Javier and Maite cooking
Javier and Maite are the creators of Comedor Clandestino, a place where you can enjoy good company and a unique experience. Here they explain to us a little bit more about their experience.
Q: How did you decide to open Comedor Clandestino?
Because we really enjoy cooking.
Q: And, when did you start with the dinners?
In March it will be two years.
Q: You dedicate exclusively to this?
No, we do these dinners only once a month, and we don’t want more. Because we have our job. We do the dinners as a hobby, because we really like cooking and eating. We do it as an experience not for the money.
Furthermore the time we spent preparing a dinner is not compensated with money. But what we want when people come is that they leave very happy. Therefore we entertain shopping and cooking. We make dishes with a very high level so that people leave satisfied.
Q: What is the usual public of Comedor Clandestino?
Typically come about four people (which is the minimum that we accept) and they are foreigners who find us online. They arrive to us because I do my job and we appear on Tripadvisor, on Saltshaker, at Voulez vous diner and on many different websites about experiences. It is very weird that the Spaniards come though sometimes they come. But personally we prefer foreigners for the dinners because we like to explain that here are the influences of Ferran Adrià and many other good cooks.
Q: But when you organize a dinner, are you who set a date?
We receive many requests -and we reject many too- and usually to the ones we say yes we can’t confirm an exact date because we have to gather a minimum of people. Often come tourist and couples so we have to gather at least two couples
Q: The people who come to the Comedor Clandestino to dinner, use to have some expectation in food? Do they know the menu before?
Is a tasting menu and when the customers book I just ask if there are any incompatibility with food or if they hate a kind of food.
Q: So there is nothing a la carte
No, the customer doesn’t choose the menu but when take a sit he discover it. We make a tasting menu because is more fun. If you close yourself in two dishes you can saturate. On this way we have more chances to surprise the guests, to offer more flavours. Because of this we like to go to “tapas” because is a chance of taste a variety of dishes and not be tired.
Q: And always repeats the same selection of dishes?
No, we are changing although there are some star dishes. There are others which we like introduce like the pickled mussels because they are recipes that were once very common at home and now we are losing them.
Q: Have you ever gone to dinner at another underground restaurant?
The truth is that no, we have never had the idea of going to meet another underground restaurant. But maybe we are going to meet soon one here in Barcelona directed by a girl in order to see what kind of cook she does and what level she has. Because it would be fine to have another underground restaurant to recommend to the people that we have to reject. And it should be a place that doesn’t make us look bad.
Underground Barcelona 
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