For Vidal's new assignment as the restaurants executive chef at Soleá, the 180-seat luxury restaurant, located at W South Beach, Vidal upgraded the Serrano to Ibérico and substituted the foam with chanterelles.

The mushrooms gives the dish a nuanced kick and the Ibérico, well, there just isn't a better ham. Marc prefers the peasant quality of Spanish cuisine while boosting it, often just by ingredient choice. The seafood, for instance, is flown in from Spain, as it is at La Dorada and Ideas. Much is made of Vidal's apprenticeship at Ferrán Adriá's El Bulli, home of the laboratory approach that began a new culinary era. But he insists his work in Paris with Michelin three-star chefs Alain Passard and Alain Ducasse is just as important. As for laboratory cuisine, ``no foams,'' he says.

Tastings Vidal is testing for a Monday menu launch will include such simple Spanish dishes as octopus salad, cod fritters with Romesco sauce, clams with garlic and parsley and obviously, the fried egg with fries. The octopus comes from Spain's northern waters, the fritters are light as cotton and the clams are small and butter sweet. An artichoke confit along with quail egg and caviar is what someone expects in today's foodie tapas bars in Spain. Foie gras and fig on flatbread with a sauce made with Pedro Ximénez sherry is also refined as well.

Small plates ($6-$14), called pica-picas here, will be featured at the restaurants bar area as well as the dining room, with a wide range of entrées from ($20-$38) such as veal cheeks and lobster caldereta (cassoulet). In fact, considering Soleá is the hotels restaurant, breakfast, lunch and dinner menus will soon all have Vidal's Spanish food, so look for great fried eggs and also thick, rich Spanish chocolate in the morning.