Haute cuisine can remind you of happy times and sometimes it even connect you with the most authentic essence of the island. La Gaia restaurant, in the heart of the Ibiza Gran Hotel, is the most intimate, elaborate and exquisite expression of an Ibiza that transcends the exotic and recognises itself in its most essential flavours. At the helm of this culinary journey is Óscar Molina, the prestigious chef who has built one of the most impressive gastronomic projects on the island.
‘Ibiza is where I live, where my children were born and where I still have my history today. If there is one place where I feel comfortable and where I identify myself today, it is Ibiza’, he confesses. He arrived in 2008 to take over the hotel’s kitchen and design La Gaia from scratch. He didn’t do it with fireworks, but with patience, with method, with that mixture of ambition and humility that only comes from the trade. ‘We are not a team that explodes and triumphs all at once, we have always been about growing from the bottom up, like little ants, taking firm steps and always looking beyond’.
Today, La Gaia shines with one Michelin star and two Repsol Suns, maintaining its commitment to honesty, firmly committed to local produce and offering an authentic sensory and emotional journey with each dish. Although this year, as a novelty, you can also order à la carte and personalise the experience, the proposal is articulated around two tasting menus: Illa (meaning ‘island’, that is, ‘where we come from’), previously called Tanit, something more classic, and Horitzó (“Horizon”, that is, ‘where we are going’), previously Posidonia, the menu that we were lucky enough to taste, a gastronomic experience that left us speechless.
It should be noted that part of the space formerly occupied by La Gaia has been converted into Musa, an innovative signature bar run by master cocktail maker Daniel Martínez and opened this year in the hotel lobby, which combines design, mixology and culinary art, and looks set to become one of the most sophisticated venues on the island’s nightlife scene. As soon as you cross the threshold at La Gaia, a serene and luminous atmosphere envelops you. The restaurant has undergone a striking refurbishment and now presents itself as a space redefined with contemporary elegance in white tones and organic curves that exude harmony, balance and warmth. The lighting is delicate and subtle as a whole, but highlights what is really important, sharply illuminating each table, as if each dish were a scene about to unfold its story.
The journey begins even before you sit down at the table, at a first station where you savour the first appetisers, such as a pickled tomato with caviar, which we found to be a delicate and provocative beginning. At a second station called the Chef’s Table we tried a sphere of carabinero mousse, intense and velvety, and a sweet nod to the most ancestral Mediterranean with a pistachio biscuit with honey and local Ses Cabretes cheese.
Once at the table, the pace was impeccable, with an attentive, ever-present and charming dining room team. Everything flowed as smoothly as clockwork, with the perfect synchronisation of the team accompanying a parade of proposals, each one more impressive than the last. Among the most striking dishes, a reconstruction of the garlic prawns with raw shrimp, its coral transformed into a subtle and powerful Béarnaise, and a crunchy Ethiopian pepper biscuit. A gem.
With the lobster, grilled and served with its coral sauce, we discovered one of the most surprising pairings of the evening: a Riesling Amisfield from the southernmost island of New Zealand. A sharp, fresh and full-bodied wine, it further enhanced the flavours of this delicacy that pays homage to the traditional Ibizan dish of Lobster with eggs and chips.
The parade continued with a sober-looking but deep-flavoured black rice, enhanced with huitlacoche and jalapeño and, to top it all off, a tasty pork Royal. Earlier, we had tasted black pork jowl with hoisin; a Pebrera in two textures, one of them hailed; a curious Kvass, a typical Russian fermented drink usually made with bread but which they prepare using the traditional Balearic ensaimada; and some artichokes served at low temperature with an Iberian broth infused with lemon grass in an ingenious device that looked like something out of an alchemy laboratory. And the whole experience has a lot of show-cooking about it, like that mud-cooked onion that breaks at the table to reveal its perfumed interior.
Everything was measured: the rhythm, the intensity of the flavours, the visual narrative of each dish. Andrea, the sommelier, kindly guided us through well-chosen wines: a delicate Menade to accompany the more floral bites, or an André Jacquart extra brut champagne, which set the bar high from the first courses.
And then came the desserts. We were particularly surprised by ‘Prados de Ibiza’, an ethereal, light dish with jasmine, flower and apple ice cream. And as a perfect finishing touch, a final selection of petit fours, six delicate and surprising morsels of which we would choose the vanilla and passion fruit, a vibrant and fresh explosion of flavour in the mouth.
A constant feature of the menu is the care with which each dish is based on local produce, preferably from the island. ‘Why use a product that is hundreds of kilometres away, if my neighbour can provide it for me,’ asks Molina. His dishes include gerret, peix, sec, saffron, figs, red prawns, melon eriçó, and above all, a vision of the environment that is defended with sensitivity and respect. But La Gaia is not only technique or territory. It is also team, method, inspiration. Molina does not conceive of creation without dialogue. “When there is a blockage, it is the team that opens the way. The direction is mine, but the energy is shared”. For Molina, inspired in his career by three fundamental figures, his father and the chefs Mey Hofmann and Albert Adrià, cooking is a way of life that evolves with each experience.
In addition to La Gaia, Molina oversees all the spaces at the Ibiza Gran Hotel, from breakfast at Costa Mara to the poolside offerings at Mirai, with attention to detail and a commitment to excellence being paramount in each one. A structure that only works, he says, “because there is a solid base, a team that has been by my side for many years”. When asked about the pressure of achieving (and maintaining) a Michelin star, he says emphatically: “It doesn’t change you as much as the way others look at you.”
In the future, he dreams of replicating La Gaia in other destinations, of creating a gastronomic centre in Ibiza, of giving continuity to the team. But, above all, he wants to continue sharing. Because every dish at La Gaia is a taste of a way of understanding life, offering an experience that combines flavour, art and emotion, and which reflects the passion and commitment of Óscar Molina to his land and his profession.
