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In 2019, again ranked in the Top 50 Gastronomy Blogs and Websites for Gastronomists & Gastronomes in 2019 by Feedspot. "The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with . . . high-quality information. (Last Updated Oct 23, 2019)

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36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel gerrydawesspain.com

"My good friend Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country's culinary life. . .” - - Chef-restaurateur-humanitarian José Andrés, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and Oscar Presenter 2019; Chef-partner of Mercado Little Spain at Hudson Yards, New York 2019

2/21/2022

The Very, Very True Tale of a Remarkable Pair of Rattlesnake-bitten Tony Lama Cowboy Boots, Also Starring Three Other Pairs of Tony Lama Boots, The French Laundry's Thomas Keller and John Williams of Frog's Leap Winery and My Bucket List Boots From Great Roy Flynn of Boots & Boogie in Santa Fe, New Mexico


* * * * *

Well, Sirs, the tale of my Tony Lama boots—Teju lizard, peanut brittle color now; tan Mojave lizard, I think, when I bought them—goes like this.

Tony Lama boots, purchased at The Rusty Spur, Marion, IL, circa 1976. Note the darker area on the left-hand boot (right foot) stained by Chef Thomas Keller's reduction sauce at Rakel's in New York City.
 
(This tale was originally written as an entry in a Tony Lama cowboy boot story contest, which I didn't win, an outcome that  amazes me still.  Note: All photographs are by me, Gerry Dawes, and are copyrighted.) 

Back in the 1970s, when I returned from living in Spain and chasing the bullfights for eight years, I went to see my Uncle Bob Minton, down in Marion, Ilinois, where there was the Rusty Spur Western Store. He took me over there because I had decided it was time for me to man up and get me a pair of cowboy boots. Wow, I didn’t know what I was letting myself in for.

Nearly forty years later, eight pairs of cowboy boots—including four pairs of Tony Lamas—and a slew of adventures in those cowboy boots (especially in the Tony Lamas), I realized that I had become a cowboy boot addict. The only thing that could have been worse would have been if I had been able to afford to really indulge my habit.

Now, I know that you want a story about old boots, so this one will be on the nearly forty-year old pair mentioned in the paragraph above, and not the black Tony Lama Teju lizard boots with the pretty white stitching (bought in Weird Austin) that I only wear with a tuxedo to formal events in New York.

Gerry Dawes's Black Tony Lama Teju Lizard boots that he wears to black-tie events in New York.

Nor will I enter the exceptional pair of Tony Lama shark boots with the cream-colored tops that I can wear anywhere even if it is raining (water and sharks go together); I got them at the Rusty Spur or when I came down to visit Fall Creek Vineyards (in Texas Hill Country) when I was in the wine business back in the 1980s and Susan Auler, the owner of Fall Creek, first took me to Allen’s Boots on South Congress in Austin and my friend Weird-Austinite Dennis Cole (click on the link to read that truly weird tale) has also taken me to Allen's on a couple of occasions.


Gerry Dawes's Tony Lama Shark boots.

Nor will I enter the pair of Tony Lama peanut brittle colored ostrich boots on which I went and spilled some drops of Spanish extra virgen olive oil on (I cook a lot).
 

Tony Lama Ostrich boots with Spanish extra virgen olive oil stains.


I was thinking about writing to you about to see if you could tell me how get the olive oil stains off those tall bird boots. 


Tony Lama Ostrich boots with Spanish extra virgen olive oil stains.

I believe I got them at the Rusty Spur as well, but I may have purchased them at  Weird Austin Allen's.  


Allen's Boots on South Congress Ave. in Austin, Texas. 
Note the big Justin boot over the awning. Justin owns Tony Lama Boots.

I have this pair of Tony Lama Black Teju Lizard boots scouted out at Allen's as probable purchase to become my front-line black boots to wear to black-tie functions and  also another pair of Tony Lama Peanut Brittle Teju Lizard boots to replace the rattle snake-and-Thomas Keller-reduction-sauce-bitten original vintage boots that are the subject of this very true story.   


