San Sebastián Gastronomika. In a Few Words.

San Sebastián. The world's greatest chefs. An exchanging of techniques, ideas, and old-fashioned facetime.  Put it all together, and what do you get? San Sebastián Gastronomika.

Star of the show=France, as invited country.

Flavors the flowed from the fount of 'nouvelle cuisine' at SSG12: Roast duck, mushroom, sorrel, apple, black truffle, cassis, wild herbs, beets, walnuts...many of these modified with a place name. A return to terroir.

Spanish chefs=wilder combos. See above in La Grand Bouffe, a light-hearted cookoff between eight young chefs. Coconut,  herb charcaol, tapioca, lime granita, fermented garlic, soy sauce, parsley foam, spider crab, green tea, barnacles, smoked tuna, frozen gazpacho.

foto via Katharine Giery

And, after parties. Ice-cold French oysters, champagne, gooey cheeses, fried chicken, chefs and journalists happy.

Good Year.

Interview with Andoni Luis Aduriz

Just a day after one of the best meals I've EVER had, a meal that hit the highest notes and reveals a restaurant that is continuing to evolve and never satisified with stagnant excellence, I came across an interview with the man behind it all.

Andoni Luis Aduriz of Mugaritz.

Loved this interview, and loved that upon reading it I saw glimpses of my meal. Loved that his ideology and opinions are so strong that they maintain themselves as they are turned into food, pass through the hands of young chefs, then waiters, all the way to the diner who then makes a connection between tastebuds and thought.

Some key quotes from Aduriz:

As with writing, inspiration can be found anywhere – even in something as simple as a cup of coffee. I’m working now on a dish inspired by melancholy: I live in a valley that is very atmospheric, where you see the change of seasons starkly. In autumn, when the leaves fall to the ground, decomposition is very fast. In the dish I use a camellia leaf, made to appear skeletal – it reminds you of the passing of time.

And on Basque cuisine:

A very light touch can be as effective as something much more forceful. If I could, it would be interesting to serve a grain of salt to a diner.

And finally, revealing what the world's number 3 chef thinks about his food in the hand of peers:

It would be really hard to set up, because some of the inspirational people I’ve worked with in the past would probably mess up my restaurant, and I would end up doing the washing up afterwards.

❤

The interview in its entirety can be read at the Financial Times website.

Andoni's been busy....recent interviews can also be found at:

• The New York Times (For Them, A Great Meal Tops Good Intentions)
• Eater (Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz on Mugaritz And Deliciousness)
• Reuters (Playful Aduriz Masters Culinary Mind Games)

behind the pintxos

Earlier this week, I posted a 365 entry about a young cook and friend here in San Sebastián, Aleks Villegas.  He helped me come to the conclusion that it's a whole lot more useful to look at the pass and into the kitchen than to go by signs outside of bars when picking pintxo spots.  That is to say that, more so than in many other places, your dining experience is in the hands of one or two cooks.

Just like Aleks, many of these pintxo bar cooks start out staging in local restaurants, which happen to be some of the best in the world: Arzak, Mugaritz, Akelarre.

Then, if they're lucky, they stick around, getting jobs in other restaurants and the city's famed bars.  The vast majority of these pintxo bars are small, one or two-man operations. What does that mean?

That much of what makes a pintxo bar good, bad or excellent is the lone cook holding down the kitchen. Is it someone's cousin who's pinch hitting for a couple months? Or does it happen to be a cook with big dreams fresh off being mentored by one of the world's greatest chefs?  Now you see what I mean.

A chef with big dreams might be like Aleks, creating signature dishes that in a season or two become ubiquitous.  He claims the confit chicken wing, slow-cooked in oil, deboned, then re-seared before serving, as his own creation.  He debuted it at a small bar in Gros, Dardara, where it remains on the menu. Then he took it with him to Astelena. It has also begun to pop up on a couple other menus across town, and it's no coincidence.

San Sebastián is a tiny town with an outsize appetite and culinary talent.  Before graduating to fame, fortune and Michelin stars, it all starts small....with stages and pintxos.

365 tuesdays

There was a small bar in Gros that had really good food, way better than it should have had. But then suddenly it didn't. Turns out its chef, Aleks Villegas Llamas, had moved on to another kitchen. This young chef worked in the kitchen of Astelena until this past Sunday, where he had also brough his famous confit chicken wing, a creation of his own and his favorite plate. He's a cook I will follow wherever he goes (and, poor me, he's starting at Mugaritz this month).

Part of the 365 Cities project.

Day Three: San Sebastián Gastronomika

Dear Johnny-

How are things at Bottega?
It’s that time of year again, when magical things happen in San Sebastián. Wait..what time of year is that? Well...it’s Gastronomika...and there’s lots of food...and Nate Appleman is here, which reminds me of the Bottega kitchen, and the honey panna cotta with blackberry and buckwheat cookie panzanella that I never made and still think about.
Lots of cool stuff to see here...wanted to send you some of the flavor combos to see if you some inspiration will rub off.

fish bones | soy sauce | mandarin foam
ray fish | brown butter
raw mushrooms | orange juice | dried banana skin
coconut cream | herb coal | smoked salt | purple violet | tapioca sorbet
bonbon of foie | horchata soup | fried horchata slices | truffle oil
peas | wasabi | julienned pea pods | pea sorbet
suckling pig | garlic | melon | peach | reisling
green citrus caviar | garlic creme | coriander
chestnut pure | raw chestnut | fried slices | truffle
red cabbage | green yuzu | squid
pumpkin | orange | fennel | crab
caramelized onion | squid | red pepper
raw scallop | grape | horseradish
horchata | parsley juice | anchovy | garlic | cilantro
sea urchin | squid | tropical fruit | grapes | aji
white chocolate | raspberry | shortbread
tomato | apple | jamón ibérico | jamón infused salt
salmon | cucumber | chives | berries | radishes
red mullet {split, deboned, liver diced and returned to spine, wrapped and cooked sous-vide with olive oil}
deconstructed calamari a la romana {perfectly grilled calamari, sprinkled with balls of fried tempura and lemon zest, i think it was}
deconstructed liver & onions {caramelized onion puré, pate, and an onion microwave cake}
pumpkin {candied in lime and sugar, torched}
vegetable gazpacho {vegetables slow-cooked en papillote with aromatics}
mussels {cooked and pureed in their liquid, mixed with rice flour and piped into boiling water to make ‘beans’}


Those are just a sprinkling of the incredible flavors from Gastronomika.
I teared up two or three times. One, watching the Mugaritz video. The rest thinking of the kitchen.
You should have been here.
Miss you,
Marti