Mateo Garcia Leiva named executive chef at Aqua Nueva

15 November 2023 by
Mateo Garcia Leiva named executive chef at Aqua Nueva

Mateo Garcia Leiva has been appointed executive chef at Aqua Nueva in London's Soho.

His style of cooking is inspired by his time growing up and working in restaurants in Spain including Tarragona, which is owned by his family, and Le Méridien in Sitges.

Leiva also spent four years under chef-mentor Jordi Cruz at the three-Michelin-starred AbaC in Barcelona.

His new menu at Aqua Nueva was inspired by the Spanish Saffron Festival, also known as Fiesta de la Rosa del Azafran, which takes place at the end of October.

Dishes such as saffron infused eel bisque with smoked eel, sauteed pumpkin and saffron sofrito; pan-fried red mullet, saffron potato and saffron suquet; and arroz con leche with saffron, mango are available as part of a saffron tasting menu or a la carte.

Non-saffron dishes include Catalan fuet cone with fried quail egg; pan-fried Scottish turbot with caviar; and Eton mess with sangria sorbet.

Aqua Nueva opened in 2009 as part of Aqua Restaurant Group, which was founded by former lawyer David Yeo in 2000. The group now has over 20 restaurants globally and launched Azzurra in London's Sloane Square last month.

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media Group is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking