|
14 Easy Cooking Tips for Meat and Poultry Slow Cooker Recipes
The first Christmas we spent with my in-laws in their new
country home, my mother-in-law wisely gave me a slow cooker. Her
thoughtful gift helped Dan and I enjoy the most convenient of
all cooking methods, even with our long work days and...
Getting the most from fruits and vegetables in the diet
Every nutritional expert stresses the importance of fruits and
vegetables in the diet. Fruits and vegetables are one of those
rare cases in which more is better, and the new dietary
guidelines recommend that everyone eat at least five servings...
Gourmet Italian Gift Baskets
The most popular type of restaurant food is Italian food, so it's no wonder that there is a good selection of gourmet Italian gift baskets available. If you are looking for a gift for a food lover, you can't go wrong with gourmet Italian gift...
Organic Coffee: Pick Me up Naturally
If you are at all aware of health and environmental issues, organic coffee is a product that should be interesting to you.
Do you like to wake up in the morning, feel the sun's rays on your face and savor the rich aroma of your favorite drink...
Smoked Salt - Way More than Just a Fad
It's been on FoodTV with Alton Brown. You've seen it in your gourmet magazines. You've heard of it, but you don't know what it is, what it's for, or where to get it. We are talking about smoked salt , a hot new trend in the gourmet food...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Spain - Europe's new culinary hotbed
There are exciting times ahead for Spanish cuisine. An extremely
good crop of young, ground breaking chefs are placing Spain
firmly on the culinary map, even eclipsing their old neighbours
to the north in France. According to many Spain is taking over
where France started from in the seventies where they pioneered
the Noveau Cusine movement. That same effervescence that
sparkled in France twenty years ago is starting to bubble over
in Spain causing critics to look to the Iberian Peninsula to
lead the next great shift.
Spain's traditional culinary centre in the Basque country is
looking over its shoulder to see Barcelona hot on its heels and
fast emerging as Spain's other great gourmet capital. The Basque
region is still the place to go for food in Spain but its place
at the head of Spain's gastronomic table is under threat. The
man spear-heading this revolution? Ferran Adria. Adria is at the
head of the new wave; his much vaunted "El Bulli" restaurant in
Rosas on the Costa Brava is one of the hot places in the world
to try and get a table and is fast becoming a must on the
checklist of gourmand worldwide. It's not an easy business to
secure a table, "El Bulli" is only open for six months a year
(the other six Adria spends in his Barcelona based
kitchen/laboratory dreaming up fantastical new recipes) and sits
proudly in second spot in the worldwide restaurant list, 8,000
people dined there last year and over 300,000 tried to get a
table. Adria's now legendary thirty course meal is an assault on
the senses that challenges our perception of food and taste. New
pioneering techniques of cooking are pushing back the
boundaries. Adria's Basque contemporary, Juan Mari Arzak refers
to the Catalan as "the most imaginative chef in all of history".
That's high praise indeed from the man who was partly
responsible for starting this movement back in the seventies.
Arzak and fellow Basque chef Pedro
Lubijana, inspired by a 1976
conference in Madrid hosted by legendary French chef Paul
Bocuse, decided to stir up the kitchens of the Basque country.
They brought together a group of twelve local chefs and took
turns to invite local gourmets and food critics to sample their
menus free of charge. Before they realised it, other chefs were
asking to get involved and a movement was born. Arzak still
plies his trade today at his eponymous restaurant just outside
San Sebastian, also ranked in the top fifty restaurant list and
owner of three Michelin stars.
The future of Spanish cuisine looks in good hands as there are a
fine crop of young chefs emerging hot on the heels of Adria and
Arzak. Chefs such as Jordi Villa at the highly rated "Alkimia"
in Barcelona lead the vanguard; the 29 year old is famed for his
steak tartare with olive oil ice cream. Jordi Butron is making
waves in Barcelona, he runs the "Espai Sucre", a dessert school
and restaurant that is committed to creative cuisine. The Basque
country has a few protégés up its wily sleeve as well, Josean
Martínez Alija, is the precocious 26 year old manning the stoves
at the Guggenheim's restaurant in Bilbao with aplomb, and Andoni
Luis Aduriz, an introverted chef cum mad professor who famously
studied the molecular structure of liver so as to reinvent the
texture of foie gras. His restaurant in the hills outside San
Sebastian is making people take note in a region where culinary
excellence is a way of life.
About the author:
Mike McDougall has five years experience working as a
travel writer and marketeer. He is currently working to provide
additional content for Babylon-idiomas, a Spanish language school with an
excellent presence in Spain. This work is covered by a
creative commons license
|
|
|
|
|
