2024-10-09 14:16:00
Wednesday 9 October 2024, 4.16pm
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San Sebastián Gastronomika Euskadi Basque Country closes an edition that served to show the contrasts that the current culinary scene treasures: haute cuisine restaurants versus humble taverns, historical recipes that coexist with futuristic techniques, young talents and established personalities who shake hands, all this punctuated by a series of competitions that stimulate the competitiveness of the chefs and attract an audience eager for superlatives. The closing day was led by an equally heterogeneous sample of chefs from Portugal, the Philippines, Mancha, China and Galicia and left on the palate the flavor of Pepe Solla’s words on the future of gastronomy: “The great revolution that will come is that of the producers.”
The Galician took the stage at the Kursaal accompanied by Roberto Rodríguez, his fish supplier and trusted man – “I talk more with him than with my partner – admitted Solla – to talk about fish in particular, but about the role played by the choice and treatment of ingredients in general. «Many kids pass through my house who are more concerned with learning a technique than with the impressive product that goes into the pantry every morning. It can’t be that they want to come in the afternoon to learn how to make a spherification, but they protest when they have to peel “ripped peas, which are the most perfect sphere that exists”, he complained. In this sense, he stated that “cuisine has progressed a lot in recent years, but we have not made the same effort to advance the producers”. .
It wasn’t just a simple toast to the sun. To support his arguments, he featured two wild sea bass, hooked in the same area of the Galician coast. One had been treated on the ship to ensure quick death, effective bleeding, and cold preservation; The other had been left to die shaking, hitting and with blood seeping into his muscle until it was pink in color and had a strong odor. “One smells clean and the other smells like death,” said Solla, who served attendees a sample of both. In his opinion, it is the responsibility of chefs to encourage more respectful practices towards the product they deal with, even “in a selfish way, since the biggest beneficiary is the restaurant”. The objective of this mutual collaboration between chefs and producers should be “that what arrives on the plate is equal to what is experienced in Nature, even if this is a chimera”.
Thank you, Portugal
Portuguese Joao Rodrigues also spoke about his relationship with the environment, recalling his time as a student at Gastronomika almost twenty years ago and how this congress opened his eyes: “Obrigado!” When he settled in the Algarve to become head chef of the Vista restaurant, he started cooking “foie gras and truffle, because he thought it was the best he could offer”. It was by spending time in that privileged natural environment that he began to come into contact with local fishermen or a neighboring gardener, with whom he now builds a menu in which only vegetables and some marine proteins are present. He was the latest in a long list of Portuguese chefs – Ana Moura, Joao Oliveira, Joao Sá, José Avillez, Marlene Vieira and Rodrigo Castelo – who showcased the neighboring country’s culinary awakening in this edition of Gastronomika.
And from Portugal to the Philippines, passing through Chicago, where the Kasama restaurant is located, which served another of the highlights of the closing day. The table of the Filipinos Tim Flores and Genie Kwon recently gained popularity due to the fact that they advised the filming of the series The Bear, starring Jeremy Allen White, but their proposal is attractive beyond television echoes. In the morning they are a bakery and pastry shop whose line runs for several blocks and can last more than three hours. In the evening they transform into a refined restaurant and offer a tasting menu inspired by the traditional cuisine of their land which earned them the first Michelin star ever obtained by a Filipino chef.
The program was completed by two of the most promising restaurants in La Mancha, the two-star Iván Cerdeño from Toledo and the very young Javier Sanz and Juan Sahuquillo, from the Cañitas Mayte in Albacete and the multi-starred Oba. Both offered a glimpse into their creative processes, whether it was diving into old recipe books to recover ideas about red partridge or eel shown by Sardeño, or the thoughtful work of decomposition and grouping that the Cañitas proposed around the colostrum. Protagonists of one of the most brilliant successes that the profession remembers – they have not been active for five years and already manage spaces in Madrid and Ibiza in addition to the original Casas Ibáñez establishment -, Sanz and Sahuquillo have left an interesting reflection that connects with that which was seen in recent days at the congress: “It seems that we chefs always have to invent things, but sometimes the important thing is to know ourselves and compare ourselves with professionals from other disciplines who help us get where we want”.
Vanesa Martín, from Burgos, is the first woman to win the grill competition
If professional cooking has traditionally been a predominantly male profession, grilling has practically been the exclusive preserve of men. After fifteen editions in which the National Grilling Championship has become one of the most followed events of San Sebastián Gastronomika Euska in the Basque Country, this Tuesday a woman finally won, Vanesa Martín Narganes from Burgos, griller at El Alfoz de Burgos, in the town of Villagonzalo Pedernales. He won thanks to a piece by Cárnicas Guikar which he managed to hit in adverse circumstances, with a hurricane wind whipping the embers and the jury forced to take refuge inside the Kursaal. In the final they beat the Guipuzcoan restaurants Maun Grill Bar, Fermín Calbetón, Asador Olivi and The Txotx Gourmet, the Girona-based Sinofos, the Asturian El Paraíso de Riberas and the Granada-based Asador de la Reina.
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#great #revolution #producers