CORDOBA: To have missed out on the first four seasons of Noor is akin to having started watching Games of Thrones directly in its fifth season. That’s an analogy Paco Morales, chef patron of Noor makes as he now enters the age of discovery or exploration as the 15th century is often known. Today you can say Paco is riding the crest of the wave. For five years, since opening his restaurant Noor, or Light as it is translated into English, he has constrained himself to explore his city’s glorious past limiting the scope of space and time while following a clear time path. Since 2015, when the restaurant opened, he has served guests a taste of Cordoba's culinary history researching past centuries starting from the 10th century, Paco chose a suburb where he grew up to open his restaurant. It is a modest neighbourhood that also reflects Paco's modest past. The neighbourhood was build in the 1950s and it would take years before it had power, telephones and paved streets. It is in this … [Read more...]
Gorka Izagirre wines: Making the impossible possible
Visitors to the Basque country will have definitely tasted the Txakoli, a local white wine that is drunk everywhere you go. But outside the region, the wine is extremely difficult to find despite the fact that it washes down well with food. When you visit the Azurmendi galaxy, a three Michelin star restaurant a few kilometres outside Bilbao in the idyllic Larrabetzu, you will not only find the sister restaurant Eneko, recently awarded with a Michelin star but also the headquarters of Bodega Gorka Izagirre, a newish and enthusiastically patriotic Biscayan wine producer. And as you would expect from a wine that is served in Eneko Atxa's restaurants, the wines produced are of the highest quality white wines while remaining true to their unique identity and origins. The wines are made from the Hondarrabi Zuri and the Hondarrabi Zerratia varieties. These are Atlantic grapes that are cultivated locally in small and concerntrated clusters located on the hillsides of Biscay giving … [Read more...]
Eneko Atxa of Azurmendi to launch best farmers award later this year
Imagine a world where you could find the best producer of eggs in Italy at the click of a button. That is what Eneko Atxa, chef of three Michelin star restaurant Azurmendi has set out to do this year. Called the Best Farmers award, his dream is to give farmers and producers the importance they deserve. "Today, chefs are considers as rockstars but if we can achieve that for farmers, maybe the world will be a better place," Eneko told Food and Wine Gazette in Larrabetzu. "During 2018, I want to create a platform that gives visibility to the best producers in the world. I want to give the possibility to people to look for the best produce at the click of a button. The aim is that in every part of the world you will be able to look for the best producer of a given product," Eneko said. He is not leaving anything to chance. The Basque chef, who has made a name for himself for sustainability and for his new concept JAKIN(N) which looks at the restaurant in a holistic … [Read more...]
JAKIN(N): Eneko Atxa ‘cooking up the future’
On a perched hill in Larrabetzu on the outskirts of Bilbao, Eneko Atxa, the Spanish chef of acclaimed restaurant Azurmendi is ‘cooking up the future’. Using Jaki, the basque term for meal and Jakin, the term for knowledge he is building an ecosystem that builds around knowledge and meals. With his idea he wants to foster a sustainable, healthy and a fair society through gastronomy. Those are the three elements that are the pillars of his work. Eneko has taken up running recently and he intends to run a full marathon this year. “Running has really helped me to think. It is a way of arriving at the restaurant refreshed or of leaving the restaurant to go home and be able to clear my mind,” he told Food and Wine Gazette. "I'm so convinced of the importance of sport that I insist with the members of my team that they should take up any sport they love," he said. The Spanish chef considers running to be an integral part of his creative process and the place where he can think and … [Read more...]
Errotabarri: the mill making corn flour incessantly for 350 years
At the age of 76, Luis Azzilona is not thinking of retirement. His side hustle while he was working in research and development for a multinational became his full time occupation when he quit his job some years ago. But he has been passionately making corn flour for 35 years. He operates the Errotabarri mill that has worked incessantly for 350 years making corn flour in Gamiz and supplies Michelin star restaurants in the Basque region in Spain. His quest for asking questions and for improvising means that he has been able to find the secret to keep the water mechanism functioning till today telling us he has had to use parts from an aeroplane in one case to keep the mechanism running. It is a chilly morning when we arrive at the mill and as we enter what we notice is the smell of the dry corn being grinded into flour. It is a smell that is both homely and welcoming. Today, the water mill is one of only a handful of mills that are still operating in the region. Luis knows all he … [Read more...]
