BASQUE by WG - Vol 1

BASQUE BASQUEVOL

by WG 1

PEDRO SUBIJANA

RICHNESS IN VARIETY

EDORTA LAMO

TRADITIONAL BASQUE PINTXO

JOSEAN ALIJA

CORE, HEART, ESSENCE

JOSÉ LUIS VICENTE GÓMEZ

LEGACY OF FOUR GENERATIONS www.bas-que.com

ANDONI LUIS ADURIZ NINE COURSE

SAN SEBASTIÁN CULINARY HEAVEN BASQUE Oct/Nov 2018 -

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n this historic year for Bilbao, chosen as the 2018 Best European City by The Academy of Urbanism in London and ranked by the Financial Times Group as one of the top ten European Cities for foreign investment, I would like to send my cordial regards to all WG BASQUE Magazine readers.

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In recent months, events of the ilk of the European rugby finals, the European Conference on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, the Red Bull Cliff Diving, the Global Social Economy Forum, the MTV awards or The World’s 50 Best Restaurants gala have showcased the name of Bilbao around the world, as a host city for major international events and as the main gateway to the Basque world.

Nearly a million people flock to Bilbao each year to visit the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry and discover a fascinating city that reaches out to the world but is deeply rooted in its traditions. It has its own language, Basque, considered to be one of Europe’s oldest, and a huge cultural, historical and natural legacy that goes hand in hand with a rich and internationally acclaimed cutting-edge and traditional culinary heritage, where quality and innovation merge.

Juan Mari Aburto Mayor of Bilbao

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BASQUE CUISINE, AN EVOLUTION FROM OUR ROOTS To talk about our thriving and deeply rooted Basque Cuisine today it seems better and more true to the current situation to speak in the plural. Different styles, proposals and sensibilities coexist in perfect harmony under the umbrella term Basque Cuisine. From classic haute cuisine to modern, creative or highly personal signature, which has become a transformative point of reference worldwide. All of them give a nod to historical traditional cuisine. Including the home cooking of mothers or that of rural farmhouses, the ancestral shepherd’s cuisine or that of sailor’s on land. As well as the excellent grill tradition of both fish and meat or the typical seasonal ciderhouses. And of course, the always edgy miniature cuisine: pintxos.

Together with all of this, the peculiarities of each historical territory and even the singularities of each town need to be taken into account which makes it impossible to give a single definition of contemporary Basque cuisine, which has become a banner for a way of life. These days Basque restaurants serving contemporary haute cuisine are aware that they are also generators of experiences and content. We are awakening interest in biodiversity, by using local raw materials, reclaiming varieties and species that our lifestyle had endangered, being faithful to seasonal consumption, and always associating good nutrition with quality of life.

We are defenders of authenticity, refinement and the flavors of our dishes, based on our heritage and through constant and complex experimentation, but with an end result that is always accessible for the diner.

Juan Mari y Elena Arzak

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erhaps not everyone knows that the Basque Country is the region of the Iberian Peninsula with more Michelin stars and has several cooking schools.

The Spanish gastronomic revolution began in San Sebastian and then spread to the entire Basque region.

The French influence is easily traceable in the Belle Epoque style of the buildings, as well as in their typical cuisine today acclaimed in Europe as happened in the 70s with the French “nouvelle cuisine”.

It happened that, during the Belle Epoque, many French aristocrats, on holiday in the Basque Country, were accompanied by their own personal chefs: this influence, combined with the local tradition of good eating, meant that the Basque restaurants always aimed to improve their cuisine.

I have been several times in this area and I was always surprised by the ability of the Basque chefs to focus on tradition and innovate it arriving to the creation of new dishes.

In fact, everyone in the Basque country gives extreme importance to the kitchen, regardless of the social layer; I find in this aspect a certain resemblance to Italy: there is a great respect towards the popular cuisine, the performers of the dishes pose with passion and humility such as to offer, even in simple bars, pinxtos that we could easily define a “high cuisine in thumbnail”.

The local market offers the highest quality raw materials that chefs turn into dishes that recall the land and the sea, roots of this region.

Some of my favourites local products: Tolosa beans, white North tuna and red tuna, lamb, Gernika pepper, usually fried and served like appetizers or side dish, perretxikos (St George mushrooms), one of the best spring mushroom, Basque tomato and Idiazàbal cheese, made with sheep cheese coming only from Basque and Navarra.

Paìs Vasco’s eno-gastronomic offer is wide and valuable: from fine dining restaurants, to grills, to bars where there is no lack of tapas of any kind, made with great care and refined raw materials whose care in processing is not lower than that of a large restaurant.

The other peculiarities of the region are the wines.

At the grand level of Basque cuisine is added the wine that is produced in the area.

Excellent accompaniment to fish is the white Txacolì, fresh and young wine produced in the coasts near San Sebastian.

Among reds, the classic Basque wines are those of the Rioja, namely the Rioja Alavesa.

The entire region is cultivated exclusively in the vineyard and on the production of wine, for the vast majority of red, the whole economy of the region runs.

Shortly… as I felt like coming back to find old, close Chefs friends of mine, I hope that you readers can visit this region and love it as happened to me many years ago.

Good adventure!

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Heinz Beck

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PHOTO © INTERMEDIA JAPAN

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asque Country is a gastronomic paradise, whose rules are established by the seasonality and the environment.

Here different and authentic cuisine styles, rooted in the Basque culture, coexist harmoniously.

Behind there are great producers and artisans that allow the chefs to cook with freedom and with high quality products. Although the most known part of Basque’s gastronomy is haute cuisine, something that I am proud to represent, and that attracts international public, people who come to Basque Country find different options: our ‘asadores’, traditional restaurants and of course, the way we have to relation to each other through the food: the pintxos.

It’s a way to go from one bar to another tasting different wines or other drinks and eating different elaborations, the specialty of each place. This is the most social and democratic part of our gastronomy, that was born as a meeting point and a way to break with shyness in past times.

But in a gastronomic culture that has influenced so much in other cuisines, also exists a private part. This cuisine that we just share with our beloved and friends that we make in the txoko. A special place and inaccessible, even for many of us.

Josean Alija

On egin! Ongietorri, Basque by WG magazine!

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SEPTEMBER 2018

SANTIAGO LASTRA

NOMAD MEXICAN CHEF

HEINZ BECK

CULINARY GENIUS

TERESA CUTTER

THE HEALTHY CHEF

JAMES OAKLEY

BALANCE OF FLAVOURS

BALAZS ENZSOL

SWEET THINGS IN LIFE

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BASQUE by WG SEPTEMBER 2018

GIUSEPPE MOLARO

CREATIVE APPROACH

FRANCESCA MAGGIO

SIMONE CANTAFIO

THE ITALIAN IN HOKKAIDO www.extraordinaryitalian.com

PROFESSIONAL PASTRY ACADEMY

MICHELANGELO MAMMOLITI

ARTISAN IN THE KITCHEN BASQUE Oct/Nov 2018 -

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Contemporary Italian cuisine by

World Renowned Three Michelin Star Chef Heinz Beck

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For reservations call +971 4 8182 155 | +971 4 818 2222 | Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah | www.waldorfastoria.com/Dubai

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Welcome to the perfect City break, San Sebastian.

Don´t miss one of the most beautiful and awarded cities in Europe.

San Sebastian is waiting for you to be discovered.

BOOK YOUR NEXT CITY BREAK FROM

85€

www.sansebastianturismo.com

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MADRID

BARCELONA

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Good taste isn’t expensive

S P A C E S

F O R

B E A U T I F U L

L I V I N G

conceptplus INTERIOR DESIGN

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Suite 214, Hamsa (A) Office Tower, Za’beel Road Karama, Dubai, United Arab Emirates P.O.Box 300450, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel.: +971 4 3705269 I Fax: +971 4 2947442 E-mail - BASQUE Oct/Nov 2018 : info@conceptplusstyle.com I osama@conceptplusstyle.com www.conceptplusstyle.com

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Jean-Georges Dubai showcases a comfortable indoor layout with a jade, cozy garden.

While providing a fine atmosphere of an outdoor vivid lounge and stunning interiors, Jean-Georges Dubai offers its guests the chance to enjoy multiple evenings with live entertainment, a Friday brunch with an exquisite menu created by 2 Michelin Star Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten paired with impeccable service. The restaurant presents a warm ambiance that captures Dubai’s affinity throughout the day to uphold a late night.

JG Dubai is a preferred venue for many celebrities who have chosen it as a trendy destination to celebrate their events or simply to enjoy the exquisite dishes and service. Guests who have joined us in the past include key members of royal families in the UAE as well as international names such as Russell James, Franca Sozzani, Nargis Fakhri, Paolo Maldini, Clarence Seedorf, Dwight Yorke, and Christian Louboutin.

Four Seasons Resort Jumeirah Beach Road, Dubai

Book at +971 4 343 6118

info@jean-georges-dubai.com | www.jean-georges-dubai.com

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Set amid the storied arches of Chijmes, fine dining restaurant, Whitegrass paves the way for a renewed style of Modern Australian cuisine.

Featured in Asia's 50 Best Restaurant List 2018 and awarded one Michelin star 2017

For reservations visit our website at W W W. W H I T E G R A S S . C O M . S G

or email reservation@whitegrass.com.sg

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For enquiries phone - +65 6837 0402 30 Victoria St, #01-26/27 Chijmes, Singapore 187996

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AWARNESS IS FINE BUT ADVOCACY TAKES YOUR BRAND TO THE NEXT LEVEL info@wgkonnect.com

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‫ﻣﻔﻬﻮم اﺑﻴﺎت ﻫﻮ اﻟﺠﻤﻊ ﺑني اﻟﻄﻌﺎم واﳌﻮﺳﻴﻘﻰ ﰲ أﺟﻮاء ﻣﺜﺎﻟﻴﺔ ﻣام ﻳﺠﻌﻠﻬﺎ ﺗﺠﺮﺑﺔ ﻣﺜﺎﻟﻴﺔ ﰲ‬ ‫ﻟﺬﻳﺬ اﳌﺬاق اﻷﻃﺒﺎق اﻟﻠﺒﻨﺎﻧﻴﺔ اﻷﺻﻴﻠﺔ وﻟﺬﻳﺬ‬.

The concept of Abyat is to combine food and music in the perfect ambiance making it the ultimate ex�erience in savouring authentic and flavorf�l Lebanese dishes.

‫ﺳﺎﻋﺎت اﻟﻌﻤﻞ‬

‫ﻣﻦ اﻷﺣﺪ إﱃ اﻟﺨﻤﻴﺲ‬

Sunday to Thursday 12pm to 1am

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OPENING HOURS

‫اﻟﺠﻤﻌﺔ واﻟﺴﺒﺖ‬

Friday - Saturday 12pm to 2am

Club Vista Mare, Palm Jumeirah, Shoreline Apartments 10 For Reservation Call : 04 5588 428 info@abyatdubai.com, www.abyatdubai.com - BASQUE Oct/Nov 2018 Abyat-DXB

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E X P E R I E N C E U N R I VA L L E D QUALITY Soaring above Amsterdam’s rooftops, step into a calm and composed realm of fine dining at Ciel Bleu Restaurant.

Situated on the 23rd floor of Hotel Okura Amsterdam, Ciel Bleu holds two Michelin stars for its international cuisine led by chefs Onno Kokmeijer and Arjan Speelman. Attentive, amiable staff are on hand to welcome and guide you through the seasonal menus showcasing the creations of Ciel Bleu’s world-class chefs, alongside exclusive vintages from the award-winning wine list.

For a rare glimpse into the workings of a two Michelin-starred team, reserve the Chef’s Table overlooking the heart of the kitchen. Visit www.okura.nl/cielbleu for more information and reservations.

Ferdinand Bolstraat 333 1072 LH Amsterdam The Netherlands www.okura.nl T +31 (0)20 6787 111

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Simply Italian brings to Dubai, the ultimate Italian experience, exploring the superior culinary skills with mouthwatering dishes. With a vibrant & colorful terrace, Simply Italian offers a charming atmosphere while dining by the beach.

Opening Hours

Sunday to Thursday : 12pm to 1am | Friday to Saturday : 12pm to 2am

Club Vista Mare, Palm Jumeirah, Shoreline Apartments 10 For Reservation Call : 04 55 88 354 info@simplyitaliandubai.com | www.simplyitaliandubai.com SimplyItalianDubai

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simplyitaliandxb

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Culinary Arts can give new life to children... we make it our mission to identify talented, underprivileged children with culinary ambitions and provide opportunities that otherwise would have been beyond their reach‌

Grant MacPherson

WO’GOA Foundation Ambassador An inspirer, innovator and perfectionist - Grant encompasses all the qualities that deserving children can glean from a role model!

