In a place in La Manchuela, Casas Ibáñez, 50 kilometers from Albacete, appears a modern, tasty and thug gastronomic complex.
Javier Sanz and Juan Sahuquillo (both 23 years old) move between the fermenters of a haute cuisine restaurant (OBA) located on the top floor of the Cañitas Maite hotel and the stoves of a bistro located on the ground floor.
They are the chefs and owners of both spaces.
The friendship came at a young age, with a broken toy, a crying girl, and two boys willing to fix it.
His love affair with the kitchen arose less casually.
Sanz's grandfather ran a hotel-restaurant in the town and their childhood was spent trying sauces.
"When we were 10 years old, we were already setting up banquets," recalls Sahuquillo.
When they reached adolescence, it was clear that they would take over from Grandpa.
Although tripe, prawns, salads had always been cooked there... and they dreamed of other offers.
"After cooking many stews, we had the base, but we have had the concern to do things that no one has done," says Sanz.
And to do it together, aware of their complementarity.
“The ball goes to him at once,” says Sahuquillo, “he is more impulsive.
Suddenly, at the last moment, he salts an ice cream.”
Sahuquillo, on the other hand, is "methodical, he has everything more stipulated," says Sanz.
Javier Sanz and Juan Sahuquillo read the review they have just received from a gastronomic magazine.
Matias Uris
At the age of 16 they entered the School of Hospitality in Toledo, separated to do internships in star restaurants and returned to the town in unison.
After finishing school, the grandfather lent them the restaurant on some Fridays and they designed 22 tasting menus.
That was the embryo of what would later become Cañitas.
They finished their internships –at Casa Marcial and Mugartiz– on the same day.
That had always been the idea: “Separate to get back together.
What he learns I learn, what I learn he learns.
We knew what the end was…”, comments Sahuquillo.
They changed the concept, the menus and the staff.
And so, a year ago, Cañitas was born, where you can taste
ninoyakis
with Manchego cheese and black truffle or waffles with patatas bravas and squid croissants in a town of 5,000 inhabitants.
“At first, a lot of people didn't like it, but now they thank us.
The town has life”, affirms Sanz.
Initially they opened every day, 14 services a week, and at the same time OBA was forged.
Winning Madrid Fusión 2021 —as revelation chefs, for the best croquette and the best marinade—, more than satisfaction, was a sigh.
“It represented being able to close one day a week.
Say: 'We already have a goal accomplished.
Now we are going for more, but taking our foot off the accelerator a little”, explains Sanz.
Some kitchen utensils designed by Javier Sanz and Juan Sahuquillo. Matías Uris
That other goal already has a name.
OBA, with a cutlery designed by themselves, capacity for 12 people and a haute cuisine menu for 200 euros, opened with a clear idea: "Here you earn the Michelin star already, the first year," proclaims Sanz.
In three years they want to move the restaurant to a village a few kilometers from town.
"To do something that does not exist in Castilla-La Mancha or in Spain," concludes Sahuquillo.
OBA means, in an old dialect of his town, Casas-Ibáñez, "the most essential root of the human being".
OBA is, therefore, a metaphor for their lives: a goal set long ago that evolves, refines and extends.
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