Tony Lama Black Teju Lizard boots at Allen's in Austin. These are my Sunday-go-to-meetin' boots that I wear to black tie events in New York City.

The only time that I bought a pair of boots in Texas that I didn't purchase at Allen's in Austin was the time I went to Dallas and got a pair of light peanut brittle-colored boots that are way too pretty to wear.  Not only do I rarely wear them, except under controlled circumstances (no rain the forecast, no tapas bar hopping, no possible reduction sauce or olive oil moments) because they are too pretty to ruin, they also have a very narrow throat, which means that I can only wear them if  my SE (Spousal Equivalent) will be around to help me pull them off and at the risk of inducing a hernia in one of us at that.  Four years after I bought them, as I was doing an in-depth full boot review so I could be informed before I entered the Tony Lama Boot contest, I looked inside for the brand and saw a stamp “For Export Markets Only,” something I have not seen inside my Tony Lama boots.

That leaves the boots in the photos that I am entering in your contest and, well, as you might imagine, there is one Hell of a story behind these boots. First off, I wore them out on the town in New York for many years. I was in the wine business and sold some of the world’s greatest wines to a slew of top restaurants. I was wearing this pair one night when I went to Rakel, where Chef Thomas Keller, now of The French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon and God knows what other big-time restaurants in Napa Valley, Las Vegas, New York and maybe Singapore (who knows?), was cooking.
 
 

Tony Lama boots, purchased at The Rusty Spur, Marion, IL, circa 1976. Note the darker area on the left-hand boot (right foot) stained by Chef Thomas Keller's reduction sauce at Rakel's in New York City.

The particularly eventful night I went to Keller's Rakel wearing these Tony Lama boots (the ones in the enclosed pictures) I was out with John Williams, the owner of Frog’s Leap Winery in Napa Valley.



We were having one of Keller’s fabulous dinners and trying to talk, but there was a piano player at Rakel playing a pretty stepped up version of jazz music, so much so that we were getting a little frantic trying to have a conversation with this schizoid music going on in the background.

I looked down at my Tony Lama boots and thought, “D-mn, these'r sum gd lukin bts.” (I told you the music was making us crazy, and this was before texting.)

Then, with my hand in time with that rapido piano music, I lifted a fork full of Keller’s food—it was a dish with a very dark, very rich reduction sauce—towards my mouth and missed. A big drop of Keller’s sauce fell and plopped right onto my beautiful Tony Lama boot, the right one to be precise. You can imagine how I felt. I tried to wipe it off with my napkin, but it had indelibly tattooed a dark spot on my Tony Lama boot and God, I loved those boots.

Not long after that spill that stained these beautiful Tony Lama boots, I looked over at John Williams and said, “J—s Christ, I wish somebody would tell that piano player to stop!”


John Williams, Owner, Founder, Winemaker and Philosopher at 
Frog's Leap Winery, Rutherford, Napa Valley, California.
Photo courtesy of seacoastonline.com

Williams said, “Me, too!”

Right about then, the piano player took a break, much to our relief.

“Wow, what a relief,” I said.

John Williams said, “Speaking of relief, I going to the pissoir. (He makes wines with several French grapes, so he knew what a pissoir was in French.)

I contemplated the disaster that had befallen my prized Tony Lama boots.

After a few minutes, Williams returned, a bit red in the face I thought.

“You will never believe what happened, “ he said. “I was standing in the pissoir taking a wiz and there was a guy at the urinal next to me.

He asked me how I liked the restaurant. I said , ‘Fine, but I wish somebody would shoot that piano player.”

The guy said, “I am the piano player.”


Chef Thomas Keller's reduction sauce stain from Rakel's in New York City.

For years, I pestered Thomas Keller, who was a charter member of a club I founded for chefs—The Chefs From Hell Acrobatic Unicyclists and Winetasters Club (we didn’t allow acrobatic unicyclists at our gatherings), to buy me a new pair of Tony Lama boots to replace the pair that his reduction sauce had ruined. All these years, he has steadfastly refused. (I just saw him in northern Spain in November and he re-affirmed his refusal to buy me a new pair of Tony Lama boots.)