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The Pearl - BASQUE Martin Benn - Sepia,Oct/Nov Sydney, 2018 Australia

partnered with SKD ACADEMY the culinary institute in the Philippines

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BRINGING AUTHENTIC GREEK FOOD TO THE TABLE

Opens daily from 12:30pm to 5:00pm & from 7:00pm to 11:30pm Located on the park level in cluster P, JLT connected to Armada BlueBay Hotel

Contact +971 (0) 4 399 8166 MythosDubai www. mythoskouzina.com BASQUE Oct/Nov 2018

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Real Madrid Café is a space where the passion for Real Madrid, football and socializing becomes one.

With two levels and two massive screens, Real Madrid Café, The Beach, JBR is the ultimate hangout for live matches while enjoying the beachfront location. Offering all-time comfort food favorites like burgers & wings, a wide selection of creative mocktails and shisha flavors, Real Madrid Café creates the perfect setting for Madridistas and sports enthusiasts a-like to gather and support their teams.

The extensive range of Real Madrid merchandise, including over 40 exclusively signed

pieces of memorabilia, ensures to give all shoppers and diners the ultimate football experience. Real Madrid Café also hosts a variety of events and is a popular place for birthday parties of all ages.

THE BEACH AT JBR, DUBAI U.A.E. TEL 04 277 5625 www.realmadridcafedubai.com realmadriddubai@ginzarestaurants.com

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20TH EDITION SAN SEBASTIÁN, FROM OCTOBER 8 TO 10, 2018 KURSAAL CONFERENCE CENTRE

1999-2018

E OUT TH CHECK ME AND M A R G O PR ERS ON SPEAK GRESS N THE CO SITE WEB

20 YEARS OF AVANT-GARDE GASTRONOMY T H E

S T A R T

20 YEARS AGO, IN SAN SEBASTIAN A CULINARY LEGEND WAS BORN, WHICH TRANSFORMED THE REALITY OF GASTRONOMY INTO A GLOBAL EXPERIENCE.

/SanSebastianGastronomika

O F

T H E

R E V O L U T I O N

IN AN UNPRECEDENTED EFFORT, WE WILL BRING TOGETHER THE STARS OF THAT UNIQUE REVOLUTION, WITH REPRESENTATION FROM EVERY AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY.

www.sansebastiangastronomika.com

A SHOW BEYOND IMAGINATION. A LOOK BACK AT THE LEGEND AND A JOURNEY INTO THE FUTURE. THE REVOLUTION THAT NEVER ENDS...

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DUTY DUTYFREE FREE PRODUCTS PRODUCTS & & BONDED BONDED STORES STORES

5, Vyzantiou, Spyrides 2064Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus 5, Vyzantiou, Spyrides Tower, Towers, 2064 Cyprus Tel:+357 +35722210828 222 108 28 I I +44 +44 745 745 228 Tel: 22868 680202 www.brandhouse.uk.com www.brandhouse.uk.com

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Editor Feature Editor Contributors

Fabian deCastro Maria Lourdes Elisabete Ferreira Michael Hepworth

Photography

Victoria Shashirin

FJMdesign WGkonnect Photography Consultant Creative Design Studio Publisher IZZY Publishing Pvt. Ltd. BASQUE by WG™is an online digital publication published by: Izzy Publishing Pvt. Ltd. Unit 14, Agnelo Colony, Kerant, Caranzalem, 403002 Goa, India Tel: +91(832) 2463234 Fax: +91(832) 2464201 info@bas-que.com Company Registration Number U22100GA2011PTC006731 Marketing & Advertising Call: +91 832 246 3234 E-mail: info@bas-que.com WG™ Beverly Hills Michael Hepworth 287 S.Robertson Blvd Beverly Hills, CA 90211

‘ Identifying underprivileged children with culinary ambitions...

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©IZZY Publishing Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. Editorial material and opinions expressed in BASQUE by WG™ digital publication do not necessarily reflect the views of IZZY Publishing Pvt. Ltd. BASQUE by WG™ and IZZY Publishing Pvt. Ltd. cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies or errors and do not accept responsibility for the advertising content.

All contents are strictly copyright and all rights are reserved.

Production in whole or part is prohibited without prior permission from IZZY Publishing Pvt. Ltd. ©2018 BASQUE by WG™ All rights reserved.

Cover Image Credit: ANDONI LUIS ADURIZ - MUGARITZ TRIPAS “COLORÁS” PHOTO © JOSÉ LUIS LÓPEZ DE ZUBIRÍA/MUGARITZ

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BASQUE by WG

WELCOME TO BASQUE by WG! It is my honour and pleasure to invite you to the first issue of BASQUE by WG, this digital magazine will promote this sophisticated culinary destination of the world - the Basque Country. The Basque region is a haven of creativity, beauty, magic and harmony where every dish contains the language through which they convey unique emotions that you won’t be able to forget. Cooking expresses what perhaps is unable to express with words. Every pintxo and every dish contains the language through which they want to convey unique emotions that you won’t be able to forget.

Undoubtedly one of the most influential chefs of our time. Throughout his career, Andoni Luis Aduriz has remained highly committed to culinary evolution and eating at Mugaritz is a trip through the senses. A dish from each year as we celebrate a nine course menu by Andoni Luis Aduriz.

A historic year for Bilbao as it was chosen as 2018 Best European City by The Academy of Urbanism in London and San Sebastián was chosen as the World’s Best Culinary Destination for 2017.

Unai Campo’s fusion cuisine and Basque cooking with his creativity and fresh new ideas at Porrue in Bilbao.

A very special thank you to Jaun Mari Aburto, Mayor of Bilbao for his Welcome Message and the First Words by the great master of New Basque Cuisine Jaun Mari Arzak and Elena Arzak, the master of gastronomy Heinz Beck and Michelin Star Chef Josean Alija.

Richness in variety, throughout his storied career, Pedro Subijana has been instrumental in creating one of the most important gastronomic movements of our time - New Basque Cuisine along with Jaun Mari Arzak.

Influenced by the New Basque Cuisine movement, Edorta Lamo has a modern take on traditional Basque pintxo where he interprets classics and adds a modern kick at A Fuego Negro.

Josean Alija’s cuisine is unique where aromas, textures and flavors are the main components. His secret is the creative process, which is the tool he uses to develop his cuisine.

After travelling the world, David Ragnacci brings his international influences to the city of San Sebastián at La Madame.

A legacy of four generations with José Luis Vicente Gómez at Cachetero, 20 years sweating on those stoves and providing his personal touch, perhaps sometimes a little crazy, but personal, sincere, passionate and respectful.

Álvaro Garrido goes beyond the boundaries of what is established and he takes the local product a step further; reinterpreting it, and letting the diner rediscover it.

Jon Warren took a holiday to San Sebastián and shorty after dropped everything to live in this beautiful Basque Country. Quality and the best gourmet products from all over Spain can be found at MIMO - the luxurious gourmet shop in Hotel Maria Cristina and we catch up with MIMO’s head chef Patricio Fuentes.

For Guillermo Cruz it is always about balancing the solid and the liquid part, to let them have a conversation between equals. A unique pairing with Sake and the first sake harmony was crab threads with a macadamia nuts cream, a dish with artisan textures that was perfect to pair with a Junmai Daiginjo.

BASQUE by WG would like to thank Alba Sistiaga of San Sebastián Turismo, Apeksha Dhingra of Tourism Office of Spain and Amaia Zubeldia Arratibel of Sagardoa Route.

On egin!

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Tripas “Colorás”

Mugaritz has always tried to bring a focus on the ingredients that are considered to be secondary elements. In this dish we wanted to find the taste of the memory, find that memory of the forgotten sausage peels in the dish. The last taste of this dish, the texture of the memory under the experience of Mugaritz.

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ANDONI LUIS ADURIZ

CONTENTS

BASQUE by WG

ANDONI LUIS ADURIZ - MUGARITZ TRIPAS “COLORÁS” PHOTO © JOSÉ LUIS LÓPEZ DE ZUBIRÍA/MUGARITZ

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CULINARY HEAVEN

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TRADITIONAL BASQUE PINTXO

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CORE, HEART, ESSENCE

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MUGARITZ NINE COURSE

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LEGACY OF FOUR GENERATIONS

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FUSION CUISINE

130

TRADITIONAL BASQUE RECIPES

RICHNESS IN VARIRTY

136 MIMO 148

LA MADAME

156

THE WORLD OF WINES

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KING SANCHO THE WISE OF NAVARRE’S DESIRE to have a route out to sea from his kingdom led to him granting San Sebastián a charter in 1180, and this event can be considered the moment when the town was officially founded. This then saw maritime trade being combined with traditional whaling and cod fishing.

Its proximity to France and its position on the Road to Santiago not only drove the development of this small coastal town, they also made it a strategic location during times of war. It therefore became a fortified town in the 12th century.

Over the centuries it was subjected to numerous sieges, but the people of San Sebastián managed to defend it from their enemies until 1719, when the town surrendered for the first time and fell into the hands of France for two years. In 1794 the town succumbed again when besieged by the French, this time until 1813, when San Sebastián was liberated by AngloPortuguese soldiers, who burnt down and looted the town.

Only a few houses were left standing, forcing people of San Sebastián to rebuild it, almost from scratch, creating the Old Town that we know today.

Happier times were to follow when Queen Isabell II, whose doctors had recommended that she bathed in the sea to alleviate her skin problems, made summering in

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San Sebastián fashionable. This was in 1845 and, from then on, her presence attracted the court and numerous aristocrats during the summer months.

The town was becoming famous and needed to grow and expand. The walls were demolished in 1864, and the urban development that took place gave rise to the Cortázar expansion district, which is the current city centre.

At the start of the 20th century, San Sebastián experienced its “Belle Époque”, becoming the preferred tourist destination of the European upper classes.

Queen María Cristina made the Miramar Palace the summer residence of her court, and the luxury hotels, casinos and theatres flourished.

During the 1st World War, moneyed Europeans took refuge from the conflict here. Much of the French influence that is visible on the streets of the city is due to these visitors. The heavy industrialization in the years following the Civil War in 1936 resulted in a dark period during which certain poorly-judged urban development took place.

But in the second half of the 20th century, San Sebastián consolidated its economic, cultural and tourist potential, pushing forward new projects while at the same time preserving its natural and historical heritage, becoming, in the process, the stylish combination of tradition and modernity that we know today.

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TEXT / PHOTO © DONOSTIA-SAN SEBASTIAN TURISMO

The sea brought the first fishermen to San Sebastián, who were seeking refuge on Mount Urgull. It later attracted the interest of King Sancho of Navarre, who was its founder, and of all of the armies who have passed through here in the history of war. The sea also brought with it a queen with skin problems and the subsequent fashion of summering. And the sea also brought our current cultural, economic and tourist potential.

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The tide comes in, the tide goes out and then it comes back in again. Sometimes the sea is beautifully calm and sometimes the wave’s crash against the bridges and promenades with amazing force. Donostia/ San Sebastián is a city that is perched above the sea. It is a daily dance between its 186,000 inhabitants and the ever-changing Cantabrian waters. Donostia/ San Sebastián’s world-famous cuisine is continuously updated and comes and goes on the finest dining tables and the popular pintxo (tapa) bars. It is a movie at the Zinemaldia, the “International Film Festival”, it is a song at one of the famous music festivals that come here every year to change our view of the world. And it is any of the cultural events held in the city every year for all audiences. Every wave that reaches here is a part of Donostia/ San Sebastián.

With every wave, the city’s ideas and ways change. And they are also changed by every visitor, with every look, with every experience in the city. So that’s why Donostia/ San Sebastián is so happy that you’re here and you are welcomed. Ongi etorri

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In San Sebastián, cooking expresses what perhaps is unable to express with words.

Every pintxo (tapa) and every dish contains the language through which they want to convey unique emotions that you won’t be able to forget.

There’s a reason why it’s been chosen as the world’s Best Culinary Destination for 2017.

ADAM AND EVE WERE EXPELLED FROM PARADISE FOR EATING SOMETHING TASTY. Here the opposite happens.

Here you go to eat some pintxos in a little bar in Gros or the Old Town, or you sit at a table to dine in one of the centre’s popular restaurants, and you’re taken straight to a paradise of great food. And if you visit one of the outstanding restaurants that have been awarded a Michelin star, your entry into San Sebastián’s culinary heaven is guaranteed.

The importance given to food in this city, in all of its forms, has made it a universal icon of gastronomy, and rightly so.

You only have to wander around San Sebastián’s Old Town to be struck by the omnipresence of the catering establishments in the city. There is such a varied, extensive and high-quality selection that you could visit the city dozens of times without going to the same restaurant and still leave with the same unbeatable impression.

