Mateo Ibarra
Head of the grill
Every morning he decides which wood is lit, and when. He has run the grill since the very first service and can tell holm oak from oak by the way it crackles.
Ascuro
About us
A small house, a single grill and a team convinced that patience is an ingredient too.
Our story
A former coal merchant’s in Chamberí
For almost a century, number 7 Calle del Rescoldo sold coal and firewood to half the neighbourhood. When Lucía Arandia found the premises in 2018, the walls still smelled of holm oak.
Ascuro opened in the autumn of 2019 with twelve tables, a grill made to measure by a blacksmith in Toledo and a simple idea: cook only over wood fire, with produce we know by name.
Today there are fourteen of us between the kitchen and the dining room. The grill is still the same one.
A few dates
- 2019We opened with twelve tables and a single grill.
- 2021We built the wood oven and the fermentation room.
- 2023We started growing with Huerta del Soto, in the Tagus valley.
- 2025We opened the chef’s table, right in front of the embers.
The chef
Lucía Arandia
Chef and founder
“You don’t master embers, you listen to them. My job is to wait for exactly the right moment.”
Lucía Arandia grew up among the pine forests of Soria, in a house where the wood stove burned from October to May. That is where she learned that every wood burns its own way, and that fire is less a technique than a conversation.
She spent ten years between grill houses in the north and signature kitchens across Europe before coming back to Madrid with one idea in mind: a small house, a single grill and a menu that moves with the market.
Her cooking is direct and patient. She is drawn to the embers that remain once the flame has gone, to long ageing and to producers she knows by name.
The team
The hands behind Ascuro
We portray the team through their craft: what matters happens in the hands.
Nuria Sanchís
Sommelier
She has built a cellar of two hundred wines with a soft spot for Madrid and small growers. She likes to pour blind and ask afterwards.
Iker Montes
Head pastry chef
He brings what happens on the grill into dessert, smoke, caramel and salt. His ember-caramelised torrija is the reason many guests come back.
Elena Varela
Head of front of house
She remembers names, allergies and every guest’s favourite table, and runs a small dining room with the calm of someone who has the whole evening ahead.
Close to home
Producers we know by name
Almost everything we cook comes from less than 100 km away. Fish is the exception: it arrives every morning from small day boats on the Cantabrian coast.
Huerta del Soto
Aranjuez · 48 km away
What they bring us: Artichokes, leeks, squash and leafy greens
Three sisters farm twelve hectares in the Tagus valley, with no greenhouses and no hurry. Since 2023 we have planted part of what we cook alongside them.
Obrador Masa Lenta
Madrid · 3 km away
What they bring us: Wheat and rye sourdough
Forty-eight-hour fermentations with stone-milled flour. The bread arrives every morning still warm.
Ganadería Los Pinarejos
Sierra de Guadarrama · 62 km away
What they bring us: Aged Avileña beef
Free-ranging animals raised for more than eight years. The beef then ages in our own chamber for up to 45 days.
Quesería La Majada
Colmenar Viejo · 35 km away
What they bring us: Sheep’s and goat’s cheeses, ricotta
Extensive grazing and raw milk. We pick each ageing batch for our cheese course together.
Cooperativa Sierra Norte
Sierra Norte de Madrid · 85 km away
What they bring us: Wild mushrooms, chestnuts, mountain potatoes and heather honey
A cooperative of foragers and beekeepers from the northern valleys. What they bring sets the pace of our autumn menu.
Barcos de bajura del Cantábrico
Costa cantábrica · 420 km away
What they bring us: Turbot, hake, sardines and anchovies
Our one exception to cooking local. Two small-boat skippers tell us before dawn what they have landed, and it reaches Madrid that same day.
A table by the fire
Book online in a minute, or give us a call if you would rather talk to the dining room team.