Odiseo, or a tuna anthology of good fortune
Summary:
A logbook by Sensei Hiroshi Umi.
On few occasions – and this journal has already clocked up countless gastronomic journeys – do we come across such a wealth of tuna, such a variety of cuts and methods, such devotion for a distinctively Mediterranean product with an Atlantic migration. Who would imagine that in this hedonistic, high-flying cubicle of leisure known as Odiseo, we would find a chef and a restaurant whose interpretation of our titan of the seas proves so splendid, varied, extensive and succulent.
Standing where the lines of the city centre of Murcia begin to blur, Odiseo combines different attractions, at a venue which proves perfect for fortune, flavour, business lunches, romantic dinners, chic open-air drinks and late-night partying. And we are not in hypnotic Las Vegas, however much it may look like it. With its multifunctional rooms and architectural design courtesy of Clavel Arquitectos (headed by Eduardo del Fraile), Odiseo is much more than a casino, a dance club, a bar at which to sample cocktails, a roof terrace with views, sports bar, restaurant, and even occasional TV studio.
Diego Frutos, Japanese fusion and Fuentes bluefin tuna
As the masterpiece of the Orenes Group, Odiseo has made gastronomy one of its cornerstones, underpinning a whole facet of its appeal. We hear the story from its self-taught chef, Diego Frutos, originally from Murcia, whose philosophy of Japanese fusion is wrapped in the Fuentes Bluefin Tuna flag. “The thing is, as a kid I hardly ate, I wasn’t interested in food at all. And then all of a sudden, at the age of 20, something clicked and I enrolled at the Murcia Catering School. I don’t know what happened, but the profession just really appealed to me. So far in life I’ve always worked in the world of kitchens. I enjoyed playing flamenco guitar, maybe that’s the profession I missed out on,” he admits.
Today, Frutos plucks the strings only as a hobby, otherwise dedicating his touch to refining the culinary dishes that form the basis of the Odiseo menu. He offers us a refreshing starter, in the form of semi-salted tuna loin, with tomato powder, smoked almond milk and basil, followed by a tataki briefly seared over the coals, with mango tiger nut milk, pico de gallo, flowers and tosaka seaweed; tuna belly sashimi with chives, soy oil and EVOO, a little cured yolk, and nori seaweed. The soy vinaigrette has a hint of smoked tuna skin,” Frutos explains.
From 2004 to 2010, our star chef set up his own venture in his homeland. “When I closed it down, I dived into the whole Japanese side, learning to prepare sushi. And it was then that something really strange happened. I headed off for a while to work at the down-to-earth university bar, and a former customer phoned me up to run a catering operation. I told him I couldn’t, that I was just doing sushi stations, and that was exactly what he was after! I built up a lot of experience there. And then I buy hundreds of books, follow tutorials, look at loads of videos, recipes… I was even in Japan for a couple of months, working at the Pierre Gagnaire restaurant,” he recalls of his training.
As he reels off his story, the tuna casserole continues non-stop: superb akami with fresh grilled vegetables and sisho sauce. And his versatility really comes to the fore with a magnificent noten with foie, berries and Iberian pancetta with port vinaigrette “for the albardao (wrapped) effect”, which looks outstanding; silky, deep-flavoured back cheek, tomato concassé, Kalamata olive, preserved sweet pepper, spring onion shoots and coriander; the cheek with a meat demi-glace raises the bar even higher in terms of flavour, “casseroled like a beef cheek, with vegetables and white wine”.
So how did Diego Frutos make the leap from that catering business and student bar, to be enlisted for the culinary heights of Odiseo? It was a question of chance, of good fortune. “A friend of mine introduced me to the culinary director of José Antonio Trujillo’s Orenes Group. This was back in 2019, before Odiseo was founded, and he had mentioned that he wanted to set up a sushi bar at the new venue. They told me about the project, and my reply was that it was just the project I’d been waiting for all my life! I went off with him to work at Los Collados in La Manga to get to know one another. We hit it off, and I stayed at the group. It opened in February 2020, just before the pandemic”.
Committed to bluefin tuna
At the time, once lockdown had ended, Diego worked with chef Nazario Cano, from Alicante, who had been signed up to run what was a gastronomic restaurant, which earned a Michelin star under him. “At that point sushi moved downstairs, to the Bar Rojo, where I stayed as the head of casino events, the sports bar… to keep things moving. It’s all running like clockwork now. The casino really takes care of its customers, and is always holding parties, themed experiences, tastings… Then Nazario left, and the gastronomic side didn’t continue. It was then that the decision was taken not to bring in another executive chef, but to promote me. The concept is now absolutely Mediterranean. Good fish, good seafood, good vegetables, good meat. All seasonal. It changes every four months,” he explains.
The menu now also includes a Japanese side, as revealed by the nigiri trilogy (toro, chutoro, belly), the uramaki rolls with caprese salad and basil, olive pâté, mascarpone and Raf tomatoes, the tuna tartar with cured egg yolk, avocado and crunchy tapioca. “In the restaurant, aside from the Japanese dishes, you can order tuna cheek, back cheek… We have also held tuna butchery days on-stage in Bar Rojo. Spectacular. Eight or ten rounds of nothing but tuna.”
After the professional to-ing and fro-ing typical of a peripatetic career, Diego Frutos now enjoys the certainty and guarantees offered by the Orenes Group, where a giant harlequin rabbit of luck serves as the emblem. And so for the moment, this chef is betting it all on the deep red of the bluefin tuna.
