The Simple Nudity, Juanjo López

Juanjo López took the reins of La Tasquita de Enfrente (Madrid) 20 years ago. Since then, he has earned the utmost respect through honesty, essentiality, and timeless luxury understood through his unique lens. Hailed by the brightest chefs and most demanding gourmets as a great guardian of flavor, he reveals firsthand, in the style of gastronomic literature, the intricacies of a unique restaurant and the products served there.

One day, Juanjo López decided to put aside a career that had led him to manage a major insurance company to dedicate himself body and soul to hospitality. He hung up his ties, traded his suit jacket for a chef's jacket, and took over La Tasquita de Enfrente, his father Serafín López Gaona's establishment on La Ballesta street in Madrid. Two decades later, his is a unique restaurant in Spain, as well as a leading reference point for the brightest chefs and most demanding gourmets. All of them often sit at his tables to taste something as simple and as complicated as the best raw ingredients treated with the utmost respect. "In good hands, a quality product can become memorable," confirms José Carlos Capel, culinary critic for El País. "It's not easy to leave a meal without finding a single flaw. But that's how it was," asserts Carlos Maribona, head of Gastronomy for ABC newspaper for over 25 years.

La Sencilla Desnudez is the Montagud Editores book in which Juanjo López dissects, firsthand and in the style of gastronomic literature, the intricacies of a unique restaurant. Similarly, he analyzes the keys to a chameleon-like sector, a victim of the whirlwind of modern times; and reflects on a magical profession that requires honesty, common sense, and love. All of this is presented through 11 chapters that, like pillars, support everything that is cooked up at La Tasquita de Enfrente.

Thus, the author reveals his particular way of understanding and officiating Luxury in the first chapter of his book; to delve deeper as the pages advance into an Honesty towards his clients and suppliers that becomes essential. He reflects on the importance of encouraging thought from the kitchen, while explaining how close Magic is a primary objective in the daily life of his restaurant. He also focuses on his Team and his way of experiencing Wine, to finally reveal one of his best-kept secrets. This is nothing other than an Essentiality that has led him, step by step and almost without realizing it, to earn the utmost respect in the sector and to be hailed as a great guardian of flavor. "The years have taught me that what is important is to travel light to give due weight to what is inside," says Juanjo López as an appetizer in the chapter.

Luxury is also the central theme of the text with which publicist and writer Risto Mejide prefaces the work. "It is something closer to an attitude than a material condition," he states. "To always be treated well, no matter who you are and regardless of who you are." And Juanjo López knows better than anyone how to be the best host: he had already sat at many tables before tying on his apron. "Read this work knowing that the person who writes it has eaten in restaurants all over the world," invites Javi Antoja, director of the book and of Montagud Editores' Editorial Projects. "It is precisely these trips around the world that give him the authority to... be jaded by everything?"

Creations full of knowledge

La Sencilla Desnudez includes 30 emblematic creations from La Tasquita de Enfrente. With absolute fidelity to the pillars described firsthand by Juanjo López, they are presented with an extensive commentary by the author, who reveals important details of their preparation. They are also accompanied by a detailed explanation of the product or elaboration that features in them. The images, like those in the rest of the work, are by Mikel Ponce. Some of them form part of detailed step-by-step processes. For example, those of the famous 'Callos Gaona', awarded as the Most Traditional Dish by the Madrid Academy of Gastronomy.