Returning to Punta del Este in Uruguay, chef Martin Milesi cooks at his temporary restaurant in the woods following the same winning formula as his Unalondon restaurant: a single convivial table with 24 seats, each one for $245.
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More a multi-sensory experience than a dinner, Martin Milesi launches a new format that is the pulse of show cooking. Imagine sitting at a long table that is elegantly set, mostly without knowing your neighbors, but the table is not in a room of dimmed lights and silk curtains but in the humble quiet of a forest in Punta del Este, Uruguay. This is the scene that the Argentinian chef is setting with his return to South America from London, where he has long been performing food magic.
His temporary restaurant, Una by Luz, which opened on Dec. 26 and will operate throughout January, is set in the private gardens of the boutique hotel Luz Culinary Wine Lodge. Since March, a multidisciplinary team of twenty people, including chefs, lighting, and sound technicians, set designers, and choreographers, have been working to bring it all together. The dishes are served by eight "waiters" who perform choreographed gestures that have been rehearsed like a show. Every detail has been measured, like the 65 seconds needed to get from the kitchen to the table. "We want the diner to take part in a unique moment, and at the end of the meal, the memory will remain imprinted in his or her heart forever as something never experienced before," Milesi says with some emphasis. Mouths are sealed; all that is known is that guests receive a cocktail, walk across a wooden catwalk, listen to a bolero from the 1920s, and pass through an outdoor cinema. In all, there are twelve artistic moments interspersed with seven courses.
Born in Santa Fe, Milesi was formerly a lecturer at the Instituto Argentino de Gastronomia and is also a designer. After leading several venues in Buenos Aires, he began working on creative dining formats, moving to London in 2012. There he created Una, a single-table venue with 12 seats located in the St. Pancras Clock Tower. Each time he runs a dinner, the space is rented out, tickets are sold in advance, and custom-made purchases are made for a single tasting menu. "When I opened, I had a question in mind that continues to nag at me and is the foundation of UNA: do we really need to open a regular restaurant as we know it?” 
“I am a champion of ephemeral models, and I am persuaded that the future of gastronomy lies in creating brands that can travel and take an original concept anywhere in the world. In the early years, when I started conceiving Una, I was called crazy, they thought I would lose everything. Ego reigned; people who open restaurants think folks will always come and try their style of cooking. After the pandemic, all that changed." Contrary to expectations, the idea was a great success, so Milesi decided to replicate it elsewhere.
The Punta del Este forest could be followed by other even more iconic spaces, such as the English Tower in Buenos Aires. Milesi has already obtained permits for the space and is seeking sponsors. But the format can be replicated anywhere, provided the demand exists along with the essentials to cook. "I think fine dining is changing. I am no longer attracted to four-hour-long tasting menus with twenty different wines. Rather, I believe in balanced, streamlined menus that last no longer than two hours and are always surprising, where the diner is the protagonist of the experience." Will this really be the future of restaurants?
Source: Forbes Argentina
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Photos: @Una
