Who is Niki Pavanelli, the Italian chef at Bocconcino in Europe's most Michelin-starred resort: our account of the experience, from the hotel to the food.
Photo credits: FoodDesignCompany_Mayo
The hotel
I would call it a gastronomic space, because in addition to being a five-star hotel, the Royal Hideaway Corales Suites (Barceló Hotel Group) is the hotel with the most Michelin stars in Europe. We are in the south of the island, in Adeje, where the Belgian ownership chose to create now almost a decade ago (and very soon will open the new residence not far away, but even more intimate and luxurious) a resort in stark contrast to the traditional fishing village of La Caleta. A luxurious but understated place to enjoy the wild beauty of the Canary Islands and good, good food. Inside there are two different but coexisting realities: the Royal Hideaway Corales Suites, more suitable for families, and the Royal Hideaway Corales Beach, reserved for adults, united by the same widespread quality and, as mentioned, gastronomic proposal.
You can't help but start with a fresh to tasty seafood offering by opting for Starfish in the hands of chef Victor Bossecker, then there's the Michelin-starred San Hô if you're in the mood for research, travel and fusion by award-winning chef Adrián Bosch, the two-star El Rincón de Juan Carlos by the Padrón brothers (in the same complex but independent) and Bocconcino where Italian chef Niki Pavanelli is on the total rise serving diners his modern and “progressive” proposal of Italian haute cuisine, awarded (at the moment) one star by the Michelin guide.
The chef
“Progressive Italian Restaurant” you'll read at the entrance, an Italian restaurant that in turn reinterprets tricolor cuisine with the sensitive hand and spirit of “giant” chef Pavanelli, especially recommended for those who turn their noses up at the sight of a tricolor restaurant sign abroad. Because it is not just Italian cuisine, it is Niki Pavanelli's cuisine.
Originally from Bologna, he is known for his dedication to high-quality cuisine and his ability to fuse gastronomic traditions with contemporary tastes. At the age of twenty-three he moved to Spain, where he spent more than half of his professional life, specifically on the island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. He ran the restaurant Il Bocconcino where he immediately (with far more limited means and possibilities than today) combined traditional Italian recipes with local products such as Canary Island black pig, with which he made artisanal Italian-style charcuterie or his own distinctive guanciale for a mind-blowing carbonara.
Chef Pavanelli counts relevant experiences at elBulli and elBarri, where he worked together with the Adrià brothers: his innovative approach will forever be marked and influenced by them; in addition to the Red, he also brought Bocconcino inside the Repsol Guide in 2024, in the 50 Top Italy list at 41st place and is the only Italian restaurant in the Canary Islands to be included in the Identità Golose Guide. Make yourself comfortable at one of the tables in the volcanic garden overlooking the ocean and start enjoying the views and scents of this small and intimate paradise. Opt for one of the two tasting courses and you can begin the journey in which Italo-Pavanellian cuisine thinking is reinvented and elevated in the sign of crisp flavors, precise technique and sensory enjoyment.
The menus and dishes
In both the “Identidad” and “Il Bocconcino,” you will find the revisiting of Italian recipes from a quite modern and personal perspective, which has found in the local ingredients from the island the perfect partnership. The substance is clear right from the appetizers served together in beauty: passion fruit bonbon, ricotta and Cantabrian anchovies, fake sea bass onigiri (a supplì of sea bass from Gran Canaria), goat cheese truffle with seasoned scallops and flowers appear.
Between memory and creativity, the main dishes to be counted would be all of them. Undoubtedly not to be missed are the smoked eel, lacquered with pumpkin sauce, balanced by a creamy mascarpone and raspberry sauce, accompanied by an infusion of rhubarb, for true connoisseurs; the black cabbage risotto with persuasive cured pheasant, “an exploration of umami at its highest expression”. The creaminess of the rice envelops the intensity of the seasoned pheasant, worked with a subtle touch of seasoning; the surprising contrast is provided by the mustard and pear ice cream with which the dish is finished.
Then there are the tortellini, a first course that is pure reminiscence: "a tribute to my childhood, when I would enter my grandmother's kitchen to steal freshly made tortellini. Our version stuffs the tortellini with the typical Bolognese filling but still with black Canary Island pork, wrapped in a 42-month Parmigiano Reggiano cream, all complemented at the table with seasonal truffles, adding a touch of luxury to this dish that, in its essence, remains a tribute to the purest tradition", says the chef. And again “Genovese and Salmorejo”, the edible fusion of two worlds: plin stuffed with rabbit that combines the Italian recipe of genovese with the Canarian tradition of rabbit in salmorejo, accompanied by a sauce of roasted peppers and Palma pepper, a pecorino cream and a dried tomato panettone.
And then the sacredness of bread; at Bocconcino's, more than ten types of bread are processed, all made with sourdough, enhancing it to a primary element within the menu (even more tasty because it is accompanied by herb-seasoned lard, seasoned guanciale, pork head coppa). The right pairings are taken care of by Italian (Abruzzese) Flavia Mosca, and the sweet pampering is the enthusiasm of Venezuelan pastry chef Paula Salvucci D'Angelo. She'll take care of reminding you to make the “scarpetta” with the dessert of the same name, which pays homage to that oh-so-romantic and enjoyable gesture.
“We have reinterpreted the scarpetta in a confectionery key, drawing inspiration from a rustic and emblematic Tuscan dessert such as Castagnaccio. Our version retains its essence but enriches it with details that make it unique: sauces and creams to embellish the dish, including pine nuts, blood orange, rosemary and chocolate with some panettone to go with it," says the pastry chef, who again sources the best she tracks down on the island such as the genuine products of Finca La Calabacera (a must-visit when you're in Tenerife).
Contact
The Mouthful by Royal Hideaway
Royal Hideaway Corales Suites, Av. Virgen de Guadalupe, 21, 38679 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
Phone: +34 922 75 79 00