San Sebastián is the home of gastronomic societies, cider houses, pintxo bars, seafood restaurants and signature restaurants. If only for the incredible variety of the pintxos and the exuberance of the miniature cuisine offered in its bars, San Sebastián is in a league of its own. And, if that’s not enough, it also contains one of the highest concentrations of Michelin stars in the world. Indeed, this city is the ultimate expression of dining pleasure. It is a haven of creativity, beauty, magic and harmony. Of all of those exciting emotions conveyed by good cooking.

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STARS EVERYWHERE 17 MICHELIN STARS TAKE A COMPASS AND PLACE IT OVER A MAP OF SAN SEBASTIÁN. Stick the tip of the compass in the City Hall and draw a radius of 25 kilometers. Do you know how many Michelin stars are there inside that little circle you’ve drawn, which you could cover in about ten minutes in a car? There are 17. Also, of the eleven restaurants with three Michelin stars that there are in the country, three of them are in San Sebastián. Arzak, Akelarre and Martín Berasategui.

And as many as four other restaurants also have this distinction: Mugaritz, with two, and Kokotxa, Mirador de Ulia, Zuberoa and Amelia, with one. The Alameda restaurant is in Hondarribia and Elkano is in Getaria, both of which have a Michelin star a little bit further out. This is a remarkable achievement.

Indeed, apart from Kyoto in Japan, there’s nowhere else in the world with a higher concentration per square meter. In San Sebastián they have turned cooking into a laboratory of ideas and creative workshop that is famous the world over. They have turned gastronomy into form of art, of engineering, a symbol of our identity. But enough talking. Let’s eat.

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GASTRONOMIC PERFUMES IF THE À LA CARTE AND SET MENUS ARE THE COLOGNE OF SAN SEBASTIÁN’S RESTAURANTS, pintxos are the perfume. The essence. The heart of our cooking. Originally the pintxo (tapa) was a slice of bread onto which a portion of food was placed, held together by a cocktail stick. Nowadays, there are simple but exceptional pintxos, like the traditional potato omelette, or the amazing Gilda, a local creation that is a spicy appetizer with chili pepper, anchovy and olive, created in honor of Rita Hayworth. And, naturally, there are more sophisticated pintxos, examples of “miniature” haute cuisine, flavors created and concentrated into small, tasty morsels. Going out for pintxos is a social event, and a way of getting to know our culture, a spectacle that combines laughter, conversation, movement and fun.

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GOING OUT FOR PINTXOS... You can enjoy this food in bars in the Old Town, the Centre, Gros and other areas of San Sebastián. We recommend visiting 4 or 5 bars and trying 1 or 2 pintxos and a drink in each establishment. A tip: don’t forget how many pintxos you’ve eaten. You’ll be asked at the end.

THE PINTXO POTE The “pintxopote” (meaning tapa & drink) is a fun initiative devised by restaurateurs to encourage people to keep the spirit of the poteo (bar-hopping) alive. For the price of a drink, you get the full package: the pintxo (tapa) and the drink, which is normally a glass of wine or a beer. Each neighborhood has its “pintxopote” day (when bars offer drinks and tapas at very cheap prices). Depending on the area, it can be between Wednesday and Friday and at specific times (from 19:00 to 22:00 is most common). The centre of Gros district, the Egia, Amara and Antiguo districts and the Gastropote at San Martín Market are places with a particularly lively atmosphere.

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APPLE CORE The cider ritual. They have been making cider here for centuries and it is obtained from the fermented apple juice, using traditional methods. From the middle of January to the end of April, the txotx ritual brings Basques to the cider houses, where they can taste the season’s cider before it is bottled, along with traditional menus based on cod and T-bone steak. The cider houses are open throughout the year and they are restaurants that are normally located in the same farm buildings where the cider is produced, surrounded by apple orchards. In some places they still uphold the tradition of standing as you eat and wrapping up warm to protect yourself from the cold of the cellar. But there are also modern cider houses with heating, where people sit at long wooden tables which they share with the other regulars. There’s a very special atmosphere.

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THE TXOTX RITUAL The owner of the cider house shouts ‘txotx!’ inviting everyone to try the cider from a new barrel.

The diners rise from the table and approach him with their empty glass.

In the order in which they arrive, each person tilts their glass until the cider, which comes out of a tiny hole in the barrel, ‘breaks’ in the glass and its aromas are released.

You stand next to the barrel as you savor the different subtle flavors of the cider and share your thoughts with everyone else. You then return to the table with the empty glass.

This is repeated again and again until all barrels have been tried.

In Hernani and Astigarraga, less than ten kilometers from San Sebastián, there are over 100 cider houses. And in Astigarraga, is the highly recommended Cider Museum or Sagardoetxea.

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PEDRO SUBIJANA

PEDRO SUBIJANA

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PEDRO SUBIJANA

FLOR DE GUISANTITOS

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PATO AZULÓN ASADO CON PIEDRAS DE COLORES

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orn in San SebastiĂĄn in a family where, although not being in the industry, had big cult to the ritual of gastronomy and all what surrounded it.

Preparation, buying the produce, welcoming the guests, sharing the table and after table ritual talking. Every time there was a celebration at his home, his father was the one in charge of it. And his grandfather, was the real gourmet who knew all the restaurants in a 200 mile radius besides many more in the cities which were a bit further. Since he was a child, he came to know all these restaurants but never imagined to consider it as an option as a professional career. It was just when he had already decided that he was going to go University to study Medicine, when my group of close friends, who had eaten what he cooked several times, suggested to that he join the Culinary Arts School.

B

Studying in Madrid and under Luis Irizar at Zarauz, before setting up his own restaurant in 1975. The young Pedro Subijana began his career in Vitoria, Tolosa, Hernani, Madrid, and Estella, and then moved to Akelare to work as head chef.

Throughout his storied career of more than 40 years at the restaurant, Subijana was instrumental in creating one of the most important gastronomic movements of our time New Basque Cuisine. The influence and dynamism of the movement owes much to the approach (fiercely local yet innovative) and ethos (collaborative and open) that Subijana and his contemporaries purposefully conceived in the late 1970’s.

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PEDRO SUBIJANA

A strongly believer in academic training, Pedro taught in the European and American institutions as well as the Spanish Hotel Management Schools. This love of teaching allowed him to disseminate his “secrets� through television programs and dozens of books. A founder member of Euro-Toques in 1986, and was appointed president in 2003. Pedro continues to work extremely hard so that he can bring to fruition all the projects he feels bubbling up inside. Time will channel them, and others will follow in their wake.

The three Michelin starred restaurant Akelare rests on the beautiful slopes of Monte Igueldo.

Subijana, much awarded elder statesman of New Basque Cuisine is a great contributor to the world of gastronomy, and Pedro continues to cook at Akelare for delighted and adventurous diners with his triumvirate of experience, boldness, and passion.

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His culinary philosophy…

“It’s very hard to define. I’ve lived close to the pleasure of eating well, but I’ve always been a nonconformist. Since I started at the Culinary Arts School, I took the less comfortable path and chose to rethink everything for me.

That’s why I founded, together with Jaun Mari Arzak, that “revolution” of the New Basque Cuisine” says Pedro Subijana.

SCALLOP, GRANO SARACCENO AND ROSA CANNINA GAMBAS CON VAINAS

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PEDRO SUBIJANA

XAXU

He guides himself, first of all by the seasonality of the produce...

Ingredients that inspire Pedro Subijana, his favorite ingredients and ingredients that he was not able to master or gave up…

His inspiration comes from working, normally in different ways at the same time. Tests and more tests are made and eventually one of them works out. But it’s necessary to be very self-critic.

He guides himself, first of all by the seasonality of the produce.

But he also visits the markets, in different countries and by enjoying cooking is a particular way of living, with intensity, curiosity, humbleness and hard work.

He doesn’t define a favourite ingredient “Although to be honest, I really like seafood and vegetables, although I don’t dislike meat at all. Richness is in the variety.”

When asked about ingredients that he was not able to master “As far as I can remember, I have never had this problem.

It can happen sometimes that while looking for a formula for a recipe it may not finally work and I leave the idea for that occasion, but we achieve that specific idea for another occasion, and sometimes we work on it back after a while.”

Pedro Subijana dedicates an important part of his time researching about techniques, new products and technologies and that is the most fun part of his work. When time passes and if he is not doing anything new, then it causes him uncomfortable stress. He always says that when he has achieved something interesting, it will only be until he has found a better way to do it and he is always ready to change.

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PATATA CON HUEVO FRITO Y JAMON

ALMOHADILLA DE CAMARON

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PEDRO SUBIJANA

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RABO DE BUEY CON CHUFAS

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“His motivation of feeling that the more knowledge he has, the more he feels the necessity of learning more”

Creativity without pleasure does not work for Pedro Subijana.

There must be a balance and proportion between the whole of it. Guess that a good cook always works with the best product. Technique and innovation are very interesting and even exciting, but for him if he does not feel emotions, there is no success. “I mean that one must not be complacent with oneself and humble not to get off the ground. Doing important things is not a question of simple improvement, although sometimes it is rather about a lot of accuracy and analysis. It is important to mix experience with boldness and risk. That’s why I like to have my team, I like to mix people of all ages in my team. The very young ones – it is important to let them take risks, but filtering with the strain of knowledge and experience.”

His motivation of feeling that the more knowledge he has, the more he feels the necessity of learning more. It excites him so much, facing new challenges and projects and having the determination of fighting to achieve them. Stars are not the goal, just the consequence. The gift.

Pedro Subijana’s advice to chefs entering the kitchen for the first time… “Glamorous nowadays. When I started it did not have such a good reputation. We have managed to dignify the profession and be acknowledged as an engine for several others. We’ve been able to work together collaborating with one another. Supporting each other with open our arms to any colleague who would need us. To display values that have either been lost or are at the risk of doing so and no matter how much the technology and robotics advance, it changes the world. Nothing can replace the warmth, the palate and sensitivity of a good chef. I think we have changed the landscape but it is not a fashion. You just have to be a little humble so as to keep your feet on the ground, and stay honest and consistent.”

CAJA DE BACALAO DESALAO

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EDORTA LAMO

W EDORTA LAMO

TRADITIONAL BASQUE PINTXO

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ith his grandparents opening the first bar in the village of Santa Cruz de Campezo-Alava, Edorta grew up in that environment, around the old kitchen, in the cellar placing the empty bottles, doing the basic works of the bar. Hospitality industry has always been quite present in his life but when he was little, he dreamed of drawing comic characters or being an actor. As he grew up he continued with the idea of tilting his studies for the fine arts, the theater, but he was required to finish his studies which he was bored with and felt the need to activate himself and do something more practical as he thought then. With what he was studying he could have access to some professional trainings among which was the cooking studios and he felt curious about it. The first thing he realized is that with the cooking studios he could travel and be able to work in different parts of the world and that idea motivated him a lot. So he started travelling and working as a cook but it is not until years later when he discovered the magic of the kitchen and the possibilities that it gave him, especially in the most creative aspect, that’s when he realized he wanted to be a cook all his life.

Influenced by the New Basque Cuisine movement, Edorta has a modern take of the traditional Basque pintxo where he interprets classics and adds a modern kick A Fuego Negro.

In his early years as a cook, Edorta’s most rebellious and provocative attitude, was the modern aspect that motivated him, in fact one of the things that motivated him the most was to reinvent the most classic aspect of the kitchen without having too much respect for It. It is with the passage of the years when he got hooked to the most positive side of classic cuisines and started to research and learn from the most primitive and roots aspect of it. Today you can say that he is a lover of both extremes.

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EDORTA LAMO

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AMAIA AND EDORTA

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“Fresh and different cuisines coupled with his passion for urban design, comics or black music, has differentiated him and defined our style of cooking”

In 2006, Edorta and his sister Amaia took over an old school tasca and converted it into a brilliant place - A Fuego Negro. They needed to create something new in front of the established traditional cuisine and the scene of pintxos bars in Donostia which had several conditions to fulfil. On the one hand all the existing pintxo bars of pintxos offered a traditional gastronomy of pintxos with strong parameters all the pintxos had to go over a slice of bread, also the bars were, and are, mostly very traditional spaces where aspects such as design, light or music which was non-existent or were careless and they paid no attention to it. On the other hand for Edorta and Amaia’s there was an existential crisis of the author’s cuisine as it was only offered in haute cuisine restaurants and offering them in a pintxos bar gave them the opportunity to offer it on the street. These ingredients linked to a different personality and management, as until then they believed that they have been the ones who defined themselves in a different space and this together with a different personality and management, is what they think has defined them as a different place. Fresh and different cuisines coupled with his passion for urban design, comics or black music, has differentiated him and defined our style of cooking. His travels and passage through different kitchens and the laboratory of Arzak has helped him to support his kitchen technically.

