Arts & Culture

JOSÉ PIZARRO

Spanish Tapas to transform your Tastebuds

Review by Susan Isaacs - Arts and Restaurant critic

“I called my restaurant Pizarro after my grandfather. He had a bar called Pizarro in Talaván.

Seeing that name above the door is incredibly ”special for me.

So writes the dynamic owner of the authentic Spanish restaurant in Southwark’s super trendy Bermondsey Street, where art gallery owners and city financiers rub shoulders daily.

I sit with my dining partner in comfortable wooden seats facing an open plan kitchen, where the greatest delights of Spanish tapas are made before our eyes. The friendly and helpful staff, Huw the assistant manager, and Peter, the restaurant manager, fill us in about the delicious food, and the story of the man behind it all.

José Pizarro, a native of Extremadura in the Southwest of Spain, started life as a dentist technician but was fascinated by the restaurant business. He co-founded Brindisa in London, where he worked for a number of years, but he was determined to strike out on his own. He began with a little tapas bar in Bermondsey St in 2011 and saw the demand for a more formal restaurant. The result, just a block away, is Pizarro Restaurant that serves little tapas dishes and more substantial food. The setting is beautiful and simple, wooden walls, floors and benches, and an open kitchen where you can watch your food being prepared. To the left hangs a painting by Tracey Emin, to the right through the window we see the ultracool trip their way along Bermondsey Street. The ideas are drawn from all sorts of different regions in Spain, as are the staff. So executive chef Monty from Barcelona is Catalan, and Pizarro head chef is Adrian from Galicia. There is Manchego cheese from La Mancha and Jamón Ibérico. Often the way the food is preserved affects the taste, so bacalao, cod, is salted. Huw showed us a wonderful book of recipes collected by José Pizarro, and the most delightful was an image of him surrounded by nuns, making little cakes out of almond dough in a cobbled town in Andalucía called Ronda.

We particularly loved, for starters, the buñuelos de bacalao, which are crispy cod fritters with parsley allioli. Equally mouthwatering were the boquerones en vinagre, that is pickled white anchovies, with garlic. The padrón peppers, fried peppers with sea salt flakes, were incredibly more-ish. For the main course the Presa Ibérica does not come cheap. It is 100% acorn fed Ibérico pork, served medium rare with potatoes, padrón peppers, and a sprinkling of salt. But it is outstanding. And the bacalao a la llauna, cod in a traditional Catalan sauce with sautéed baby spinach, was delicious. For dessert you just have to try natillas de azafrán con peras. Saffron custard, pear confit and crumble. Once you have tasted the food, there is no question you will want to come back. This is authentic Spanish food that is unforgettable.

VITRINE

in Bermondsey Square, Southwark Window on the World of Art

By Susan Isaacs Arts and Culture Correspondent

Day and night, winter or summer, come rain or shine, the sensational sixteen metre panoramic glass windows of VITRINE, highlight of Bermondsey Square, allow everyone the view of a tremendous range of contemporary artwork.

This transparent architecture allows all exhibitions to be viewable 24/7 from the surrounding public squares. The name VITRINE is taken from the French word for shop window, and that is exactly how it works. No queuing for tickets or rushing to get there before it closes. The wonderful exhibits are permanently on view. This remarkable concept is the brainchild of Alys Williams, the phenomenal founder and owner who has also set up a twin gallery in Basel. I first met her and co-director William at their screening event for French artist Tarek Lakhrissi’s seminal short film ‘Out of the Blue’ (2019), shown within the delightful independent cinema Kino, facing VITRINE across Bermondsey Square. Alys is tall and strikingly beautiful, and started life as an installation artist, combined with curation within art institutions. She has helped launch many new artists internationally, nurtures and promotes them with fierce pride, and advises clients around the world. She and William make a team to be reckoned with, putting art in Southwark firmly on the international map. What is remarkable, when you first meet her, is not only the way she has set up this original space, from overseeing the architecture to sourcing new talent, but just how incredibly articulate she is. You would think of her as a writer and poet, as well as an artist. Here is an excerpt from the description on VITRINE’s website of the current exhibition by Sophie Jung which is called ‘The Hindsighters’ Children’ and runs until the 9th January 2022. “The artist’s 10-metre-long drawing, on one roll of paper, depicts a number of othershaped gnarly figures with a soft jittery line connecting and continuing them to the horizon and to each other, ambiguous in their poses, dancing, hunching, accusing, cradling and searching for something in the sand underneath their feet.”

Her partner in running VITRINE is William Noel Clarke who brings tremendous charm and energy to this demanding role. He studied curating at Goldsmiths, University of London, has written for arts magazines such as Frontrunner Magazine and Corridor 8, and like Alys has been a visiting lecturer at universities internationally. This dynamic duo continue to bring striking exhibits to Bermondsey Square. You cannot visit Southwark without heading straight for the remarkable display in Bermondsey Square, there for your delight, 24 hours a day.

The artist’s 10-metre-long drawing, on one roll of paper, depicts a number of other-shaped gnarly figures ‘ with a soft jittery line connecting and continuing them to the horizon and to each other, ambiguous in their poses, dancing, hunching, accusing, cradling, and searching for something in the sand underneath their feet. ’ Southwark BUSINESS TODAY 25