Three-star Michelin Chefs Juan Mari Arzak & Thomas Keller at San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010.  Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010.

That reduction sauce stain was not the only thing that happened to these Tony Lama boots. There was also the rattlesnake incident, which truth be known was as much the fault of the boots (or Keller’s reduction sauce) as it was of the rattlesnake. I come from Southern Illinois, which is below the Mason-Dixon line and is full of hills, many of them made out of huge boulders pushed ahead of the glaciers back in the Ice Age, so where I came from is hilly while most of the rest of Illinois is very flat.

Now, rattlesnakes just love these hills for some reason, so much so that Southern Illinois University, home of the Saluki Dawgs (Mr. Walt "Clyde" Frazier of the New York Knicks played college basketball at Southern Illinois when they won the NIT, back when the NIT was worth winning), started a movement to protect the snakes down in the Pine Hills area. When I was a kid, I went fishing down there with my Grampy "Chig" Minton, and Uncle Bob. 

On the way into the fishin’ hole, we stepped over a log that had a copperhead coiled under it (Uncle Bob killed it after me and Grampy had stepped over the log), then Grampy stepped on two water moccasins at the same time. We saw rattlers on the road and a whole bunch of other snakes swimming, sunning themselves and hanging from the trees that day down in the Scatters, which is what they call the swamps down there in the bottoms, or bottom lands, of the Mississippi River.

I was wearing my Tony Lama cowboy boots—the very ones in the pictures—when I went back home to Southern Illinios and decided to drive down there to the Scatters one day to show my ex-wife (she wasn’t my ex-wife then!) how beautiful those hills and swamps were. I really didn’t intend to get out of the car, because the area has been known to shelter snakes (see above).   In fact the geniuses (geniusi?) at the aforementioned Southern Illinois University managed to get the road closings during rattler mating season so them mean ole boys downtown wouldn't run over them in their pickup trucks.  But, since they didn’t have the road closed through the Scatters for rattlesnake mating season, during which the hillls are alive with the sounds of rattlesnake tail music!, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get out of the car and have a look at the swamps to see if there was something interesting to point out to my ex-wife, like snakes hanging from tree branches. Mistake!

I got out of the car to have a look around to see if it was okay for my then-wife to get out and I had gone no more than a couple of yards alongside the gravel road when I heard a noise that sounded like a baby boy with hyper-tension shaking a toy rattle. Oh, boy!  I figured right away what that rattle was attached to, but not before a rattlesnake about ten-feet long lunged out from the side of the road and struck at my foot. Now, I pretty well figured that my calves and shins were protected—why do you reckon I wore by cowboy boots to snake country?

That snake struck a glancing blow at my boot and just snagged a bit of the top of it on the right side, leaving a gash about an inch long. He didn’t get a second chance, because I was out of there like a bat out of Hell. I drove down to levee road, which was high enough above the swamp and didn’t have all that many places for snakes to hang out.

My then-wife said, “Are you okay?”

“I think so, but I need to see what that snake did to my Tony Lama boot.”

I got out and I asked her to help me pull off my right Tony Lama boot, being careful not to get any venom—not to be confused with Keller’s reduction sauce—on her hands. She had a little trouble getting the boot off. Since the boots had always been a little tight and the throat was a bit narrow, it was potentially hernia-inducing to get them off without a boot jack (if you don't know what a boot jack is, stop reading).

Once she removed the boot, I examined it and saw the rip along the top. My boot was now a wounded lizard. But fortunately the fangs did not penetrate the boot and nail me in the foot, ‘cause by the time she would have been able to pull that boot off and suck the venom out of my big toe, I would have been dead, with just my (one) Tony Lama boot on.


Tony Lama boots, purchased at The Rusty Spur, Marion, IL, circa 1976. 
Note the rattlesnake strike tear on the left-hand boot (right foot).