BLACK RABAS

BASQUE by WG catches up with Edorta Lamo…

Your culinary philosophy…

Our philosophy to cooking has always been to be original and consistent with trying to get a personal and different style of cooking. In the case of A Fuego Negro is to get a cooking style according to the philosophy and personality of it, therefore things like provocation, childhood memories, music, drawings (comics, graffiti) linked to the passion of learning new techniques or absolute to the product (which has given us traditional Basque cuisine) makes up a series of good sources of inspiration. The fact also of cooking pintxos with the parameters that this entails (elaborations of 2-3 snacks, pintxos that can be eaten with the hand or standing, etc...) helps us to define more our cuisine.

TXERRI-TALO

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EDORTA LAMO

Basque and Donostian cuisine, its characteristics and why is it so highly revered in your opinion?

It’s an ancestral cultural issue. In Euskal Herria we come from a culture of matriarchy in which the Amatxo (usually the cook) and the space of the kitchen have always been respected and considered as a pillar of each house.

This has led to respect it generationally and the majority of the daily events being carried out around a table. Talking about food, products or cooking is a very common and very recurrent topic most of the day and days. It is something cultural with very deep roots, it has marked our way of being together with the cult of earth (also very much of our culture) and the products that our rich nature offers us which we have achieved, this search for pleasure and excellence at mealtime.

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NAVAJAS

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What makes pintox bars so popular?

I think that in few parts of the world there are informal gastronomic spaces where you can taste an offer of delicacies of few bites and drink good wines by glasses in a more relaxed way, standing, chatting with some friends or having a good time with the the waiter. The common parameters established in restaurants in most parts of the world require you to consume a whole menu or larger dishes, to sit and keep a certain composure. The pintxos bars allow a different gastronomic experience also unique in the world.

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EDORTA LAMO

BAÑO DE CONSOMÉ, GARBANZOS & XEREZ

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LITTLE BIRD, CHIVE & CARROT

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NORDIC GRAINS PHOTO © NORDIC FOOD LAB, COPENAGHEN

How do you select your ingredients, ingredients that inspire you, your favorite ingredients and those you weren’t able to master and have given up on?

Right now I’m at a special moment, I’m about to open a somewhat ambitious business called “ARREA!” in my hometown, Santa Cruz de Campezo-Álava. Here the stage, the history, personality and philosophy completely changes from that of A Fuego Negro. It is an area of Euskal Herria less known, more punished and wilder than Donostia. A mountainous area in which poaching has been a key piece for the native population to have been able to get ahead in past times, therefore my mind now instead of an urban scenario with markets is in the hard mountain and in those products that it offers. The hunt, the herbs and the river are now sources of fetish products for me and right now I could say pigeon, wild boar, herbs are fetish products for me.

If we talk about ingredients to consume, it is very clear, ingredients unknown or I have never had the opportunity to consume.

This is what excites me the most!

I have never abandoned a product because I have not been able to dominate it, but we have ruled out many because they are saturated in the offer of most restaurants, are overrated or because they do not adapt to the price parameter that must meet our gastronomic offer in A Fuego Negro, for example the foie or caviar.

There are some overrated ingredients but above all there are many undervalued that I think is where our challenge as cooks is, putting in value products that we do not value for the simple fact that they are not ‘cool’ or are not fashionable as discard fish, game and many vegetables.

HOME MADE PICKLES

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EDORTA LAMO

“To make a good recipe sometimes you do not need two hands or one, with a simple good idea you can have the best recipe”

SHAKING SALAD

Special cooking techniques or equipment you particular enjoy using…

The grill, the fermentations is what I enjoy most right now.

Although there are many others like the siphon cooking at low temperature or the marinades.

Produce, Creativity or Technique…

MARIANITO FRESH

Making it clear that without product there is no cuisine I think the most important thing is creativity without a doubt.

Technique has defined creativity, and as one of my greatest teachers says (Xabier Gutierrez-Laboratorio Arzak) “To make a good recipe sometimes you do not need two hands or one, with a simple good idea you can have the best recipe!”.

Your greatest influence in the kitchen…

I think for something to be good influence and not become the opposite must be something external purely to a cook or a culinary trend. I think that traveling, films, painting, comics or nature can be the best influence to improve your cuisine.

Several awards and accolades, president of Sukatalde for your cooks, what keeps you motivated?

I am at a crucial point in my career with the project “ARREA!” a project which I have been at for many years and is about to see the light. “ARREA!” is going to reset my professional career, redefine my style of cooking, defend my roots and a culture punished in old times. And one of the most important things will be to move with my family (my son Lehoi & daughter Matixa) to my village with just 1000 inhabitants and live with them on top of my restaurant. I am very excited and these factors have me more than motivated for a long time.

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STRAWBERRY & TXOKOLATE ZOMBIE!

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TXANGURRO DONOSTIARRA ICE CREAM

CHILD CRYING

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EDORTA LAMO

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HAM AND ALMOND COFFEE WITH SWEETBREAD COOKIES

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Your earliest food memories, flavors from your childhood that you can’t live without…

During my childhood, I had to help both in the bar of my grandparents and in the farm of the family, and one of the most typical crops in the area was the potato. Vulgar and common product with which I have a special affection and admiration for. No matter how simple it is, a special affection of taste and emotional memory the dish of ‘potatoes with chorizo’ that is stewed with dried chorizo peppers.

And of course the ‘Gilda’, first pintxo that was invented and composed of olives, piparra (pickled Basque pepper) and anchovy, for me it is a religion more than a souvenir.

In the past years how has cuisine changed in the Basque region and around the world?

Basque cuisine has a solidity in its history that has always adapted very well to the new times. I think the traditional centennial cuisine, the new Basque cuisine started in the 70 and the avant-garde Basque cuisine that can be practiced today by Andoni Luis Aduriz at Mugaritz for example coexist perfectly.

True, there is a global social change and that affects the kitchen, now people tend to live faster and eat faster and that has pushed the effect of fast food in the world. In Euskal Herria we had a high quality fast food before the term was invented and are the pintxos bars for example! Hahahaha!

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JOSEAN ALIJA

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JOSEAN ALIJA CORE, HEART, ESSENCE

PHOTO © ANDONI EPELDE

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JOSEAN ALIJA

F

rom a young age Josean Alija knew that he wanted to be a chef. The opportunities he had during his infancy to visit a few restaurants and the culture that he was shown at home - at the table and during meals, this set the course for his future. As a chef he saw a professional with power, who seduces the palate and the heart, and what is most evident, makes people happy.

At the age of 14, he started studying at the Leioa School of Hotel and Restaurant Management and was one of the youngest pupils of that year. Three years later he started his professional culinary career.

Josean learned Basque cuisine at traditional restaurants and worked in several avant-garde kitchens, with the aim of forming some criteria that could help him create a personal style, a long path. His cuisine represents all those things that excites him and he shows it through the products from his environment and through the flavors of memory. He shares his experience by developing a personal language to create pleasure and happiness.

Paths are full of coincidences and one of them was he crossed paths with Bixente Arrieta. Bixente gave him the opportunity to take on a beautiful project, and over the years, he has given Josean the confidence to develop it.

Without Bixente’s support the personal and professional development that Josean has through would not have been possible. It is essential to have a voice that helps you to think, to keep your feet on the ground.

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CANDIED SQUID AND PEA JUICE

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JOSEAN ALIJA

SAUTÉED LEEKS, GRAPES, FISH STOCK AND PARSLEY

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SHALLOTS IN BLACK SAUCE

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He started working in the kitchens of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in the late 1998, but in 2000, when his cuisine started to take shape, a motorcycle accident left Josean in a coma for 21 days, on the brink of death. He woke up but without the sense of taste nor smell, which is the essential tools of any chef, he had to learn how to taste things again, to recognize flavors and aromas.

While still recovering from the consequences of the accident, he decided to take part in the Best Young Chef competition, a motivation to restore his passion. His success took him back to his profession, he felt he was a chef again, a feeling that he had lost along with his sense of taste and smell.

In the year 2003, he found the key: research. It was essential to analyze the products in depth, to learn about their origins, their uses, their properties and their potential. The creative process, the fundamental part of his cuisine, was born analyzing, reflecting, and adopting different approaches. With a strong commitment, Josean has been gradually perfecting, season by season, his style of cuisine: pure, essential, without disguises.

COD KOKOTXA WITH PILPIL SAUCE

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JOSEAN ALIJA

In 2011, he was able to fulfil his dream of having his own space. Juan Ignacio Vidarte, the director of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, offering a taste of Bilbao’s gastronomic culture, made the opening of Nerua a reality.

STEWED SPINACH, ALMOND MILK AND OLIVE OIL

Nerua takes its name from the Nervión River, the backbone of Bilbao, which in ancient Latin was called Nerva. Josean combines innovation with his roots, his surroundings. It is a space designed for a gastronomic and cultural experience, a space designed for a complete and memorable experience.

While nature sets the pace of Nerua’s kitchen, adapting to each season, a local cuisine that begins at the vegetable gardens, in the sea, and in the farms. With the best techniques and cooking with freedom to create pleasure and enjoyment without losing the flavor of his roots. This experience invites one to reflect on and question every single thing.

His cuisine is unique where aromas, textures and flavours are the main components inspired by a combination of ingredients. His secret is the creative process, which is the tool he uses to develop his cuisine and the experience for Nerua’s customers. Analysis, reflection and rethinking about all the aspects that affect his activity. Innovation is making the things as he understands them more efficiently, ecologically, simple and satisfactory. It involves continuous questioning.

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BABY SQUID, GALICIAN CLAM AND ARTICHOKE BROTH

FRIED HAKE WITH STEWED CHRYSANTHEMUM LEAVES

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JOSEAN ALIJA

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FRIED HAKE WITH “TXORICERO” PEPPER STRANDS

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Core, Heart, Essence

Back in 1978, Josean learnt with some of the great chefs - Ferran Adrià and with Martin Berasategui at Lasarte, they helped him to find a way, nourished him with values, they made him reflect and he came to the conclusion that to triumph it is necessary to make the cuisine that you feel, that makes you happy, developing a personal style and workring hard gives the best of you every day.

Core, heart, essence is Josean Alija’s culinary philosophy.

Muina has no literal translation in English. But is the term that best identifies Alija’s way of seeing things, among them gastronomy. It is the world that best defines him. It refers to the soul, the substance, but also the brain and knowledge.

Muina is a general concept that encapsulates what he is and what he has offer. It enables the creative process to be viewed as a journey to the source of the things, to their roots, allowing their true potential to be developed fully through the description of rounded, complete and pleasurable sensations.

This is what Muina holds: a very personal representation of the world and the reality that surrounds him. Acceptance, specification and loyalty to a series of values leads him to follow the same path constantly, never straying from it. It is the determination to share knowledge, research, projects, life experiences and emotions.

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Muina is the way in which he understands the complete gastronomic experience, the unique result of focusing attention on the purity of things.

Every season, he leaves his kitchens to get to know about the products in depth. He does it in the company of his producers, who feel Nerua as theirs, they know that without them, he could not do what he does.

He studies every product deeply, from every possible point of view: anthropological, historical, scientific, and sensorial.

Once he knows all the secrets of each product, he experiments with them to merge all those ideas into flavours, textures and memories. He tastes it raw, analyses its flavours and aromas, and tries grilling, cooking, scalding, sautĂŠing it to observe how their organoleptic characteristics changes.

Knowing its history and its flavour, he begins to define the concept of the dish that he wants to reach and tries to reach it through different combinations. He works to achieve a perfect balance between technique, idea, taste and presentation, in order to find a perfect harmony, which reflects the identity of the product and its essence.

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“Knowing its history and its flavour, he begins to define the concept of the dish that he wants to reach and tries to reach it through different combinations”

FRIED ANCHOVIES, OATS CREAM AND SAGE

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JOSEAN ALIJA

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TOMATO LASAGNA, CREAM AND CHILE MIXE

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In the kitchen, what you are looking for is that the flavours are recognized and they are very well represented, instead in the world of the drink looks for delicacy, suggestion, nuances... above all subtlety, using the same techniques.

