39 THE GOOD LIFE
bilbao-bizkaiatour Invierno Winter 2014
THE GOOD LIFE
BASQUE CUISINE
T
he Basque Country has become a sort of gastronomic scene. What better way to show what our people are like and their history than through our food! In essence, what we have done in the Basque Country is much like what was done with the Salón de Gourmet in Madrid, the Madrid Fusión, the Fórum de Vic, and the Fórum de Santiago, or Gastronomika in Donostia-San Sebastian. Basque cuisine has become a kind of permanent fair. There is no need for specific events. It is an event that lasts all year long, in such exceptional settings as our restaurants. This stage brings together a not-so-large world of ingredients. Here we have ended up making a virtue out of the pleasure of dining, by using techniques and creativity in a way that always best serves the ingredients. We are preserving something of vital importance: our culinary heritage. Along the way, we have not forgotten about 21st century cooking. We have used technology itself, which is great in every sense of the word: from computer programming and electronic boards to connections. This helps us to carry on progressing and to continue to be ranked so highly. By following this route we are managing to avoid what is a very common ill these days; style over substance BASELESS LUXURY? Now more than ever. We have achieved double success by making the food you eat when you dine out in some way resemble the food you have always eaten, while making it completely understandable. Years ago I talked of Juan Mari Arzak as a ‘missionary of flavour’: after him, who is like the father superior, many more have followed and today we have a huge group of chefs and catering professionals who have become increasingly sophisticated. They have all succeeded in making emotions and feelings come together in a single chord: to try to use their talent to bring people happiness.
Juan Mari Arzak.
Many of our chefs have created amazing structures which combine irony with beauty, while for others purity, warmth and meticulousness pervade their cooking. At the moment, in the Basque Country we are cooking for everyone: children, the young and the old. We also avoid highly complicated, over-elaborate dishes. You have to play with the few ingredients so that they satisfy the diner’s appetite, whether this is in Muniozguren’s bar, on the hillside of Mount Oiz or in a showy restaurant like Bilbao’s Nerua, in the bowels of the Guggenheim. In each of these cases, technique and creativity (different) are used to serve the ingredients. We are also improving the aesthetics of the business. We present concepts that invigorate the dining options; we try to find a balance between globalisation, orientalisation, Europeanisation and our own food, combining traditional velvety stews with more contemporary dishes. A balance must also be found between simple and emphatic concepts and other, sophisticated ones. We are creating a solid project in which we can all take part. There are the great standard bearers of Basque cuisine, but this groups also includes people who work in the simple restaurants that are dotted around; there is also
the important educational base of the BCC (Basque Culinary Center) which, to some extent, is going to revolutionise our scene, in the broadest sense of the word, not so much by changing what is already here, but by increasing the number of things there are to showcase. Let’s not forget the culinary, social and moral philosophy that we share, which is something that has made the history of Basque cuisine the most important in the world, despite it taking place in such a small area. Nowadays, in this rainy land in which we live, accompanied by a thousand shades of green pastures, we want to show our long horticultural tradition, those landscapes and our historical heritage to people at home and abroad. There is also an important chapter devoted to wine, but also wine-tasting, the sensorial analysis, the way in which we have learnt to sell our txakoli wines, those impressive aged ciders –without having to lift the bottle-, to improve the quality and add to the prestige of our wines. We are privileged to live in a country with one of the 5 best wine regions in the world.
Bon appetit!