I got to thinking about it on the way home. I figured that that rattlesnake had one of two things on his mind. Either he had been after Keller’s reduction sauce or, more likely, he had mistaken that gorgeous lizard boot for another reptile, had taken my left boot to be a female reptile—probably the scent. I reasoned that the snake had fallen in love with my left boot--Tony Lama boots can cause more than snakes to be smitten--and had struck the right one to get rid of her boyfriend.  Either way, because I feared that I might absorb some venom by osmosis, I decided to retire those boots that had tightened up further—shrunk with fright, no doubt--after their encounter with the rattler.


Retired, rattlesnake-wounded, Keller reduction sauce-stained, Tony Lama boots.

Those boots have been in the back of the closet for at least twenty years as I went on to more boots, including those Tony Lamas mentioned above. The rattlesnake-attracting qualities of my first pair did not deter me from my long-term afición for Tony Lamas.

When I saw that there was a Tony Lama contest on, I decided to pull out my original boots and see what kind of shape they were in. I think you can see by the pictures that these 35-year old something boots are in pretty damn good shape for what they have been through—the Scatters, a rattlesnake, New York City, a frantic piano player and Thomas Keller’s reduction sauce. And I think the rattlesnake venom must have been somewhat like a natural crazy glue, because the snake gash seems to have healed somewhat—or maybe the lizard re-generated some skin.

So, this is my story about Tony Lama boots, but if you should deign to consider my boot story a winner, I have to tell you that I need two new pairs of your boots, a replacement for the snake-bit, reduction sauce, wounded boot and a new black pair to replace the ones that I wear to black-tie events in New York City and in Madrid.

The black pair are neither snake nor sauce bit, but after twenty years they don’t look quite as new to wear just in case I get invited to a dinner for the Queen of Spain again, and the toe is too rounded to be bonafide chain link fence climbers.  But, that’s a story for another time.


New York City Tuxedo Tony Lama Black Teju Lizard boots.

At my age, having collected nine pairs of cowboy boots over a period of fifty years (these boots are a great buy, since properly cared for they last for ages), I only rarely cocked my eye towards any new acquisitions, BUT there were two exceptions:  One, at the Railyards Complex in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Kay and I went to the Farmer's Market, which is next to the Railyard Mercado, an enclosed indoor flea market, where we met John Carrick, who sells used cowboy boots, plays in a band called the Juke Joint Prophets and is married to a very nice, pretty real estate agent named Linda Schulman.  At their boot stand, a reasonably priced pair, made even more reasonably priced after we became acquainted with them and went to the Juke Joint Prophets gig at the market.  I saw this new used pair, the only used pair I have ever acquired, and decided that these boots were a wise acquisition (translation: this momentarily slaked my cowboy boot addiction).


The used pair of Tony Lama boots that I bought from John Carrick and Linda Schulman at the Railyards Mercado in Santa Fe, NM

Before You Accuse Me, The Juke Join Prophets, Railyard Mercado, Santa Fe, NM

For several years, I have had two acquisitions on my bucket list:  A cape from Seseña in Madrid, with real silver Roman coins for a clasp and a pair of boots from the great Roy Flynn´s Boots & Boogie in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  I had seen Boots & Boogie and talked to Roy Flynn on previous trips to Santa Fe, but the $10,000 blue bonnet-design was never in my wheel house, nor the $1299 minimum for a pair of Roy´s exquisite hand-made boots.  A year or so ago, I returned to Santa Fe and did a series of programs for my Gerry Dawes & Friends radio program on WPWL Public Radio (Pawling, NY) based on interviews with Santa Fe Chefs James Campbell Caruso of La Boca, Mark Kiffin of The Compound and the godfather of New Mexico chefs Mark Miller, plus the great Native American flute maker and flute player Sky Redhook.  
 
 
 Roy Flynn and the late Boogie, his Malamute-Wolf mix dog, with a pair of his boots decorated with the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe.
 
