There is a place in Mallorca where it is possible to taste the most genuine flavours of cuisines as far away as those of Korea or Japan. We are talking about SABA Restaurant, located in the Kimpton Aysla Mallorca hotel. At the helm of the kitchen is Juan Carlos: He has developed his professional career in different places such as Dubai, Canada, Portugal, Norway, Hungary and part of Spain and whose purpose is none other than to bring authentic Korean - and Japanese - cuisine to his diners "avoiding fusion."
At SABA, customers will find Mediterranean, Korean and Japanese dishes "together, but not scrambled, adapted to the local diner and made with the best local ingredients".
What is Juan Carlos like in and out of the kitchen?
I am a person who likes to travel and where cooking takes up a lot of time, but with pleasure.
I like to run, enjoy the maximum time I can have with my family and to explore and get to know this island that has trapped us.
Why Mallorca?
I am from Salamanca, but I already lived between 2007 and 2009 on the island.
After living in Canada and Norway with long, cold winters, I was clear that I wanted to live in the Mediterranean and as I had lived in Mallorca in the past, I decided with my family to move and settle in Mallorca in a warm, Mediterranean climate.
How was your return to Spain after international career?
Well, the truth is that after having lived in different countries and situations, I am a person who easily adapts to changes in cultures, people and totally different environments.
But the truth is that it is easy to adapt to the Mediterranean.
What do you think of the Korean cuisine boom that is currently taking place in Spain?
I don't know if it's really a boom. It is true that many Korean products, such as kimchi, have become fashionable in many restaurants. Now there are many Koreans who come to see the island, and we Spaniards have also opened up a lot to know Korean culture, which from my point of view has nothing to do with Japanese culture, although many people think that they are similar.
At SABA you mix Korean, Japanese and Mediterranean cuisine...
Yes. The three concepts together, but not scrambled. That is to say: Japanese dishes are Japanese, we don't mix it with Korean. And the same with the Koreans. And we adapt the recipes a bit to Mediterranean tastes because, for example, Korean food is very spicy. But we always keep the essence We make authentic Korean and Japanese food with local products and a little adapted to be easy understandable for all guests.
"When Asia meets Mallorca" is SABA's concept. How would you define the experience that the restaurant offers to the diner?
In SABA we have different spaces: a bar where customers can sit and talk with the chefs, we also have the normal tables, and the Terrace, where this year we will also put a Korean grill... In addition, we chose to introduce the omakase menu because many people, when they come, see very strange names on the menu and don't really know what to order... Our intention with this menu is to teach people how to eat this type of food. I think Korean cuisine is very much adapted to Spanish cuisine because they have what is known as "banchan", which is something very similar to Spanish tapas. There are many dishes that are all put at the center to share and I think that goes a lot with our culture.
What are SABA's most iconic dishes?
The most successful is bulgogi: it is a beef cut very thinly over the fire, paired with soy, sugar, onion, pear... it is grilled and finished in the Josper. Another one that they like the most is bibimbap: which literally means mixed rice (and is like a kind of Korean paella). It's similar to a poke, but it doesn't have vinegar and the vegetables are cooked. And another very popular dish in SABA is gyeranjjim: a steamed egg custard with lobster broth.
What do you think makes SABA different from other Korean or Asian restaurants in Mallorca?
We are not Korean but we love their cuisine, for this we put extra passion to cook an authentic cuisine in a very charming place with unique décor as our restaurant.
What are the other restaurants like at the Kimpton Aysla Mallorca hotel?
Apart of Saba Restaurant at Kimpton we are proudly as well with our restaurant Zayt Pool Kitchen & Garden Deli, an authentic Mediterranean cuisine with Mallorquin touch, where the stars are the wooden pizza oven and the massive charcoal grill for any gourmand delight. The restaurant has a chic bar with swing and ice teppanyaki bar, perhaps the only one in south of Mallorca. From March to end of October will be open daily from 12 to 5 pm for lunch and from June to September for dinner too.
Additional the restaurant has providing pool service menu from 12 to 8 pm with classic dishes.Last but not least we have our all day venue called Saba Bar & Bodega, where the main attractions are the walk in bodega and the centre piece beautiful decorated bar, offering massive range of signature cocktails, with kitchen open from 12:00 to 23:00 with variety of Spanish or Asian style tapas, or US Prime steaks made in Josper oven. As well Saba Bar & Bodega is the place where every Friday night our hotel guests, Wellness members, local community and the island residents are welcomed for a social night where the good music meets great people, cultivating cultural and community awareness.
At the Kimpton Aysla Hotel we have a restaurant by the pool called Zayt Pool Kitchen & Garden Deli. It is a traditional Mediterranean restaurant, where we have everything from pizzas to charcoal meats... And there we also serve an offer adapted to what the pool is: hamburgers, club sandwiches... It is a cuisine of products and markets. Meat is meat, it's a good product and we don't complicate it.
And we also have SABA Bar which, although it has the same name as the restaurant, here the concept has nothing to do with it. For this restaurant we have created an offer based on traditional Spanish tapas. In addition, this season we are going to introduce some Asian-style tapas, so that the proposal is a little more in line with that of SABA Restaurant. And within that proposal there may be some touches of fusion, not like in SABA Restaurant, where we really run away from fusion.
If you had to open a restaurant completely different from SABA (and everything you've done so far) what would it look like?
I would open a restaurant with a casual and casual atmosphere with a premium product where both the food and the atmosphere are the protagonists.
Giving a lot of prominence to cooking with charcoal, creating a traveling, street cuisine where you can find a cuisine between the Mediterranean, Mexico and Nikkei cuisine.
How do you see the future of SABA – and yours as a chef?
The future of Saba is very promising because on the one hand you have sushi, which is a very direct cuisine, very well thought out, disciplined and with a history and tradition.
On the other hand, we have Korean cuisine that has come to stay where the concept of a kitchen to share is very similar to our culture with a great variety of ingredients with ancient techniques such as ferments where they help create an endless number of dishes with unique flavors. and characteristic.
My future as a chef is to continue enjoying cooking and traveling alongside Kimpton Aysla.