new restaurant or hidden gem in your Dénia that you think is doing great things?
El Aitana is a small bar on a tiny street where there are two restaurants. They are Sancta Santorum, and right in front, El Aitana. El Aitana is a small seafood bar with produce brought directly from the fish market, located 250 meters away. Sancta Santorum is run by two elderly ladies who cook empanadillas, cocas and stews. They are worth knowing; they are casual, outside the haute cuisine scene, but very recognized in our town. As for a gastronomic restaurant as such in Dénia, there is none other than Quique Dacosta Restaurante. Some that perhaps try to be so, I wouldn't recommend.
What's your favorite kind of restaurant and why?
I don't have a favorite since there are many ways to measure it. Which one do I visit the most? Probably Magazinos, because of the versatility it offers. When I have someone from out of town, I try to take them to Pegolí or Faralló, to showcase traditional Dénia cuisine. When I have a family meal or want to show very unique things, we go to La Giralda.
What are your three favorite food cities and your favorite restaurants in those cities?
- Elche – there's La Finca, a place I love, with 1 Michelin star, run by Susi Díaz. A chef I adore, with a special sensitivity for cooking.
- Ontinyent – there's a restaurant with inland cuisine, tempered, and of great value, which is L'Escaleta. In Jávea, there's Tula, with one Michelin star.
- Valencia – Ricard Camarena and Begoña Rodrigo offer two different visions of the same city that are worth knowing. And El Poblet, with two Michelin stars, a restaurant I own where Luis Valls cooks, a chef who trained with me many years ago and has been leading the restaurant for seven years, with absolute creative freedom.
What is your favorite dish and where is your favorite restaurant to have it?
My favorite dish is paella. Beyond its cultural significance, it's a complex dish that requires special skill. The best example of this dish in the world is Restaurante Rioja, located about 20 minutes from the center of Valencia. Not only is the paella outstanding, but the surrounding area also boasts vegetable gardens, livestock, and trees used for firewood, creating a wonderful ecosystem that elevates the paella to something sublime.
Who is an up-and-coming chef you are keeping an eye on?
Near Dénia, in Pedreguer, there's a small restaurant called Ausiàs. They do a great job. It's not a place for grand displays but offers a very balanced cuisine with lots of flavor. The chef, Ausiàs Signes and his wife Felicia Guerra, I hope will establish themselves and have a long professional career.
"Near Dénia, in Pedreguer, there's a small restaurant called Ausiàs run by chef Ausiàs Signes and his wife Felicia Guerra. They do a great job. It's not a place for grand displays but offers a very balanced cuisine with lots of flavor."
Who is a food expert whose restaurant recommendations you’d like to see?
In almost every region of the world where there's gastronomy, there are chefs or cooks. If I go to a place I'm not very familiar with, I ask colleagues for recommendations. I would like chefs from each region to share the places they recommend based on their knowledge and experience.