High on my list of interviewees was Roy Flynn, so I also visited him at Boots & Boogie and did this terrific interview.  Roy had shown me the pair of rough-out boots shown in the interview video clip below.  When we finished the interview, Roy, who has since sold Boots & Boogie, but still shows up there a few days a week, asked me to try on the $1500 roughouts.   Magnificent boots!

"How do they feel?" he asked, a felt along the boot to check the fit.

"Great, they are beautiful!"

"Well, they are yours."

"What?"

"Yes, I want you to have them."

"Oh, come on, Roy, you can't do that!"

"Oh, yes, I can," he said, "At my age and stage in life, I can do what I damn well please."


Through a miracle, the incredible generosity of this unforgettable gentleman, with mouth-dropping surprise, a key bucket list item was checked off my list.  (I can only hope that Roy goes to Madrid and takes over the Seseña cape shop in Madrid.)


 Lugus Mercury roughout boots from Boots & Boogie, Santa Fe, NM.



  
My second night out wearing my bucket list Lugus Mercury (El Paso, Texas) roughout boots from Roy Flynn's Boots & Boogie in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The first time I wore them, straight from the box, they fit like a glove, no rubbing, no foot discomfort or weariness from wearing a brand new pair of boots. Second night, tonight, like a glove, the same. Incredible boots. Google  Boots & Boogie.

Gerry Dawes & Friends WPWL Pawling Public Radio, Dec. 11, 2018 Roy Flynn, Boots & Boogie Interview Video from Gerry Dawes on Vimeo.

Gerry Dawes & Friends Dec.11, 2018 Roy Flynn, Boots & Boogie, Santa Fe, New Mexico Interview Part Two from Gerry Dawes on Vimeo.
 
 * * * * *



 
Comments are welcome and encouraged.
 
Text and photographs copyright by Gerry Dawes©2021.  Using photographs without crediting Gerry Dawes©2021 on Facebook.  Publication without my written permission is not authorized.

* * * * *
  Shall deeds of Caesar or Napoleon ring
More true than Don Quixote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?
 
Poem by Archer M. Huntington inscribed under the Don Quixote on his horse Rocinante bas-relief sculpture by his wife, Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington,
in the courtyard of the Hispanic Society of America’s incredible museum at 613 W. 155th Street, New York City.
 __________________________________________________________________________________
 Gastronomy Blogs

In 2019, again ranked in the Top 50 Gastronomy Blogs and Websites for Gastronomists & Gastronomes in 2019 by Feedspot. (Last Updated Oct 23, 2019) 

"The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science blogs in our index using search and social metrics. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information."  

36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel


 
About Gerry Dawes

My good friend Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country's culinary life." -- Chef-restaurateur-humanitarian José Andrés, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and Oscar Presenter 2019


Gerry Dawes is the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York (streaming live and archived at www.pawlingpublicradio.org and at www.beatofthevalley.com.)

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. 


". . .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. 
 
 
 
Pilot for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 
 * * * * *
If you enjoy these blog posts, please consider a contribution to help me continue the work of gathering all this information and photographs for Gerry Dawes's Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel. Contributions of $5 and up will be greatly appreciated. Contributions of $100 or more will be acknowledged on the blog.

* * * * To make your contribution, please click on this secure link to Paypal.* * * *


2/04/2022

Cookbook Author and Writer on Spanish Food Janet Mendel on Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I Enhanced Photograph Edition, Foreword by José Andrés.

* * * * * 
 
Janet Mendel at Dos Palillos restaurante, Barcelona. Photograph by Gerry Dawes.
 
 
Janet Mendel has lived in the village of Mijas (Málaga), Spain for more than 50 years. I first met her when I lived in Mijas for three years and ran The Dawes Gallery of Contemporary Art in the mid-1970s and have visited her at her lovely hillside home set among her olive trees a few kilometers west of the village. Janet Mendel is a highly respected writer who has published nearly a dozen books* on the food and cooking of Spain.

She wrote me today about my book Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I Enhanced Photograph Edition, Foreword by José Andrés.