Inside the txoko of Eneko Atxa, the Zelaieta Gane
It is nearly seven in the evening, the final guests are leaving Azurmendi, the 3 Michelin star restaurant in Larrabetzu and Eneko Atxa and his close collaborators are busy preparing food for the evening. He has invited a group of journalists to his txoko, the Txoko Zelaieta Gane, in Amorebieta-Etxano. It is one of the many closed gastronomic societies that are part and parcel of the Basque culinary culture. He phones his mother and she tells him that she is in the txoko and they are using it this evening. “But I am coming with a small group of journalists,” he tells her. He is a bit concerned because he knows his mother is not only an excellent cook but can also be critical like any loving mother can be. Sure enough when he arrives with the food that they have prepared she was not convinced. "Are you sure the journalists will like it. You need to add this and this," she tells him. It sounded worse than a Michelin guide inspection, Eneko tells us. To understand the Basque … [Read more...]
The natural wines of Goyo Garcia Viadero: Amazing in their purity
A swirl of the glass, I smell the wine and I get that preliminary 'animal' smell which indicates that this is a natural wine. Within minutes, the smell mellows down to reveal a stunning 100% Tempranillo. We had no idea at this stage that this was a natural wine though I could suspect from the smell. But this is one of those wines which really challenges your perception of what a natural wine should be. While natural wines may get away with being 'unstable' this was neither unstable nor does it have any sign of oxidisation even though it has been open for more than three hours and has been double decanted. Last week, I tasted three wines made by Spanish winemaker Goyo Garcia Viadero at a wine-tasting of Ribero del Deuro wines at a wine club I am member of. Present for the wine tasting, Goyo, the Spanish winemaker, told us that for 50 years he had been working in vineyards. "I've worked all my life in vineyards for others. I was a bit of a 'mercenary' but I had this idea of the … [Read more...]
Eneko Atxa to open Basque restaurant in London
Eneko Atxa, chef of 3 Michelin star restaurant Azurmendi, ranked 19th in the World's 50 Best restaurants and voted first by Opinionated about Dining in 2015 has announced plans to open a Basque restaurant in London. He will open his first restaurant in the UK next year at the One Aldwych Hotel. The hotel is situated in centre of London's Covent Garden. Atxa said the aim of the new restaurant was that of presenting a modern take on rustic Basque cuisine focusing on simplicity and quality ingredients. The Basque chef who is known for his inventive cuisine is considered to be one of the rising stars of Spanish cuisine. In an interview with Food and Wine Gazette last year, Atxa spoke about the importance he give to sustainability (he won the sustainable restaurant of the year award in 2014). “We are a very young team. I don’t think about the future. I am dreaming about the future. And in my dream, the future will be more sustainable and the environment will be more important … [Read more...]
Details of Alinea Madrid pop-up restaurant announced
Booking for Alinea Madrid, the pop-up restaurant of the Chicago-based Grant Achatz, considered as one of the most inventive chefs in the world is now open as details of the restaurant have been announced. Alinea Madrid will launch on January 12 and will stay open till February 6. This American restaurant is considered to be one of the best in the world and is a collaboration between chef Grant Achatz and restauranteur Nick Kokonas. Alinea Madrid said that the history of Alinea is inextricably linked with the modernist cuisine of Spain. It is no secret that Achatz, like many contemporary chefs, has been inspired by pioneering Spanish chefs like Arzak and Adria to embrace culinary innovations and risk-taking. "On both sides of the Atlantic, dining as an experience, both cultural and artistic, has allowed chefs a new freedom to rethink what a restaurant can be...and in turn to give patrons exciting and delicious ways to enjoy dining out," says Grant Achatz. Alinea Madrid fulfills a … [Read more...]
Adria brothers cook together for first time in seven years at Bottura’s soup kitchen
The Adria brothers cooked together for the first time in seven years at Massimo Bottura's soup kitchen in Milan, the Refettorio Ambrosiano, today 2 September. Ferran Adria wrote on his twitter feed that he was supporting Massimo Bottura's amazing initiative while his brother Albert took to Instagram to say it was amazing how time flies and that it was the first time in seven years that he has cooked with his brother. Foodies around the world would probably have travelled thousands of kilometres and paid hundreds if not thousands to get a taste of Ferran and Albert Adria's cooking. They have not cooked together since they took different paths seven years ago. Instead, they joined forces with Italy's top chef Massimo Bottura to feed Milan's poor using 'waste' generated at the Milan Expo. Massimo Bottura wrote on his Instagram feed that they had cooked a chicken nugget that wants to be a soup to a group of children present at the Refettorio yesterday for lunch. The Italian … [Read more...]