Paella_Spr20_Ed-final.qxp_Road Trip_Cinci.qxd 3/2/20 4:28 AM Page 36
food | paella
World-Class
Paella
The lights are low in the back dining room at Caffe Classico. In one corner a guitarist fingerpicks mellow tunes on a classical guitar. Outside, Frankfort Avenue is bustling, as always, with foot and road traffic. But as people
Made with a Surgeon’s Touch
start to gather in this room, you watch them
BY MICHAEL L. JONES | PHOTOS BY DAN DRY
Partly that’s because of the lighting and the
instantly go calm as they enter the room. room’s ambiance. Partly it’s because of the music. But mostly it’s because of the aromas of saffron and smoked paprika rising from a wide, sprawling paella pan tended by the calm, cheerful Gustavo Pérez-Abadia.
y day, Pérez-Abadía, an M.D., serves on the faculty in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Louisville. His teaching and research focuses on one of the most exacting and disciplined areas in all of medicine: microsurgical procedures used for hand and facial transplants. It’s a field that traces its history back to the pioneering Louisville hand surgeons Harold Kleinert and Joseph E. Kutz. But when he’s not absorbed in the high-tech world of advanced microscopes and imaging, and incredibly precise instruments, Pérez-Abadía steps into a more traditional realm. He enters the flamboyant world of paella. It’s one of the world’s most fascinating culinary legacies, with a heritage so rich that UNESCO is on track to honor paella by declaring it an Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Paella originated in 10th century Spain, when the Moors ruled the country. The Moors introduced rice and saffron, the two main ingredients in paella, to the Iberian Peninsula. Legend has it that the dish was created by royal servants looking to reuse leftovers. The name comes from the pan they used to cook it, a rounded pot that resembles a shallow wok with a flat, dimpled bottom. There are numerous recipes for paella, although most of them involve seafood and chicken. Pérez-Abadía never made paella when he was growing up in Argentina, but now he makes at least 20 paellas a year. Most of them are cooked at Caffe Classico on Frankfort Avenue, which has hosted a monthly paella night for the last two years. But Pérez-Abadía also cooks at community fund-raisers and in paella cook-offs around the
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Caffe Classico Gustavo Pérez-Abadia (left) and Caffe Classico owner Tommy Mudd 36 Spring 2020 www.foodanddine.com
2144 Frankfort Avenue
502.895.0076 www.caffe-classico.com