How Spanish food has improved, like English food, over the past few decades. On Tenerife, the largest of the Canary islands, we were looking for a special place to celebrate my husband's birthday.
He found a Michelin standard restaurant. A place where the ingredients, tastes, and presentation would be a surprise, something we could not or would not do at home. (That is a challenge, because my husband is a keen cook. He downloads recipes in French and translates them. He consults three version of the same dish. He shops for unusual ingredients, ordering Jersey potatoes online to get the right texture and flavour.)
The name of the restaurant is El Taller. This is Spanish for workshop, studio, repair shop, or garage, depending on the context, the surroundings.
Wine muscat.
9 couses
1 chocolate ball with sweet tomato soup centre
The open hatch into the kitchen at the back enables you to watch the chef owner, Seve Diaz, preparing the set meals. You can see the fancy shaped bowls and plates. For couples or small groups, all of whom are served simultaneously.,
Two or four or six of each dish. Dishes placed in a pair, a square or a line.
Even at a distance you can enjoy seeing the speed and dexterity. The unexpected tools. A giant syringe squirting a fountain of liquid. A sprinkle of seasoning. An entertainment.
We liked it so much that we booked a return visit for the last night of our stay. Again, it was full of flavours which tickled our tastebuds.
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Update on July 3rd 2026.
Spanish, Italian and Portuguese Names
The Spanish, Italian and Portuguese name Seve has nothing to do with seven, which spell checker keeps pushing, but comes from the Latin and means serious, or grave. Seve is certainly a serious cook or chef. One source of the restaurant's ingredients is the family's farm. Alternative suggestions for the origin of the name are that it is Basque or French for severe, strict, or sap in a plant, all of which are suitable, appropriate names for the owner of a restaurant.
The surname Diaz is very popular, in the top twenty surnames in Spain. Names ending in ez mean son of. Di would probably be derived from Diego, in English Jacob. I think of Jacobson shortened to Jason.
We chose the shorter, cheaper set tasting menu, only 9 courses. One course was the breads, hot breads, with flavoured butters, in fancy shapes.
Eye-Catching Cute Cutlery
Another eye-catching feature was the elegant cutlery, with slim handles. I asked for the brand and looked it up. You can get a set of five for under fifty pounds, so two sets for a couple of youngsters or retired people at under a hundred pounds, to transform special occasions, or every day.
But Amazon has a similar set of slim handled cutlery in gold colour
24 pieces, 4 pieces of knife, fork, rounded spoon for soup or dessert, and tea spoon, for six people, dishwasher safe, at only £14.39.