His research of fermented beverages and creating dishes in glasses… “Our maître, Stefania Giordano, realized that more and more people accompanied the tasting menu with water (because they had to drive, work, for health reasons) and that is a bit disheartening. And there we wondered what alternative do we offer: water, soft drinks, tea. Why do not we apply what we know about alcohol marriages to build a marriage with soft drinks? The diner has to go out from Nerua with the feeling of have known something new. We must enhance the experience. When we started to raise it, we decided that it had to be something which could cannot be a sauce, a juice, it has to have a different line to separate it from what you have on the plate, but that the combination of both tells you something. The important thing is that it has to tell you things. We started in October 2012. We were even embarrassed to present it at the beginning, the first steps are always complicated, but today they are part of our cover letter. In pairings we play with subtlety... It is a different way of extracting the soul from the products that you do in the kitchen.

In the kitchen, what you are looking for is that the flavours are recognized and they are very well represented, instead in the world of the drink looks for delicacy, suggestion, nuances... above all subtlety, using the same techniques. They are not juices, they are essences, since our objective is to extract the soul of each ingredient.”

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JOSEAN ALIJA

‘LÁGRIMA’ PEAS WITH SQUID JUICE

He is mad about vegetables, whether domestic or wild, and seafood. As he works on the menu, he explores the environment, selecting the most special and magical products to be able to cook. It is about discovering, recovering products and playing with the excellence of temporality and local products. He feel lucky about not giving up on ingredients because he has enough of patience to get things done and he does not stop investigating until he gets the expected result.

Cooking techniques is all about “Intelligence”, it’s about knowing in depth the product in question, knowing what makes it so special or exciting for him, make a speech and apply the technique that helps him to achieve excellence.

Work with the highest number of ingredients and the most pure technique. The less a product is manipulated more special will be the result and less is more.

Being a chef implies a great commitment to the craft, to the team, to the customer, and gives you the opportunity to see happy the people that come to your restaurants and that is magic and wonderful, Josean’s advice to chefs entering the kitchen for the first time.

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NERUA PHOTO © ANDONI EPELDE

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MUGARITZ

ANDONI LUIS ADURIZ

A

ndoni Luis Aduriz is undoubtedly one of the most influential chefs of our time. Throughout his career, he has remained highly committed to culinary evolution, making him somewhat of a rebel in the kitchen.

Aduriz intends a meal at Mugaritz to shock and surprise as well as delight with ‘trompes l’oeils’– culinary tricks of the eye. Mugaritz delivers a gastronomic experience, pleasure is experienced in an unpredictable melody where sensory harmonies, emotions, and culinary messages lyrically intertwine.

At Mugaritz, eating is a path to experience, a path scattered with histories, aromas, textures, flavours, games, memories, desires and numerous other pleasurable stimuli.

That is why he creates and suggest forms of service that prompt situations in which his diners can give free rein to their senses and interact with only the barest of rules for engaging on a culinary voyage. An aim to break the barriers imposed by customs.

Mugaritz is named after a border oak tree that grows in the hills around San Sebastian and takes attention to detail to new heights. From the specially created barbecue smell that emanates from the restaurant is designed to remind approaching diners of their childhood, to the way the table is set (or not) – is done for a very specific reason – to transcend the dining experience to new and unexpected heights.

Eating at Mugaritz is a trip through the senses and the experience of many years. A dish from each year and BASQUE

by WG celebrates a nine course menu by Andoni Luis Aduriz.

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2010. Pine nuts, codfish and mastic If the guest is to lend Mugaritz what is most precious to them, time, our goal is to provide them the opportunity to discover new scenarios. In this dish we use mastic, an ancient Greek resin that is very flavourful and has chewy texture. Mastik is also a millenarian ingredient that greeks used to chew as a bubble gum.

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2011. Nacarated Hazelnut stew

Our R&D department is very focused on investigation, doing research about techniques, ingredients, traditions, science etc. In one of our researches, we realized that nuts were boiled and eaten few centuries ago. We tried to readapt that history. We believe that the sixth flavour is the taste of the stories, we want to tell to our guests the narrative that lies behind the dishes, so then through their imagination and their senses, they are able to finish or rewrite the narrative from their own experience.

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2012. Macaron

In Mugaritz we like to play with tricks, to invite our guests to be part of a game, it’s a sort of a dare: Are you willing to come with us? What in at first glance seems to be a sophisticated bite, at the end it can somehow be an ancestral elaboration. In this case we made a version of the traditional French sweet, with pig’s blood and stuffed with different ingredients depending on the season, from foie grass to pecorino cheese. This dish is a sensory game for the diner.

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2013. Herbs and flowers paper

The garden is not an option for Mugaritz, but the only path through which the project could have come to develop its identity: use curiosity as a tool, and ask to satisfy that hunger, in this case, with the help of the botanic world, which opened to us the science world for the first time. One of our work lines is to try to save flowers and herbs in different matrices in order to preserve the freshness of the natural world. This is just an example of that path.

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2014. Decadentia

The dish of decadence is a tribute to human destiny. Any culture that lived a high point, has subsequently suffered an episode of decadence. In Venetian palaces bored with gold and precious metals, they elaborated their cutlery with sugar, an element even more scarce than gold. Often after first use, they threw this cutlery to the channel. Today, in gastronomy, flowers have lived a similar process. At first, they had been used with a gently and sensory sense and now they are sold in large quantities to be used as mere ornament.

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2015. Mallow and sake

Time is also part of the ephemeral. This dish is about the present, the beauty and the ephemeral. We believe that we can start building extraordinary things from the beauty.

This dish is created with mallows from our forests with only few sprinkles of sake.

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2016. Dry cocoa hydrangea

How can we preserve something in bubbles? A concept has obsessed us for a while: vanity, and how that idea could be interpreted on a dish. Once again, we found the answer in science. With our colleagues from Azti-Tecnalia, we worked hard to be able to fix huge bubbles of chocolate, beetroots, honey, etc. It’s been a work that, for years, helped us to create a work line whose last evolution is the dry cocoa hydrangea: a mix that later we freeze-dried. It’s a dish of preserve an instant like a bubble across the time. This dish has four ingredients that for us are essential: unpredictability, poetry, subtlety and containment.

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2017. Mole and marrow leaves

Every journey that Mugaritz team starts inspires us to continue our own way.

Few years ago our friend Enrique Olvera from Mexico gave us his mole of a thousand days. Mole is a great example of how time and evolution are closely connected, in this case adding new ingredients to balance the mole.

We started taking care of that mole once Enrique gave us this gift and and in 2017 we served a 1600 days mole.

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2018. Onion soup

A culinary experience is multi-sensorial and perhaps the most important flavour is texture. How can we play with textures?

Is it possible to eat an entire raw onion? Yes, if we work with science and we use an enzyme called pectinase. With this enzyme, the onion seems to be cooked but it preserves the typical fresh flavour of an onion. We call it onion soup because we add some fat from Idiazabal cheese and chicken broth�

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JOSÉ LUIS VICENTE GÓMEZ

LEGACY OF FOUR GENERATIONS…

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PATATA LAMINADA

culinary passion which started an early age, José use to sit on his mothers and grandmothers lap and would learn how to knead, season, cut, mash and eventually cook, they were his first teachers and to this day they are. In the kitchen, as in life you have to be willing to absorb all the knowledge you can without an issue as to where or from whom it comes from. “I will never forget my grandmother’s warnings, as she had worked in a professional kitchen before in a well-known restaurant in Bilbao and she told me: ‘son, it’s a very tough job. Is there any other job you’d prefer’ says José. Coming from a humble and hardworking family background, He left his parents’ house to study the culinary art at the state cooking school, in Santo Domingo de la Calzada and decided to enter the working world which he combined with a job as he thought that for his family it was better that there were a little more income from his job rather than having to pay for his studies as staff in a renowned restaurants, which of course he would have loved to.

A CAPARRONES DE ANGUIANO

“The truth is that in those days the figure of a cook as such, defers from the ones we have in our actual society, but I had such a great passion that I decided to follow my dreams.” José was lucky as he found himself in one of the best steakhouses in Spain, a madman on the grill, Fermín Lasa, and maestro Julián de Tolosa. Although he was very young, he learnt a lot from his teacher. He then went on to work with other chefs in the north of Spain but the person who put a mark on him was Pilar en el Cachetero, she purified his style, she spoke to him of patience, and she did not like to cook in a hurry.

From Pilar he learnt to be ambitious with in order to be with others, guests comes first and above all perseverance and the daily apprenticeship ‘the A,B,C of the kitchen’, sacrifice for the profession is very high because weekends, holidays, vacations and while many people are resting you must be working, but it is proper to the job.

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CAPARRONES DE ANGUIANO

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MENESTRA

PATITAS DE CORDERO

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José was one of those ideal yet great apprenticeship with Pilar, without a doubt it was the teamwork that was fundamental and he is very grateful and holds value for the role of each person on his team because without them the guest’s final perception would not be the same. Then there are values that reinforce you, sometimes by learning the hard way, such as patience, perseverance, humility, respect and friendship since at the end it’s about sharing and having fun, life is too short.

Pilar helped him to become a chef and a person, at first she was very tough with him but as time passed, she trusted him but he had to show her his worth. On a daily basis, his commitment, his ability to sacrifice, fidelity to the house, and she knew from the beginning that he had a certain talent, which was imaginative, decisive that combined very well with her wisdom, purity, finesse and carefulness that she later transmitted to José.

BASQUE by WG catches up with José Luis Vicente Gómez...

Why is Cachetero a benchmark of traditional Rioja cuisine?

Cachetero was founded in 1910 by Silviano Arechinolaza and Ezequiela Barrio, Cachetero it an indisputable reference in La Rioja gastronomy, and endorsed by four generations of the same family. With over hundred years of history and thousands of people and celebrities have passed through our tablecloths such as Ernest Hemingway, Anthony Quinn, Jacinto Benavente, Miguel Delibes, Celia Gámez, Antonio Ordóñez, and members of the Royal Spanish House. All these people have given us the opportunity to share our recipes every day.

I am only a small part of it, 20 years sweating on those stoves and providing my personal touch, perhaps sometimes a little crazy, but personal, sincere, passionate and respectful.

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Tell us about Rioja cuisine…

The Ebro gives its name to the Rioja wine, and amazingly a gastronomic land where the seasons mark customs and cares, rites, cultivations and also the rhythms of the pots for the pitanza because in this land of wines, berries, mushrooms, and vegetables. The nourishment of the body is never left to free will or improvisation. Morcillas (sweet or salty), chinchorras, liver enchiladas with shepherd’s crumbs, loins to embuchar or the first sketches of rich sausages, sausages and rotund hams that are dipped in salt and kept to rest under heavy stones so that the mountain flavors macerate.

A unique attraction of La Rioja is to enjoy the vegetables on the same day they have been picked in the garden, the aroma of stewed Veal Cameros or roasted tenderloin using the branches of the newly pruned vines, not forgetting the woodcocks and small game hunting in the villages. Rioja cuisine is chilindronera, that is, devout and lover of peppers, it would be simply inexplicable without their presence.

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RAVIOLIS DE CALABACÍN Y QUESO TRUFADO

BORRAJA

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RULO CRUJIENTE DE NARANJA Y ARROZ CON LECHE

A creative menu driven by quality produce, a composition of flavours...

It is a unique personal kitchen, an interpretation of my experiences and my apprenticeship. The essential component is respect for the product, which in turn implies to respect for the environment, the sense of taste, the cultural heritage and, therefore, evolution. The best is the most natural and the simplest. Being able to work with some asparagus, truffles, mushrooms, wild products that have barely been touched by man, is a dream. It is increasingly difficult to get authentic ingredients that has not been altered by man with his dose of interest. Above all in a menu I am looking for the diner to taste these authentic product, cleanliness, simplicity, texture, and flavor, all this to convey an emotion, to a grateful stomach. I like to serve good food, not to surprise with the latest techniques or with design tableware that could eclipse the food.

I believe in the synthesis; I do not believe in the analysis.

The important thing is not to confuse simplicity with simpleminded. There is a reflective and creative process, proper to our human condition. We do not have to repeat ourselves that “you have to make creative cuisine�. The kitchen is always creation and also in the traditional kitchen there is creativity.

CANUTILLOS RELLENOS DE CREMA CON CHOCOLATE CALIENTE

TARTA DE QUESO CON MEMBRILLO

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The process of creating a dish…

The process of creation is the mixture of many factors: the pantry is full of good products, then the smells, a walk, a conversation with a friend, being happy with what you do, and a bit of obsession, that makes you jump out of bed at dawn and pick up a pencil and write two or three ideas, and the inspiration to create new recipes or recall the old ones makes us passionate about our profession. My culinary journals, the recipes I read, the gastronomic itineraries, will continue to inspire my kitchen, learning and renewing my knowledge, always with the conviction of giving others the best of myself. Being able to speak through mashed potatoes, an orange sauce, and the flavor of a pickled partridge, the texture of a deer loin with thyme juice, the aroma of some perrotxikos (variety of mushrooms) or the pear sorbet that my granddad’s gardener brought me.

