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.

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

day two: San Sebastián Gastronomika 2011

Gastronomika today was....Mexico, a pretty disappointing use of 3-D technology, the local STARS of the worldwide food scene (Arbelaitz, Arzak, Berasategui, and Subijana), award to Spain’s best sommelier, gin and tonic in the press room...

But for me, the highlight was a tiny tertulia with chef Alex Atala.

In case you don’t know him, he’s the guy right behind Grant Achatz on the world’s 50 Best Restaurant list. He’s a 43-year-old Brazilian chef and runs the restaurant D.O.M. in Sao Paolo. And today, me and about a dozen other young people were in a room with him for an hour, with free reign to ask him whatever we liked.

I don't know about you, but in my experience its hard enough to get a chef to stop and sit for five minutes, much less have immediate access to him for an hour.

He had all kinds of insight into Brazilian cuisine, as well as chef life in general. "It's half dream, half nightmare," he said. "The higher you get, the hotter they give it to you."  The way he framed it, his rise to fame was rapid and unasked for. To hear him tell the story of the night of the Top 50 Awards was amazing. He was waiting with baited breath to be awarded 20, and had virtually given up when they called him for number SEVEN.

I asked him if he thought he had changed after the awards: yes, for better and for worse.

I also asked him how daily life was in his kitchen. He explained that he also has a bakery (!), and went on to describe a kitchen that sounds just about heavenly. Everybody happy, quiet, etc. But that, he revealed, is about fifteen years after previously shoving people's faces into the trash bin. So, maybe that one's a change for the better.

He's obsessed with Andoni (Mugaritz, what can I say, me too) and quoted him: "Truths are not absolute-they change with time. That's what makes them truth."

To wrap up the tertulia, he confessed to us that he thinks Brazil has a long way to go, but that they have a rich promise that lies in their raw product, as well as their culture.

These invaluable tertulias take place every day at Gastronomika. In fact tomorrow's is Achatz and Blumenthal. No way they'll let me into those.

day one: San Sebastián Gastronomika 2011

San Sebastián Gastronomika is a gathering of the world’s greatest in the culinary world. I also often forget that its a festival of professionals, by professionals, and for professionals. These 30 to 45 minute cooking demonstrations that make up the bulk of the main program are, essentially, a glorified recipe exchange cum friendly coffee chat. Yes, that’s Alex Atala in front of you, picking at a candied pumpkin. But he’s just spouting off a recipe for you, then giving you a chapa (an earful) of what he thinks about the perfect ingredient. Then some pristinely pressed kids in their school chef whites bring you out a little spoonful he made just for you.

I’m sort of struggling to ubicate myself.
 My frugal, American instincts say “What’s the point? These are just glorified cooking shows and a big lounge of people trying to sell you something.”
Then my European side kicks in and says, “Marti. There has to be a place for ideas to live, to be shared. It’s enough of a  purpose to serve as a three-day incubator of ideas, that will then spread out to the world and serve to update shared culinary knowledge.” 
“Yeah, so everyone and their mom will be microwaving aerated cake better by this time next year.” (Ups, that was the American me again).

I think I’m getting it.
I mean, I think I’m really getting it.
Because when the big boys took the stage, Quique Dacosta, Andoni Luis Aduriz (of Mugaritz), and Joan Roca (of world #2, Cellar de Can Roca), well, I cried.

It’s not that simple. There were sheep. Basque sheep. And good, real country people....lovingly caressing baby vegetables, staring out to Cantabrian seas, and chasing geese.  I leave you with my personal highlight of the day, a clip of Andoni’s video about the providers of Mugaritz’s food. I mean, the part with the twin shepherd brothers, where one is talking about the microchip and how the naming of the sheep is a lost tradition now...the look on the brother's face...WAAAAH.

And then they're all like, "We were born here...later we came back here, and now we're here forever... When we decided to come to the caserio to work, at no moment did we consider working with other more industrial races that would produce more milk, so we could be more profitable." I think that's when the tears started. Andoni, take me next time! Click to watch.

san sebastián gastronomika: a dictionary

With the commencement of San Sebastián Gastronomika today, here's a mini-dictionary guide to the conference.

alta-the main section of the conference that offers a "panoramic view of 2011's gastronomy in a comprehensive programme" of chats and demos

brazil- one of the featured countries of the conference. chef to watch: Atala.

evolving, emerging and diverse gastronomies- the slogan of this year's conference. wonder who will tell them that the word gastronomy just doesn't work so well worldwide? or maybe we Americans will have to come around.

gastronomika-a culinary conference taking place today, tomorrow, and Wednesday in San Sebastián, Spain. one of the world's premiere gatherings of its type

larousse gastronomique- the legendary French encyclopedia of food, to be presented in its Spanish translation this year at the conference

local- not so much a buzzword for the conference in the sense that we often use it in. refers to the grand lineup of chefs-from-here that make their appearance at this year's conference: Aduriz, Arbelaitz, Arguiñano, Arzak, Berasasategui, and Subijana.

luis irizar-this year's featured chef, one of San Sebastián's most important fathers of cuisine. His restaurant was the first in Basque Country to receive a Michelin star

mexico-another spotlighted country. chefs to watch: Ruiz, Oteiza and Alonso.

off-a section of the conference focusing on all the various parts of the restaurant industry, apart from kitchen: management, front of the house, hotels, etc.

peru-the final cuisine to be celebrated during the conference.

popular-the section of the conference open to the public