Culler de Pau

Culler de Pau is a restaurant with two Michelin stars in O Grove, on the Galician coast above the Arousa estuary. Chef Javier Olleros runs it with his wife, Amaranta Rodríguez.

Olleros was born in Galicia and grew up in Lucerne, then studied at the Lamas de Abade catering school in Santiago. He says he learned most in his father's restaurant kitchen. His training took him to Casa Solla, Toñi Vicente, Sergi Arola's La Broche in Madrid, Martín Berasategui's Bica do Sapato in Lisbon and Zallo Barri in Gernika, and as far as Seiji Yamamoto in Tokyo. He came back to his hometown and opened Culler de Pau, Galician for wooden spoon, in 2009. The second Michelin star came in 2020, along with a Green Star for the organic garden the couple started when the first star arrived.

The building is low and minimal, and the dining room opens through floor-to-ceiling glass onto the estuary, where sunset falls over the water. Below lie the mussel, oyster and scallop farms of the bay. The restaurant began with nine tables and has kept that number. With so few tables and so much glass, the view and the kitchen share the attention evenly.

Much of what reaches the plate grows or is caught within walking distance, and the kitchen garden supplies herbs and vegetables. Scallops from the bay come with padrón pepper seeds, and Vilanova onion is served in a smoked broth with spiced oil. Pickled celery root meets San Simón cheese on wheat toast, and organic Cachena veal is cooked with spicy herbs, while veal tendon appears with callos. The cellar holds more than 500 wines, many of them from Galicia and the Rías Baixas, and Iñaki Otegi's Malus Mama ice cider has been poured with the meal. Each dish names its place of origin, as if the menu were a map of the estuary.