“Food is like sex, with the hands it tastes better”, he jokes David Bibi Katzwhile he invites us to take by hand and smell the meats that he smokes by hand at his parents’ house, in the mountains of Madrid.
With little more than a year of life, Katz Madrid has become the reference restaurant in the forum to try the so fashionable pastrami sandwich. But its eclectic menu, in which Mediterranean specialties from Sephardic rootswith plates Ashkenazi and others markedly American, holds many more surprises. All those that its owner and ideologue has been hoarding over years of gastronomic research.
David is, let’s be clear, A whole character. Originally from Tel Aviv, he became fond of smoked meats as a teenager: he used the wood of the legendary fruit trees of Palestine to cook all kinds of meat or fish.
As a young man, he explains, he worked in one of the best French restaurants in Israel. “The French cuisine for me it is one of the main pillars of the gastronomy of humanity”, he asserts. “And, from my point of view, it is because Spanish gastronomy is created by poverty and needs, and French gastronomy by the abundance of raw materials.”
But, despite this experience, his professional life went in other directions. First, how rescue pilot of the Israeli army. Later, after suffering a heart attack, he had to stop flying, and ended up working as an engineer in a large multinational, which was the one that took him to Spain.
A traveling kitchen
“I was very tired from my job,” he explains. “He earned very well. had a spectacular standard of livingbut I wasn’t looking for that. He was very tired from so much traveling.”
Then the covid arrived and, like so many other people, the sudden stop to daily activity made him rethink what he was doing. It was then that she decided to open her restaurant, at the end of the Madrid Viso neighborhood, where he also resides, to show everyone the cuisine that he was passionate about.
“Traveling all over the world, but literally all over the world, I managed to acquire a lot of information, experience, colors and smells for my kitchen”, says Bibi. “If I do something, I do it with a philosophy, a point of view of a outsider, what is the best. That is, I come from the client side. I do what I like to eat”.
For 13 years, Bibi and her family lived in the mountains, and when she moved to the capital of Madrid, she was surprised by the low level of certain types of restoration: “I thought I could have a proper coffee or croissant, but it was impossible. It’s all industrial.”
Although Katz is named after a well-known Hebrew deli in New York, famous for its pastrami—”That’s my last name,” David ditches on the use of the name—it contains both new york specialties, like from the West Coast and others that, simply, their owner likes. “Bacon is nothing Jewish, but I love it,” he explains.
Huge sandwiches (and delicious)
Katz’s star is the pastrami sandwichwhich is made with veal fin, which spends 22 days in a brine of kosher salt with garlic, black pepper, cilantro, garlic, onion, paprika and cloves, plus cinnamon and brown sugar. After that time, the meat is dried, smeared with more spices and smoked at 115ºC for five hours.
“Pastrami is Jewish”, Explain. “It comes for religious reasons because you can’t eat the meat with its blood. It is bled with salt. And that’s where it comes from.”
During our visit we tried another American specialty, the Philly Cheese Steak, a sandwich of beef picaña, roasted with onions and peppers, which is covered with plenty of melted cheddar cheese. A delicacy that stands out, like the pastrami sandwich, for its homemade bread.
“One of the things that bothered me the most when I went to restaurants is that the bread was industrial”, Bibi explains. “It was clear to me that I wanted to do it myself.”
Katz has, in fact, three nearby premises: the restaurant itself, and two workshops: one with gluten and another without gluten. The entire menu can be tried with options for celiacs. And, just a few weeks ago, it opened a new store in the central San Antón market.
New York. the cult recipes
What to ask for: At Katz, the smoked meats stand out, whose tasting table is very abundant (and very well priced), but, of course, no one can leave without trying one of their delicious sandwiches. To drink, the beer is very well drawn and there is a concise but well-resolved cocktail menu. During the week, there is a daily menu for €11.80 that includes a salad, a pastrami sandwich (smaller than the one on the menu) and a dessert.
practical data
Where: C/Gabriel Lobo, 26. Madrid
Half price: 20 euros.
Bookings: 910 66 46 66 and on their website.
Schedules: Closed Monday.
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