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A Gerry Dawes con gran cariño y como recuerdo de una cena fabuloso en nuestra Sevilla. Virginia Smith, Sevilla 1971. (To Gerry Dawes with great affection and as a remembrance of a fabulous dinner in our Sevilla.) The inscription Virginia wrote in my copy of Iberia after a dinner my late former wife Diana Valenti Dawes and I had at our house in the Barrio de Santa Cruz, with American Matador John Fulton in attendance.
Virginia Smith, Bar
Txoko, Pamplona, Fiestas de San Fermín, 1971. Photo
by Gerry Dawes©2020.
"From that first Sunday in Valencia when I watched Lalanda, Ortega and El Estudiante fight six bulls I have been a devotee of the bullring. Over a period of thirty-five seasons I have seen all the great matadors in Spain and Mexico save Pepe Luis Vazquez the Spaniard, although strangely enough I was a good friend of the Mexican matador of that name. I have traveled with bullfighters in both countries, have read almost everything in print in both Spanish and English, plus many fine books in French, and instead of losing interest as the years passed, I have found my appetite for this art increasing.
I suppose I have seen over 250 fights with full matadors, which is a far cry from the 750 which a professional bull-follower like Kenneth Vanderford has seen, or the amazing 114 which the American girl Virginia Smith saw in one year by dint of driving her Renault like mad back and forth across Spain during the bullfight season. I have long since stopped making apologies for my interest in the bulls, but I do believe that the following observations by a Spaniard who had lived in America will prove relevant." --James A. Michener, Iberia Spanish Travels and Reflections, The Bulls, Pg. 530 in the 1968 Random House edition.
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About Gerry Dawes
Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.
In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés.
". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009.
Gerry Dawes was the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio program on WPWL 103.7 FM Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York.
Pilot for a reality television series
on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
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