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Ingredients that inspire you‌ I give a fundamental value to local products, to the nearby supply channels, without being a radical of the zero kilometer. I think you should not give up an excellent product because it comes from afar because, even preferring local products, you have to have a practical and global mentality. It is true that I do not serve asparagus if they are not from here. But if a year is being harmful for the truffle and there is none, I bring it from outside if it is of good quality. I have another view towards the geographical environment, I make updated traditional cuisine.

Truffles are the most magical and peculiar ingredient for me, they bring nature, aroma, refine and enhance the product rounding the palate and plate, personalizing it and filling it with the forest. But to get to that you have to understand its peculiarities, practice a lot and not letting yourself be guided by fashions, neither by the food industry nor by the posture, you have to catch the aroma of the natural truffle with the right ingredients so you can make a dish and leave the diner with a pleasant memory of a lifetime.

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FUSION CUISINE

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ever had to decide if he wanted to be a chef, it was something that he had really clear since he was a child, as he saw the happiness on the faces of the family members when they came home and watched his mother cooking. He understood that it was what he really wanted to dedicate to for the rest of my life.

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Unai Campo is Head Chef at Porrue in Bilbao after having worked at renowned grill restaurants in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa he took charge of the business, specializing in grilled meats, fish, and vegetables. His secret lies in the selection of the raw materials, in season products bought by the farmers and the “arrantzales” (fishermen). His fusion cuisine combines in season Basque cooking with his creativity and fresh new ideas.

“Working in the grill houses in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa was a different gastronomic level. When you only cook with fire, there is no sauces or elements that can distract your palate; it is only product and fire. It is in that moment when you realize the importance of the excellence of your products, to the point of getting obsessed with it. These experiences made me more demanding and showed me the need to get out of the kitchen, to go to the port in the early hours of the morning and find the best fish. You need to go and meet small organic vegetable producers, chat with them, have a cup coffee and discover that he is the only one still growing the best legumes, so you can come back to your restaurant with kilos of those legumes. A visit to the producers in the mountains and talk about how was the past winter climate and how is that going to affect his cheese next spring, etc., the more you dedicate yourself to the search for products the more you respect it and your cooking style changes, you become more conceptual, more purist, focusing on highlighting the flavor” says Unai.

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“The taste for grill houses is something atavistic”

His respect for product, he makes an intensive analysis of its organoleptic characteristics and tries to enhance them, accompanying it with no more than three or four ingredients.

Most of the times during the analysis, inspiration takes place, and if it does not, then he goes back to his memory of flavors and the old people’s cuisine which he translates it into what he think current cuisine should be like.

BASQUE by WG speaks with Unai Campo…

Could you tell us about Basque cuisine and what are its characteristics and why is it so highly revered in your opinion?

I believe the very first thing that defines the Basque cuisine is the Basque people, that is to say, everything that happens in this country goes around a table with food, and we take it seriously. Their character influences the cuisine, we are kind and generous, you may not become best friends with a Basque person in one day, but if you achieve it, the person could be your friend for the rest of your life, and you will never be separated. Well, it happens something similar with Basque cuisine, it is veritable, direct, tasty, and if you dare to try our baby squids, “kokotxas” (hake\cod) or sea barnacles you will not want to taste any other thing, it will be your friend forever.

The taste for grill houses is something atavistic, we carry the smoke in our DNA, our farm houses are built around a fireplace, we love grilled meat and fish, our cheese and cold meats are smoked, and the bread is baked in wood ovens.

Even our ancient dessert, the “mamía”, is a smoked sheep’s milk curd, what we call a sheep’s milk“errejusto”.

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“What influences my cuisine the most is the seasons”

Ingredients that inspire you, your favourite ingredients…

My favorite ingredients is fish without hesitation, I enjoy cooking fish on the grill, but lately I am getting a bit obsessed with vegetables. I love when spring comes and with it the mini beans, the teardrop peas, the artichokes, thistles, asparagus.

I do cook all these vegetables on the grill, some of them get just warmed up on the fire and is dressed on the dish with a vegetable or jamon broth…

I do not think that there is any ingredient from which I have not been able to get something positive, nor overrated ingredients, the product is what it is, it does not lie to you, and they may be misunderstood, but not overrated. Like James Joyce said once, “God made food, the devil the cooks”.

Special cooking techniques…

I like both molecular and actual cuisine, I use them and help me in some elaborations. Liquid nitrogen or low temperature cooking can be found daily in my cuisine, but always in the background. However, the fire does not trick you and there is where I like to be around.

Produce, Creativity or Technique...

Product, product and product, always product. Both technique and creativity are fundamental, but always at the service of the product and its final flavor, never the other way around.

Your greatest influence in the kitchen…

What influences my cuisine the most is the seasons, I enjoy mushrooms and truffle in autumn, needless to say they must come from the mountains nearby, but I would not understand cooking them in July. If my grandmother’s cuisine has taught me anything it is to cook what the land provides in every moment.

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“I give a bit of my roots and my culture through my cuisine”

What keeps you motivated at this point of your career?

With no doubts the satisfying feeling of the well done job, arriving home in the late night being aware of having made my guests happy, and that I have not only cooked for them, but that I have gave them a bit of my roots and my culture through my cuisine.

Your earliest food memories and flavors from your childhood…

My first gastronomic memories are the dinners that my parents and their friends used to prepare on the weekends.

My father was a carpenter, an artisan, and on Saturday nights he would improvise and set two wooden planks where some families used to meet. Some would bring crabs with tomato, some would bring bizkaiene style pork pate, others would bring “tortilla de patatas”, someone would bring rice and milk and the owner of the corner’s bar would bring some Rioja wine bottles, everyone having dinner together and the kids playing football until midnight.

In the past years how has cuisine changed around the world?

World cuisine has changed drastically, I think that in a very positive way, making the cuisine more democratic and taking it to every social level. Now you can go to Singapore and find a chef that either did a stage or training or worked in the Basque Country and that is incredible, but we also must defend authenticity. Right now eating ceviche in Spain is easier than eating something so traditional like an Escabeche and it is something we should think about. We need to look to the future but without turning our back to the past.

Being a chef is perceived as a glamorous profession, your advice to chefs entering the kitchen for the first time…

I encourage everyone that wants to get into the hospitality to do it, test it, get professional training and try it, but making and incredible exercise of humbleness and effort; they may not expect to be football players or rock stars, do not expect to be on the TV, this is the most sacrificing profession I know and the most beautiful at the same time.

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TRADITIONAL BASQUE RECIPES Based on a sound professional and educational background, Mina opened its doors in 2006, when Álvaro and his wife, Lara Martín, started their personal project; a small restaurant located in the historic quarter of Bilbao. Surrounded by tradition and local products, they set up a new restaurant completely different from everything done in Bilbao before.

“We’ve always worked with a tasting menu that changes every day depending on the best products we find in the market.” They do not do “a la carte”, and in they are proud to be one of the few restaurants that was included in the Red Guide with such a distinction without appearing previously as a recommended restaurant – a Michelin star in 2013.

ÁLVARO GARRIDO

After finishing his formal education and his constant pursuit of learning, Álvaro moved to Barcelona where he trained at EspaiSucre, under the command of Jordi Butrónand JeanLuc Figueras and then moved on to Las Rejas as executive chef. He then went on to specialize in pastry making with PacoTorreblanca, the best pastry chefs in the world.

His cuisine is based on traditional Basque recipes, contrast of flavors, innovation, sustainability and passion is the engines that move Álvaro to go beyond the boundaries of what is established and he takes the local product a step further; reinterpreting it, and letting the diner rediscover it.

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His culinary philosophy is summarized in three words “Immediacy, Product and Closeness”

WEAKFISH SERVED WITH “ARBEQUINA” OLIVE EMULSION

The Tasting Menu is his only way of conveying his culinary art, as it lets him offer dishes with harmonious proportions mixed to create a balanced combination: fresh dishes followed by other more unctuous; quick cooking follow by stews; naked products that prelude others more elaborated: flavors from this land, flavors from far away. “Balance can be something tricky to reach and you get it thanks to the experience and background built on years of hard work, rigor and continuous learning.” As he creates his own ideology where the product and its essence have the leading role inside a universe of nuances that extols the original raw material.

His culinary philosophy is summarized in three words “Immediacy, Product and Closeness”. Immediacy because almost all the elaborations are carried out during the service, before the client’s very eyes; Product – as he just a 100 meters from the Ribera Market, the main food market of the city, where the farmers sell their product without intermediaries; and the Closeness because his kitchen is open to the dining room and he has a counter inside were guests enjoy their meal while watching him cook, it is a kitchen with tables.

BASQUE by WG catches up Álvaro Garrido…

Why Basque cuisine is so highly revered, what are its characteristics?

For two main reasons: We have a privileged location, surrounded by mountains and the sea, so we always have the best products (fish, shellfish, hunt, vegetables) fresh and directly from the producer. And secondly we have a sound and strong culinary tradition. Gastronomy is something we have grown with. All the relevant matters and celebrations take place around a table. Basque society traditionally was a matriarchy so men use to have special places (called “Txokos”) where women cannot enter and which basically were a kitchen and a dining room. Almost all men usually meet weekly in the txokos with their friend to prepare and enjoy a dinner and a good talk. Fortunately, this costume has been updated and women are included to this gastronomy society. But everything happens in the dining room or in the kitchen.

CONFIT AUBERGINE WITH RED PU EHR TEA

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VIEIRA CON JUGO VEGETAL TOSTADO - SCALLOP IN A DARK VEGETABLE BROTH

SOPA DE TXANGURRO CON YEMA DE CASERIO EN SALMUERA - SPIDER CRAB AND SALT-CURED EGG YOLK SOUP

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FOIE, GAMBA BLANCA A HINOJO- FOIE-GRASS, NORWAY LOBSTER AND FENNEL

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TUÉTANO, CALDO DE AVE AL ROMERO Y CRUJIENTE DE PATATA ESPECIADA BONE MARROW WITH ROSEMARY POULTRY BROTH SERVED WITH SPICED POTATO

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Ingredients that inspire you…

Seasonal ingredients such as albacore, sardine, anchoa, hunt, fish, shellfish. I go every day to Ribera Market and get my inspiration from what I see every day.

Your earliest food memory and flavors from your childhood…

Traditional basques dishes prepared by my grandmother such us “Pil-Pil” cod and “Kokotxas” in green parsley sauce.

In the past years how has Basque cuisine changed?

Previous generation learned from France. Our generation has not so clear references, we’ve travelled around the globe and at the same time have an incredible culinary legacy.

What makes pintxo bars so popular?

In Bilbao fast food hasn’t been as successful as in other places because is contrary to our way of living gastronomy.

We keep up with this moment where time is money but without risking good quality. Pintxos are our option to have a light and fast meal but delicious and well prepared. Many pintxos are traditional meals portioned into individual portions and are ready to eat.

OSTRA CON GINEBRA Y CÍTRICOS - OYSTER, GIN AND A CITRIC TOUCH

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fter working as a city banker in London, Jon Warren took a holiday to San Sebastián and shortly after dropped everything to live in this beautiful city by the sea. While working in hospitality at Villa Soro hotel he recognized the city’s need for a food tourism hub and San Sebastián Food was born. What started as a dream quickly grew from pintxo tours to a bricksand-mortar location. In autumn of 2014, he moved San Sebastián Food into its new home in the famed Hotel Maria Cristina, a Luxury Collection Hotel, with the inauguration of a luxurious gourmet shop. In April 2015, he opened a 500 square meter luxury cooking school in the basement of the hotel.

Always hungry, Jon has expanded the business to include locations in Sevilla, Mallorca and most recently the Algarve, Portugal under the new name of Mimo. “Mimo” is a Spanish word and translates literally as “the love and care you give to a baby” so it seemed like a perfect word to re-brand the company with. The heart of Mimo comes from always giving care and attention to their clients and of course to the fresh local ingredients they use every day in our cooking classes.

JON WARREN

MIMO

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Speaking about MIMO products, Jon adds “We carefully curate and hand-select all of the products that we sell in each of our gourmet shops. We make sure that a large percentage of the product selection is from local producers and the rest are a selection of the highest quality and best gourmet products that come from all over Spain. In the Algarve we do the same working with and selling the best Portuguese gourmet products and wines. Our sommeliers Tito Lazaro (based in San Sebastián) and Bastien Martinole (based in Mallorca) are in charge of the wine selection and we sell a large range of award winning Spanish and Portuguese wines.

