Restaurant La Gruta takes its name from its location inside a mountain: “the surroundings help the mind to escape and move onto another level”, says Nicolás Martínez, theowner of the restaurant. La Gruta is a carvery specializing in Mediterranean cuisine prepared with a very personal touch.

“I’d serve my best friend Andalusian green vegetables, fish from the Mediterranean coast and meat from the Alpujarras. As you see, Andalusia offers all the ingredients we need” says Nicolás.

His objective is to satisfy the customer: “Not through sheer quantity, without overdoing it, with a very vegetarian orientated cuisine, with not too much fat”.

The basic utensils in the kitchen are a good frying pan and a good hotplate, the basic ingredient a good virgin olive oil, such as that produced by the Cooperativa San Francisco de Villanueva del Arzobispo (Jaén). Nicolás is obsessed with keeping everything in the kitchen clean and in its right place.

His only secret when cooking are the ingredients. “These ingredients produced in Andalusia make our region one of the best places in the world for food, because the raw materials here in the South are of outstanding quality. Of all the products to be found in Andalusia, olives are the most important – as an aperitif, for cooking or for use in salads. A tomato and a splash of good extra virgin olive oil on a plate suffice to represent the whole of Andalusia.” Restaurant La Gruta (Almería). Tlf: (+34) 950 239 335.