Everything is new in the Santa Clara Golf restaurant, a cosy space, a new setting course-side, an expert team and a different concept. Kayena is this golf club’s new venture that offers an original, avant-garde and very carefully selected cuisine to surprise players as well as good food lovers that wish to enjoy the Mediterranean flavours and that want to be surprised by Javier Morales Ocon’s new twist.

Kayena, its name surprises our ears inviting us to begin an exotic trip regaling our five senses. The vision is the next sense to be surprised, the space is de/icate/y decorated and it welcomes us with a natural beauty that makes us feel relaxed. lt continues with the harmony of the dishes. The sense of smell awakes with each dish. The flavours do not disappoint neither do the sensation and textures of the products in our mouths. This is the way we complete the five senses, enjoying each of them and discovering new combinations that were born after many hours of work, dedication and love for the cuisine.

Javier Morales used to accompany his mother in the kitchen since he was very young. His calling was so clear that he started studying this discipline when he was eighteen at the Jacaranda School in Churriana. After achieving his upper second degree he started working in Marbella, a city he has always loved because of its cosmopolitan character. He had the opportunity to work in the Villa Tiberio kitchen after spending two months working as a waiter there. “I spent eleven years there. I cut my teeth there, so to speak. I went through ali the sections and then became second head chef. In the meanwhile, I took several courses, I kept on studying until the moment I felt I was getting bored and I needed a change. I took a  sabbatical year to make a gastronomic tour throughout Spain, a big unknown“. Javier remembers. He went back to Malaga far a while befare he moved again, this time to Florencia following his lover, “I spent two years working there, making tours around Tuscany, getting to know the ltalian cuisine and wine culture, but things didn’t work out with the girl and I came back to Malaga”. 

Soon after, he was offered two great projects, the first one in Muelle 1 and the other was at Santa Clara. Finally, the last was the chosen one and seven months ago he took control of the Kayena’s kitchen: “lt is a twist, a more avant-garde cuisine, more gastronomic, dishes with an exotic touch but always Mediterranean, they are dishes more elaborated and international. The idea is to attract not just go/fers but any other visitar. Moreover, we have 5 new specials, apart from the menu, every week, so that the c/ient doesn’t feel bored. This is just the beginning, we are learning, evolving”, Javier explains.

 Changes on the menu, weekly specials, gastronomic and pairing events, there are many projects bubbling within the mind of this Malagueño who is thinking of cuisine 24 hours to be able to offer the best of himself: ” want it to be good, well prepared and careful/y presented. I like when it is appealing, eye-catching, fragrant and tasty, when these three senses work well together, then the dish is right. When a dish is taken to a table it has taken many hours of sacrifice, work and trials to get it right that very few people see, appreciate and give thanks far it. When I go to a restaurant and I like and enjoy a dish very much, I always want to meet and thank the chef”, Javier says.

So, if you go to Kayena and enjoy the food, don’t hesitate to congratulate the chef. Javier will thank you.

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