Dani García (Marbella, 1975), one of Spain’s most internationally renowned chefs, is an atypical case among his colleagues in haute cuisine. In 2019 he decided to close his three-Michelin-starred Marbella restaurant and opted to take his avant-garde culinary vision around the world.
In December 2021, another of its restaurants, the Smoked Room in Madrid, barely six months after its opening, was suddenly awarded two Michelin stars, a recognition that no establishment had achieved since 1936.
Trained first at the Escuela de Hostelería La Cónsula in Malaga and then with the most awarded Spanish chef (12 Michelin stars), Martín Berasategui, the talented chef from Marbella founded the Dani García Group in 2014, an emporium that currently has around twenty restaurants in half a dozen countries and more than 1,200 employees. The group is made up of the brands BIBO, Lobito de Mar, Leña, Dani Brasserie, Smoked Room, Babette, Alelí, Kemuri, Casa Dani, Tragabuches, La Chambre Bleue, La Gran Familia Mediterránea and El Pollo Verde. It has establishments in Marbella, Madrid, London, Paris, New York and Doha, and will soon open others in Budapest, Amsterdam, Dubai and Miami.
In addition to his devotion to cooking, Dani, awarded in 2020 with the title of Favorite Son of Andalusia, enjoys and suffers from another very different passion: golf.
Handicap 28, he plays when his multiple professional obligations allow him to do so. He tries to do so when he is traveling, but there are times when he can go more than a month without using his clubs. He makes the most of his stays in Marbella, the golfing capital of the Costa del Sol, where he is a member of RCG Las Brisas. And there are other courses “that I love”, such as RCG Sotogrande and RC Valderrama. In other distant latitudes, there is a very special one for him, although his clubs have not yet tasted it: “If I had a golfing wish list, the first, second and third would be the same: to play at Augusta National, even if only to hit a shot on the 1st tee; with that I would be happy”.
-When and how did your love for golf come about?
-I’ve always had that hobby. Being born in Marbella, it is quite difficult not to know someone who has something to do with golf. I’m going to tell you the truth: I’ve always thought that I was going to play golf so that the day I retired I would be able to play it peacefully. It is something that has always been in my head. Then the confinement obviously accelerated it. The Covid made that, when I started to be able to go out, I started to play, and then Noemí Jiménez (Ladies European Tour player) contacted me to ask me for a collaboration, to see if we could do something for a foundation she had, and then I started something stronger. With her, with Laurita Gómez (also from the LET) and with Ángel Hidalgo I was encouraged to go more times to play. Laura gave me her clubs and I started to play with them and so on, and in the end I started playing, playing, I gave some classes, I bought a share of Las Brisas and that’s how my beginnings have been.
-Which clubs do you handle best?
-Hybrids are good for me, wedge also and putting is good for me. I have more trouble with irons… the more degrees I get the better and the less degrees I get the worse, and with the driver I have my days. There are days when I go out to the course and I tell myself I already know how to play golf, but when I come back I realize that one never knows how to play golf.
-What has been your greatest joy on a golf course?
-These are probably very absurd things for a golfer who knows a lot -I know little-, but when I started to see the ball fly or when I hit a driver of 220, which for me is already a lot, I am tremendously happy. In any case, what motivates me the most is a wedge and hearing the bounce on the green and above all fixing the putt, because it means that I have done something right. It’s something that makes me very excited. Obviously in 18 holes a lot of bad things happen, especially when you don’t know much, but when the good things happen you are very happy.
-And your biggest disappointment?
-There are always holes that you get stuck on, but it’s true that when I started I didn’t even get to finish the holes. I took the ball because there are always people behind me and for that I am quite respectful. Not to make twelve strokes, but to take the ball and go. Fortunately, for some time now that has not happened to me and I usually finish all the holes almost every time.
-What do you appreciate most about a golf course?
-Even if I don’t know how to play well, I love complicated courses. There are people who have a hard time at Valderrama, but I really enjoyed the day I played it because I also like that kind of more complex courses. I think golf depends on how you take it and on your ability to move the ball. If you have a tree in front of you, well, fuck, man, what are you going to do, you throw it to the fairway and try to make the third shot as accurate as possible. I like complicated courses, and the most impressive I have seen live is Augusta. The fairways are tremendous, I think a bad driver of mine doesn’t come off, at least on the 1st.
-Do you see any similarities between golf and the cuisine you practice?
-We could compare it to haute cuisine, which is full of nuances. Any dish, any movement, are gestures, a little more salt, a little more of one thing or another or of poaching time or reduction, etc., changes the dish in a radical manner. From a 7 to a 10. The golf swing is exactly the same, a number of nuances that if you put them all together make it wonderful, but if any one of them fails, it lacks a little salt, it lacks a little reduction, the cooking is overcooked or not… In the end there is a tremendous similarity.
-Are the golfers you know gastronomic sybarites or do they like simple dishes?
-It’s a pity, but the truth is that they are not sybarites. I think something has to be done there. The few I know are more of a product, meat, steak, hamburger… It is true that gastronomy in the golf world is too standard. I think that in the end it is also a question of speed, the way of eating… but of course in the end it is like an airport, they are sandwiches, hamburgers, and obviously gastronomy is much more. I would like there to be a higher point than what is done nowadays.
-Has it crossed your mind to create a special dish for the golfer, an alternative to the club sandwich?
-I was really impressed, I’m not saying it wasn’t delicious, but it’s more the concept of branding and branding of Augusta as well. The truth is that once I was there I said: if I were in charge of the gastronomy of a golf course the first thing I would do is try to make a thread about the world of golf in general because I think that in every golf club in the world there should be a Pimiento Cheese Sandwich, in honor of Augusta, and so on and so forth. I think there would be a lot to do for gastronomy to have a common thread with golf
much more direct and above all at a philosophical and conceptual level than what is done today.
-Be honest and don’t be polite, what restaurants would you recommend to the tens of thousands of golfers who visit Marbella every year?
-Because of the golfer’s profile, Lobito, Leña and Tragabuches would probably be the most suitable. Maybe Aleli also because it is Italian pasta and so on. If I had to choose one, it would probably be Tragabuches, which fits more with the golfer’s tastes.
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