We also like to work with smaller wineries and producers to ensure we have a varied and interesting selection. We like to sell interesting, special and sometimes quite quirky products that we think our clients will like and also make perfect gifts for friends and family back home. For example, in our shop in San Sebastián you can buy a wine suitcase, a gin and tonic lovers set and a Cinco Jotas whole jamón iberico leg de-boned and presented in individual packets all beautifully encased in a bookcase gift box.”

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MIMO

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MIMO COOKING SCHOOL

Some of the top selling MIMO products is the jamón iberico de bellota, it is an iconic and world renowned Spanish gourmet product and therefore it´s always something that their clients are interested in buying. Alongside jamón, Spain produces some of the best olive oil in the world so of course a fantastic range of award winning and delicious olive oils to suit every palate and they offer a free olive oil tasting service in their shops which customers love! Last year they launched their own gourmet line of 8 Spanish products (MM – Made with Mimo) and they have found that these have been selling really well – customers particularly love the 100% natural Romesco and Alioli dips and the delicious wood-fired piquillo red peppers and crunchy, versatile caramelized sunflower seeds.

MIMO COOKING SCHOOL

making and gin and tonic being such a big trend for example we now sell a range of cocktail sets and very cool Droplets which give your drink a bit of a twist in terms of flavour but are 100% natural. Buddha´s hand citrus spray actually looks like a lovely bottle of perfume but gives your gin & tonic an incredible blast of citrus lemon and really enhances the flavour again in a very natural way” says Jon Warren.

Satisfying the modern customer with a Spanish and Basque taste, “I think to satisfy the modern consumer you have to have your finger on the pulse and be up to speed with the latest innovations in the food world. Our shop managers love researching new products and we always make sure that we´re in touch with food trends and new products coming to the market so that our shops sell not only fantastic traditional Spanish (and Portuguese) food and wine but also ALI AL NABOODA, AL NABOODA AUTOMOTIVE innovative gifts andGM, beautiful household items and linens that & IZUcustomers ANI our adore. With the rise in popularity of cocktail-

Wine tourism forms a very important part of MIMO business and in all of their locations it is a focus on wine. In San Sebastián and Sevilla they offer clients the opportunity to go to the source and visit the incredible La Rioja region and try the wines from some of the best wineries in Spain with their knowledgeable sommelier Tito. Likewise a visit to the home of sherry, beautiful Jerez de la Frontera, is unmissable when visiting Andalucia. In addition they offer daily wine tastings with their experienced in-house sommeliers in all their locations to ensure that they satisfy the needs of clients who are keen to learn more about wine than food or of course for those that want to learn about both in which case their recently launched Chef & Somm experience. It´s a true celebration of Spanish wines, and their incredible variety, through pairings with local produce cooked by Patricio Fuentes MIMO’s head chef. Next month sees the launch of Mimo wine concierge service, it will be really exciting!

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ith Italian-Basque roots, Patricio grew up with a mother who constantly cooked and a father who insisted on gathering everyone around the table to eat every day. For his father, variety was very important at each meal and the dishes were never repeated. After travelling through Europe and Scandinavia, he decided to settle in Madrid to dedicate his energy to cuisine.

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He began to study cooking at the Casa de Campo in Madrid, where some of Basque cooking’s most emblematic figures began their journey, from Juan Mari Arzak, Pedro Subijana.

With the desire to continue learning, he moved to Euskadi and began working with Josu Muguerza at his restaurant Belaustegi, learning the traditional Basque cuisine from the inside out while maintaining his studies in the UPV “Leioa” in Bilbao.

PATRICIO FUENTES

BASQUE by WG catches up with Patricio Fuentes…

The philosophy of Basque cuisine…

This is based on respect for the product, the roots of the products here are very important. It goes beyond the fact of eating as such, but important decisions, meetings, conversations revolve around the table. The kitchen is an essential part of each home and the daily life using fresh and local produce has formed a culinary culture over centuries.

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“In San Sebastián we are in the centre of the world gastronomy, with the highest concentration of Michelin stars in the world per capita”

MIMO COOKING SCHOOL

Why is Basque cuisine so highly revered and take us through the different Basque cuisines from the French Basque Country to Navarra, La Rioja, Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia and the miniature haute cuisine Pintxo?

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The difference is mainly regional, all the regions have different characteristics, and either by products or by influence, and that makes them different. For example, an essential product that makes a big difference between Basque and French Basque cuisine is olive oil, here the main fat for cooking is olive oil, while in French Basque cuisine it is butter. In the cuisine of Navarra is based mainly products from Bidasoa River, Ebro River, also the mountains and plains, its agriculture and livestock is very strong. On the other hand, the zone of La Rioja, is a very rich area, vineyards and agriculture, one of the main vegetable gardens of the Basque Country. In the case of Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, their base is in the products of the sea. They both have in common the Cantabrian coast, coastal areas where fishing has been developed in the Basque country.

The concept of pintxo in the Basque country does not have an exact date or place. Many say that it began in the 1930s in a bar in Donosti. Many confuse it with tapas that is a concept of the south of Spain, in the case of pintxos whichh are small portions that are usually tasted in bars and have two variants, one of them is a product in a slice of bread and that can generally be cold or mini plates that are served from the kitchen. The last ones are more what has been developed due to the great influence of restaurants with Michelin stars where the exceptional way of cooking has impregnated the pintxos bars.

Let’s not forget that here in San Sebastián we are in the centre of the world gastronomy, with the highest concentration of Michelin stars in the world per capita.

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CHEFS TABLE

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“La Gilda, created in the 40s, is considered the first pintxo in Donosti, under the influence of a controversial film for the time, called Gilda starring Rita Hayworth – so called as she was tall, hot and spicy just like the pintxo”

From the mountains to the sea, tradition, ingredients, a composition of flavours which is complex and impeccably balanced, what makes this cuisine so unique?

For me, a product of French Basque cuisine for excellence is Espelette pepper, as well as other cheeses such as Ossau Irati made from sheep’s milk, or the fantastic Bayonne ham, which is in almost in all recipes. In this area where the first chocolates were made in France, where they are still made according to tradition, it is very difficult to find a dish that characterizes them, so much is the diversity and quality of the products they have. If you had to choose one culinary preparation it would be the “Ttoro”, a combination of heavy baked fish and a strong fish stock, in the area of San Juan de Luz, or the acclaimed “Gateau Basque” as a dessert.

Navarra is a culinary paradise, and depending on the time of year you can find real gems. If I think of vegetables, it’s got to be the vegetable stew that comes to my mind “Menestra de verduras”, careful preparation of seasonal vegetables, wild mushrooms from the valley of Ulzama, or the famous Idiazabal cheese that is produced with raw sheep’s milk. The asparagus and artichokes of Tudela is world class. But if I had to choose a product and think of a dish this would be “Las pochas” a white spring bean that is only eaten fresh in season, accompanied by clams. A true delight.

In the case of La Rioja, you find excellent vegetable gardens, meats and spectacular vineyards. The clean, scalded thistle, accompanied with a soft veloute of almonds and iberico ham is a delight or the classic lamb chops with the vine shoot.

Guipuzkoa is the land where I decided to establish myself, with Donosti (the word for San Sebastián in Basque) as capital, it is the dream for any chef who wants to understand Basque cuisine. If I had to choose, it would be an emblematic plate of the belle epoque in Donosti and this would be the “Txangurro a la Donostiarra”. An elaboration that has not changed with time and those who try it can´t help but fall in love with it.

In the case of Bizkaia, the emblematic dish would be based on a product that helped sustain an entire society in hard times. Nothing less than cod, which as the story tells, arrived in monumental quantities by a simple numerical error. A businessman in 1835 asked his suppliers 100 or 120 pieces of cod, it was a either that they were confused with the number and sent 1,000,120 units! At that time the Carlist wars began and Bilbao was completely besieged by sea and land, therefore they did not have access to products, they only had Cod! From this incredible product we have 3 unique dishes: Cod pil pil, Cod Bizkaina and Cod Club ranero.

A Pintxo emblematic by excellence would be for me “la gilda” created by the owners of the bar valles, the union of incredible products such as salted anchovy, ibarra green chilli pepper and green olives. Created in the 40s, it is considered the first pintxo in Donosti, under the influence of a controversial film for the time, called Gilda starring Rita Hayworth – so called as she was tall, hot and spicy just like the pintxo!

What is Txoko all about?

Txoko in Bizkaia, or gastronomic society in Guipuzkoa, are private spaces that have the infrastructure of a restaurant, central kitchen, bar and a space with tables. The gastronomic society or txoko was born from the needs of society, especially to have a place where people can meet and be together.

Everything is based on trust, that is, the gastronomic society is non-profit and is only governed by its members. It is a space where the gastronomy and relationship between the partners is unique. Great meals and dinners take place in this wonderful place where during many years only men could meet, excluding women. Nowadays, women can enter gastronomical societies, but they cannot cook! In order to be a member of one of them you have to ask for authorization from all partners and you must have 100% support or create a society.

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At the Mimo San Sebastián cooking school we travel through the different areas of the Basque country

In the past years how has cuisine changed around the Basque region?

I think that, as in everything, Basque cuisine has evolved. On the one hand we have to take into account the new influences coming from chefs who contribute their grain of sand when they work in the restaurants of Michelin stars as well as pintxos bars.

Understanding that it is the capital of gastronomy, many chefs come to be filled with the tradition of Basque cuisine.

Globalization has made many cultures converge at this time in the Basque country, in addition to new technologies and the possibility of accessing a deep knowledge of the product and techniques thanks to science. On the other hand, I am very happy that the Basque cuisine continues to evolve, but at the same time it is very important that the younger chefs understand and learn the basis of everything that is tradition, without the basics of Basque cuisine we are nothing and we need to keep this as the most important thing in our kitchens.

Why is MIMO Cooking School a benchmark for teaching traditional Basque cuisine in San Sebastián?

“Mimo” in Spanish, means, love, concern, the love and care you show to a baby and in our case, it means care and respect, respect for the tradition of Basque cuisine and for the product. At the Mimo San Sebastián cooking school we travel through the different areas of the Basque country, each one going through vegetable gardens, farms, coasts, to deliver to our clients something really close and real, that is to say, the relationship between the Zukaldari (chef) and the producer. We share our knowledge so that our guests can take a unique gastronomic and social journey. During the time that our guests are with us, they experience what it is like to be in a professional kitchen and at the same time seeing a kitchen service that develops without leaving behind the most important thing that is to taste the dishes of the Basque country in a very relaxed environment.

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G DAVID RAGNACCI

AT LA MADAME

rew up in Cannes, France and born in a family where his father was a fisherman who supplied fish to the best restaurants in the region - Louis Outhier, Jacques Maximin, Alain Ducasse. His mother was German who was not into cooking, his grandmother was from Haute-Savoie and his grandfather was Italian. His grandparents really loved to cook; she would make delicious food, and regularly bake cakes for the whole neighbourhood while his grandfather would make fresh pasta every Sunday, so basically he grew up around food: grilled fish, fresh pasta, ratatouille, etc., but cooking wasn’t his passion, yet.

David loved numbers, so he went on to study engineering in Paris. His first job was as a programmer in a bank in Hong Kong and after a year he switched to trading. It was the first time he truly discovered different food. A couple of years later he moved to Tokyo and this is when his interest for gastronomy really grew up. It was not just Japanese food, but any food.

Tokyo is an amazing place for this, you can find some of the best cuisines in the world. That’s also when he discovered Joël Robuchon’s food, and he was literally obsessed. He bought all his books and started to cook his recipes at home, and little by little, the idea grew inside him that this was what he wanted to do. After years of thinking about switching, he started working on Sundays in his restaurant in Tokyo. In 2010, he made the switch, quit everything related to banking and flew to New York to study the basics at the French Culinary Institute, while staging at Le Bernardin. Then he came back to France and started working with my mentor, Joël Robuchon.

Joël Robuchon is the reason David is a chef and he owes it to him. It was Robuchon’s food that inspired him and he gave him the strength to pursue his dream by encouraging him, and then by opening his restaurants’ doors to him. In his kitchen, he learnt what hard work and discipline meant. The level of stress was off the charts. It taught him a lot, both in technique and palate, but especially mentally.

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“Our beers are the anchovy to the guindilla and the olive of Basque food and drink culture. That’s the gilda for the uninitiated”

When he joined La Madame in San Sebastián, he was maybe too obsessed with that perfection that Robuchon was all about. In a way, Kevin Patricio helped him free himself.

He didn’t work a long time together, but the experience was great: while creating a new plate, exchange ideas and many times end up somewhere where he hadn’t envisioned.

David’s philosophy is simple, he tries to make his guests happy. At the end of the day, that is the reason why he does this job and he believes a chef should never forget that “Reaching that goal is relentless: every detail of every plate that goes out the kitchen every day must be perfectly executed.

