‘I used to say I was Chinese in another life’: how a Hong Kong sauce inspired a 3-Michelin-star Madrid restaurant
- ‘World’s Best Chef’ David Muñoz named his groundbreaking, no-limits Madrid restaurant DiverXO after Hong Kong’s popular XO sauce
The success of David Muñoz, three-time winner of “the world’s best chef” accolade, according to The Best Chef Awards, can be traced back, at least in part, to the two letters at the end of his restaurant’s name.
DiverXO, his fiercely creative three-Michelin-star Madrid hotspot that is now rated No 3 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, was named after the iconic Hong Kong sauce.
“I fell totally in love with XO sauce the first time I tried it,” the Spaniard says. “It’s one of my favourite things in Cantonese cuisine.”
Muñoz now has a dumpling and pasta restaurant, RavioXO, which opened in Madrid last year. He has a home-delivery service and food trucks brand called GoXO, which morphed into a fast-food venue in Barcelona in 2021.
Then there is the informal StreetXO, in Madrid, which he is expanding to Dubai in December, and to Barcelona and Miami next year. He is looking at proposals for Singapore and Tokyo.
His encounter with XO sauce – and more widely Chinese food – two decades ago helped spark the flame of what is now a culinary empire in the making.
