At the InterContinental hotel in Madrid, Christmas begins to be prepared in the month of June. In the heat of heat they design the proposal, choose the theme -this year the protagonist is Ava Gardner, who on Christmas Eve celebrates the centenary of her birth-, which will be the common thread of all the galas that are celebrated at the hotel. “The important thing is to surprise the guests, who in our case are usually families who return and who make the hotel the meeting point for these holidays,” says the director Paloma Martínez, who details that the farewell of the year, the top celebration of the parties, with dinner, inspired by the places frequented by the American actress in Madrid, and cotillion, costs 615 euros per diner.
These are days of celebration and the hotels show off their best shine, they bring out the golden tableware, the fine glassware and the starched table linen -in some, this utensil is rented-. And this year again, warns Friedrich von Schönburg, director of the Rosewood Villa Magna hotel: “it will be different, since it will be the first, after two years of restrictions, in which we can all enjoy a few days of festivities in some spaces as iconic as the hotels are”. He also believes that despite the economic crisis It’s going to be a good Christmas season, “as soon as we launched our proposal we have had numerous requests and reservations, and we hope to fill the 75 places that we offer in Las Brasas and the 40 in the Amós restaurant,” he explains. If a review is made of the prices, for example, of the end-of-year gala, they are far from the containment that is assumed given the recession forecasts predicted by international organizations or study services for 2023.
Assembly of the InterContinental hotel in Madrid.
Thus, for example, dismissing 2022 in the main room, with capacity for 200 people, at the Four Seasons hotel in Madrid costs 1,350 euros per diner, with a menu of six passes and wine pairing, as well as live musical performances. There are still free places. “It is a proposal that we worked on for months, it is one of the most special events of the year for us. Everything has to be perfect to receive the new year, plus these will be the first without restrictions”, adds Sara Herrero, event director.
For 780 euros per seat, at the Hotel Palace in Madrid they offer a menu designed by a renowned chef with a Michelin star, something that has been a tradition for a decade, and whose gastronomic proposal has been entrusted this year to the chefs Fina Puigdevall and Martina Puigvertmother and daughter who run the restaurant Les Cols, in Olot (Girona), who have designed an eight-course proposal, with nods to the Ampurdán region, which includes smoked eel consommé, a herb cake and a spinach leaf with raisins and pine nuts accompanied by a cauliflower tartlet with caviar.
One of the dishes, with lobster, offered by the Rosewood Villa Magna hotel.
The emblematic Madrid hotel, which this year celebrates 110 years since its construction, offers, for those who wish, in addition to dinner, to wake up on the first day of the year in one of its rooms to from 2,033 euros. “Every year we look for something to surprise our diners with. It all started in 2009, when it occurred to us to collaborate with Mario Sandoval, and the experience was so good that since then, we have not stopped doing it with others. Chefs like Salvador Gallego, Diego Guerrero or Toño Pérez”, explains Pilar Mantaras, director of food and beverages at the Palace, who anticipates that there are still some vacancies left, “but normally, from mid-December, we are already full”. She adds that history plays in her favour, “and now much more, Madrid being the mirror in which many look at themselves from the hotel and gastronomic point of view, and even other hotels call us to make reservations for some of their clients.”
In Rosewood Villa Magna, saying goodbye to 2022 costs 510 euros if it is celebrated in the Las Brasas restaurant, whose menu is signed by the chef Francisco Sanabria, which includes dishes such as beef tenderloin, hake, Galician oysters, grilled shrimp or pularda stuffed with Iberian bacon; and for 595 euros if you decide to opt for the gastronomic proposal of the Amós restaurant, managed by chef Jesús Sánchez, with three Michelin stars in El Cenador de Amós, in Villaverde de Pontones (Cantabria). “There is not much difference in price, but in both cases the important thing is how we make customers feel good,” adds Von Schönburg.
The last night of the year will be lived at the Hotel Arts Barcelona, baptized as The Mighty Blue in the Gaudí room, with dinner, by the cook conrad tromp, which has composed a cocktail of 10 bites and champagne and a seven-course menu for 450 euros. They have 350 vacancies, which will be covered, according to the marketing director, Pol Fortaner, by more than 60% of foreign clients, especially from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany, 30% from outside Barcelona, and the rest of the premises. “We have a lot of people who repeat.” The chef Paco Pérez’s offer is more limited in the Enoteca restaurant, with capacity for 30 people, and whose menu costs 385 euros and 190 euros for pairing.
“It is a special moment, and people highly value investing money in living a unique experience, in the sensory field, and gastronomy is a great asset, since it has an important relevance,” explains Sonia Prieto, professor of the master’s degree in marketing Esic tourist.