While I work on that goal, we must also have fun doing it.

Creating new dishes is the fun part. I wish I could tell you the process, or the inspiration, but the truth is that inspiration can come from anywhere! Sometimes I would wake up with an idea, some other time I would see an ingredient that inspires me. Sometimes I would force myself to come up with a few ingredients and make something out of it. Sometimes someone else will have an idea, share it with me, and we’ll work together to make the dish” says David.

BASQUE by WG catches up with David Ragnacci…

How is beer perceived in a land dominated by wine?

Basqueland is being accepted with open arms. In the past in Spain, beer was something to refresh and wine something to savour. Quality craft beer turns that notion on its head. In addition to craft bars and your everyday restaurants, our beer is served at six Michelin-starred restaurants and some of the most famous restaurants in Spain. Wine drinkers love craft beer. All it takes is the willingness to try for the first time. After that they are hooked.

How does your beers fit with the Basque food and drink culture?

Our beers are the anchovy to the guindilla and the olive of Basque food and drink culture. That’s the gilda for the uninitiated. It fits perfectly into a culture that demands quality and a link to provenance. We provide both. Plus we’re always innovating–releasing 2-3 limited editions every month. We keep our loyal followers on their toes.

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“While we may all be seduced at one point or another by the sirens of creativity, I believe the product comes first, followed by technique then creativity”

Is it be possible to pair your beers with your cuisine?

100%. I think wine is an easier pairing for food. And more versatile. But when you find the perfect beer pairing it can be extremely interesting. And not just a beer and burger. A salty-sour Gose with sushi or a Black IPA with oysters… mindblowing.

Ingredients that inspire you, ingredients you love working with, ingredients you weren’t able to master and the most overrated ingredient…

We are lucky to have amazing ingredients in the Basque Country, and in Spain in general. Right now the season of the “bonito” is ending (white tuna). During the season (June to October) I make a point to have a special with bonito on the menu. We are very lucky to be in the north of Spain, therefore the quality we get is amazing. I love tomatoes. They’re so versatile and delicious. Fresh herbs are definitely up there too. Truth is, there are no ingredients I don’t like to work with.

Not really… I think that today with the amount of resources available through internet, there is no excuse for not being able to “crack the code” of an ingredient!

I’m not sure there is such a thing, an overrated ingredient.

Every ingredient brings something special. Our job is to make sure we make the most of it in a harmonious way. Overpriced ingredients are another subject…

Special cooking techniques or equipment you enjoy using…

Brillat-Savarin said that we are born “rotisseur” and become “cuisinier”. I do love grilling on a wood fire. But my favourite way of cooking is braising, it brings an incredible level of depth in the flavours while using not so expensive products.

Real soul food.

Produce, Creativity or Technique…

While we may all be seduced at one point or another by the sirens of creativity, I believe the product comes first, followed by technique then creativity. If you don’t have a good product and don’t know how to deal with it, creativity isn’t worth much…

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“Bringing international influences to the city of San Sebastián is fun” Your greatest influence in the kitchen…

Joël Robuchon, no question. He was arguably the best. He did things that no one could have imagined at the time, and kept innovating while respecting the tradition. Then when he came back with the Atelier concept he showed again to the world how in advance on his time he was. Now you see open kitchens everywhere, but he popularized it.

What keeps you motivated at this point of your career?

The same as ever: giving pleasure to my customers! Also, bringing international influences to the city of San Sebastián is fun!

Your earliest food memories, flavors from your childhood…

When I was little, my father used to take us to a restaurant whose specialty was grilling fish over a wood fire. The wild sea bass from Mediterranean grilled this way I can never forget. At home my mom used to make classic Italian tomatosauce spaghetti. That I can’t live without.

In the past years how has cuisine changed around the world?

Obviously the internet has broken many barriers. You can now find an answer, or inspiration in a matter of a few minutes. You can find many different cuisines in almost any corner of the globe. That is the good side. The bad side is that maybe chefs are looking too much at trends, and we end up with a lot of food that looks the same. Also sometimes there is dominance on how food looks, at the prejudice of how it tastes.

Being a chef is perceived as a glamorous profession, advice to chefs entering the kitchen for the first time…

People tend to underestimate how hard being a cook is. The TV shows make our profession glamorous as you said, but the reality is much harder. You need a lot of stamina and determination. My advice to them would be this: don’t forget why you are doing this, cooking is an act of love, we are here to make people happy. Work hard, try to get better every day, and taste, taste, taste!

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GUILLERMO CRUZ

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PHOTO © ALEX ITURRALDE

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H GUILLERMO CRUZ

THE WORLD OF WINES

e has loved the world of wine since he was a kid, in his house there was an important culture around wine and can’t remember any meals where his father, his uncles or grandparents didn’t drink a glass of wine. For Guillermo, wine is culture, it is reality in a bottle, but more importantly, it is home.

His path to being a person, a sommelier is one of the most enriching experiences. He decided that he wanted to be sommelier as it was something that was so deeply rooted in him that studying and looking for unique wine producers was not an effort for him, it was a huge pleasure. As a child he really loved to understand what was behind a glass of wine, his mother forced him to keep studying, she made him finish school and to go to Gastronomy School before he got his Sommelier degree. That’s when everything started, he began learning while at his Enology Master’s Degree, and then the WCT came. It might seem like a contradiction, but, even though he didn’t really like school, in his life the act of studying and learning has never stopped. This passion transcends all the aspects of Guillermo’s life.

Professionally speaking, he is really strict with himself but it is about character, it is an effort that is part of who he is. He thinks that it is important to build his own path and not to get trapped in the comfort zone and once he has reached one of his goals, he look for a new ones. That constant search sustains the tension, the hunger of learning, travelling to meet those people who are behind the bottles and whose philosophy is the one that makes the wine genuine. That aim makes him understand producers, as it is fundamental to show it in the dining room of Mugaritz.

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The skills to properly pair food with wine is all about the training, effort and being constant. “In Mugaritz, from every corner of the kitchen, you can read on the wall a sentence: “The possible of the impossible lies in the willingness of the human being” I agree with the values that lies behind this sentence and understand that, with work, sacrifice, and passion you can reach the goals you have. I can see that this values are reflected in our sommelier team, in our FOH team, the research and development team. The only way I think that is not possible to create a wine pairing is without eating and drinking. You cannot pair using your memory as a tool, it is important to taste, to try different combinations, to play, to experience. I would like to add that pairing wine and food is an act of a thousand combinations that could match, but I believe the unique way of merging the solid and the liquid part is to pair stories. To create emotional harmonies which are a new language themselves to communicate, through gastronomy, a feeling, the effort of a local producer, a moment that only two people who shared it can transmit it” says Guillermo.

Pairing wine and food is important as he brings the dish or the wine to another level.

It’s important to him, the ideas, values that he shares which are not artificial, and a story that makes sense. Properly paired food and wine can break the coordination between the solid and the liquid part, and creates a confusion. For Guillermo it is always about balancing the solid and the liquid part, to let them have a conversation between equals. That’s when he manages to a higher level.

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In Mugaritz, from every corner of the kitchen, you can read on the wall a sentence: “The possible of the impossible lies in the willingness of the human being�

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Art of food and wine pairing…

Some years ago, when the talk about pairings, there were wines for pairings, basic wines with a good relationship between the quality and their price.

“Nowadays, few restaurants invest great wines in pairings, the common idea is to keep with that first scenario, while the dishes of a degustation menu are all high class dishes. That is something that can create confusion, because you serve high level dishes with ‘regular’ glasses of wine.

We share another philosophy, we defend to serve high quality bottles in pairings because it is the only way to reach more people with unique wines. We love to think that this idea can inspire other restaurants and help them walk through this different path, the one that talks about uniqueness and once in a lifetime moments, with the liquid part of the experience. I don’t want to share a 1.500 euros wine with just a table, because it is going to be bought only by someone who can invest that amount.

I feel a unique bottle needs to reach more people, some of them who cannot afford to pay 1.500 euros, but who deserve to taste that story behind that bottle. Generosity is the key. There is nothing more beautiful than sharing unique bottles.”

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The Sake philosophy at Mugaritz…

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7TH HAKE IN WHITE, ‘DOBUROKU’ PHOTO © JOSE LUIS LOPEZ DE ZUBIRIA / MUGARITZ

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Mugaritz has been connected to Japan almost since the project started in 1998. Some of the people from the team could have been born there, for their common values with Japan, for their way of thinking. In 2010, when the kitchen caught on fire and had to close the restaurant, that connection to Japan had its peak; although they it was a great distance from San Sebastián to Japan, Japanese chefs, culinary journalists and other people from the world of gastronomy in Japan were amazing during those difficult moments. Now, this connection has gone one step further and they connect with them through emotional harmonies.

The first sake harmony was crab threads with a macadamia nuts cream, a dish with artisan textures that was perfect to pair with a Junmai Daiginjo. After that, they evolved the concept and now it is used in dishes to give context to sake and its culture. In 2017, someone brought them a jewel: a unique Doburoku bottle which was never seen before, one of those sakes that finish the fermentation inside the bottle, a deeply traditional style which is served in the houses of sake producers. Something this special could only be served to diners with something really special for Mugaritz. Decided to use a creative exercise, since they have been promoting it in the last six years: called ‘hake in white’ and a way to leave a narrow space to creativity, because of two rules: use hake (a product rooted in Basque Country kitchens, and with an amazing texture) and the dish has to be served only with white ingredients. The seventh hake in white from Mugaritz, in 2017, was a hake with Doburoku.

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To get a certain sake to Mugaritz is to look for technically good sakes, the main factor is the emotional part of them, sakes with a story, sakes that can bring to diners hidden values of Japanese culture...

This year, for example, they serve a fermented rice with lobster, and another different rice fermented with a caramel coated koji. Shown in the solid part of this emotional harmony, two different fermentation processes, and, in the liquid part, and share four glasses to the diners at the same time, with two Koshus and two Junmai Daiginjo, to give the opportunity to understand the differences between different ways of polishing rice for sakes and different fermentation processes, Nowadays, the sake menu at Mugaritz is divided with different kinds of rice, with around 90 references from almost all the prefectures of Japan.

Selecting the Sake’s for Mugaritz… “Right now Mugaritz has 90 different sakes. To get there, we have probably tasted around 3,000. In the end, the key point to get a certain sake to Mugaritz is to, of course we look for technically good sakes, but the main factor is the emotional part of them, sakes with a story to be shown, sakes that can bring to diners hidden values of Japanese culture. We like to have the most quantity of different kinds of rice and the most number of prefectures represented. We also believe that more than one reference from the same producer must be in Mugaritz, because it is the way to respect and honor their style” says Guillermo.

Guillermo worked closely with Natsuki Kikuya, truly an amazing lady with a unique vision: the perspective of a woman who was born in a Tojis family, who are Kura owners, and, at the same time, a person who understands Europe and its society. “Sake is a cultural matter to her. When you listen to her talking about sake, she is actually speaking about her family. Sake means home to her, it is her childhood. She has helped us to build our sake menu with the goal of creating an amazing list that can help you travel to Japan through its liquid part. Outside Japan there is not a deep sake culture, and Natsuki has helped us understand that this drink is an artisan’s work that needs a context to be enjoyed, because the unknown tends to generate rejection. She has helped along this path.”

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ORYZAE STYLE PHOTO © JOSE LUIS LOPEZ DE ZUBIRIA / MUGARITZ

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Having the opportunity to be part of a creative process is a gift to him and grateful to Andoni and all the R&D team...

His passion to taste, learn and especially to share your expertise on wine tasting continues to grow and evolve. Basically, in the wine world one never stop learning. It is impossible to know everything. He is close to the point that he feels that he knows everything, the reality of what he evolves and he has to start learning again, which is amazing. He loves talking about the stories behind the wines, loves making people happy, and the chance of doing so, of sharing that moment with people who have a deep knowledge of the world of wine and with those who don’t, but who are curious. There is something else that is really special to him that makes everything have a sense: the R&D team from Mugaritz as he shares to search for stories, to create new ideas, to go further around emotional harmonies. Having the opportunity to be part of a creative process is a gift to him and grateful to Andoni and all the R&D team.

In 2014, Guillermo was the awarded the Best Sommelier in Spain, it was a recognition to all his efforts. He remembers that year perfectly because it was very special, he pushed hard to meet the expectations. He understood how important it is to travel and to have the perspective of the producers behind a bottle, and he learned many values, and understood how far you can get with effort and being humble. These values are a part of him and he tries to transmit this too the front of house and the sommelier team at Mugaritz.

His values are deep rooted in the world of wines‌

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WG APRIL MAGAZINE 2018

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