“Between February and May of next year.” They are the dates that handles Dabiz Munoz to inaugurate the new DiverXO in La Finca, the luxurious urbanization where the chef resides, to which he is going to move his famous restaurant.
Muñoz has recognized in a talk at the HIP congressin Madrid, which has not been an easy decision, which he takes at a time when the most conservative logic would invite him to continue where he is.
“It is the best moment for the company, the best moment for the restaurant, the one in which it is most in demand, with the greatest international reach”, points out the chef. “We had it all done. But, as happy as we were, we had to do something different. There is only one way that I want to continue in DiverXO and that is to continue redefining our own rules and asking ourselves something unrealizable. And if not, there are a thousand things to do and he has to die.
Muñoz is tremendously ambitious with his new project, which, he says, “was born with the vocation of making the most different restaurant in history”. A restaurant that, she insists, “has nothing to do with what we have up to now.”
“This is going to cost me enormous work,” he admits. “I dream incredible things, but I know that this inevitably entails a sacrifice on the same level as the dream. I have learned over the years that effort, tenacity and sacrifice make you reach where knowledge does not reach”.
Too much of a perfectionist cook
During the talk, conducted by the director of marketing of Damm beers, Jaume Alemany, Muñoz has shared the fears that assail him when making decisions as daring as changing the location of his flagship restaurant or continuing to raise the price of a menu that is already at 365 euros.
“If in the end a site like DiverXO did not have enough demand for costing 365 euros, it could not exist”
“DiverXO for more than 80% of his life has lost money every year and has been compensated with other things,” acknowledges Muñoz. “Four years ago, just before the pandemic, but the click definitive was during the pandemic, I considered that This didn’t make much sense.”
“If in the end a site like DiverXO was not in demand because it cost 365 euros, it could not exist,” continues the chef. “I assumed that then we had to do something else. It was not so. The demand not only did not decrease, but with the passage of time and with the improvement of the restaurant it is in much more demand than before”.
During this time, Muñoz has inaugurated, among other things, a new restaurant concept: ravioxo. An establishment that gave the cook many headaches.
“We finished the works at the end of December and we didn’t open the restaurant until May, with the restaurant finished,” he acknowledges. “I’m disgustingly a perfectionist and it’s something I constantly struggle with. I always have the impression that it could be better. We could have opened 3 years from now. **I have to force myself to be brave,* *I have to do a very big exercise on a mental level to take according to what steps”.
Combining the culture of effort with mental health
It is no secret that, for years, Muñoz regularly visits the psychologist. “I don’t see any difference between going to a psychologist, a physio or a dentist”, he explains. “If we all resorted at one point in our lives to seek psychological advice It would help us to manage certain situations that nobody teaches you to manage”.
“Over the years I have lost the desire to say what I think, or say it so often”
“For many years I have thought that I got where I got being so young precisely because of that toxic relationship with the restaurant,” explains Muñoz. “In recent years I have questioned it and I have come to the conclusion that I would have arrived at the same place perhaps with a philosophy and a different mental management. There is little talk about mental health and this is super necessary ”.
Having said this, Muñoz believes that, in recent years, the effort culture, precisely because of how toxic it is in some people, something with which he does not agree: “Excessive inspirational speeches do not help, but it is good to explain to young people, and not so young, that to do great things you have to make great sacrifices and you have to try a lot. In this profession, the culture of effort has often been misunderstood, but it does not have so much to do with working hours, but rather with dedication and motivation”.
With these speeches and a packed auditorium, one would think that Muñoz, in addition to working as a cook, could dedicate himself to giving TED talks. But he does not even cross his mind: “Over the years I have lost the desire to say what I think, or say it so often. It is heavily penalized. When I finish this talk, a lot of headlines will appear in the digital press with some phrase taken out of context. You read it, you don’t walk in and think I’m an asshole.”
Images | ExpoHIP
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