"Congratulations! What a feat, to write and publish this book, Sunset in a Glass. It's packed with fascinating stories about people and places in the country we both love. I learned a lot--Asturian cheeses, the insider's look at Vega Sicilia. . .

You write so well about the personalities along the food and wine trail. I enjoyed reading about Quim (Marquez, Quim de la Boqueria) and Javier Hidalgo (of the Manzanilla sherry family), Marino Gonzalez (the padrino of artisan Asturian cheeses) and Ambrosio (Ambrosio Molinos, the late legendary cheesemaker and gourmand from the Ribera del Duero). Through them you create evocative views of their patrias chicas that inflect the food and wine. Your photos add a lot.

I also liked reading your backstory and wished for more! How you got to be Gerry Dawes, the road warrior. Some chronology would help to tie the disparate stories together. A little about what you did to make a living in the U.S. (wine merchant?) and what led to your returning to Spain on a regular basis?"

Volume II is on its way, Janet, a few more months. Paciencia, paciencia, all will be revealed.
 
Janet Mendel in her kitchen Mijas (Málaga), Spain. Photograph by Gerry Dawes.

*Books by Janet Mendel.

Tapas, a bite of Spain (Santana Books, 2008)

Traditional Spanish Cooking (Frances Lincoln, 2006)

Cooking from the heart of Spain: Food of La Mancha (William Morrow Cookbooks, 2006)

Mi Kitchen in Spain. 225 Authentic Regional Recipes (Harper Collins Publisher, 2002)

Shopping for food and wine in Spain (Santana Books, 1998)

Tapas and More Great Dishes of Spain (Santana Books, 1997)

Traditional Spanish Cooking (Garnet Publishing, 1996)

The best of cooking in Spain (Santana Books, 1996)

Cooking in Spain (Lookout Publications.

Photo: Janet Mendel at Dos Palillos restaurante, Barcelona. Photograph by Gerry Dawes. #food #writer #spain
 

 * * * * *

Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I Enhanced Photograph Edition, Foreword by José Andrés.

Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior Volume I (of IV) is a collection of non-fiction stories about the adventures of recognized Spanish food, wine and travel authority Gerry Dawes, recipient of the prestigious Spanish National Gastronomy Prize. Sunset in a Glass is illustrated with more than 150 color and black-and-white photographs chronicling adventures from decades of living and traveling in Spain. Foreword by José Andrés.

 Constructive comments are welcome and encouraged.
 
If you enjoy these blog posts, please consider a contribution to help me continue the work of gathering all this great information and these photographs for Gerry Dawes's Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel. Contributions of $5 and up will be greatly appreciated. Contributions of $100 or more will be acknowledged on the blog. Please click on this secure link to Paypal to make your contribution.
 
Text and photographs copyright by Gerry Dawes©2021.  Using photographs without crediting Gerry Dawes©2021 on Facebook.  Publication without my written permission is not authorized.
 
* * * * *
  Shall deeds of Caesar or Napoleon ring
More true than Don Quixote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?
 
Poem by Archer M. Huntington inscribed under the Don Quixote on his horse Rocinante bas-relief sculpture by his wife, Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington,
in the courtyard of the Hispanic Society of America’s incredible museum at 613 W. 155th Street, New York City.
 _________________________________________________________________________
 Gastronomy Blogs

In 2019, again ranked in the Top 50 Gastronomy Blogs and Websites for Gastronomists & Gastronomes in 2019 by Feedspot. (Last Updated Oct 23, 2019) 

"The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science blogs in our index using search and social metrics. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information."  

36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel


 
About Gerry Dawes

My good friend Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country's culinary life." -- Chef-restaurateur-humanitarian José Andrés, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and Oscar Presenter 2019


Gerry Dawes is the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York (streaming live and archived at www.pawlingpublicradio.org and at www.beatofthevalley.com.)

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. 


". . .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. 
 
Pilot for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

2/03/2022

Reviews & Endorsements of Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I Enhanced Photography Edition, Foreword by José Andrés.

 
* * * * * 
 
Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior Volume I (of IV) is a collection of non-fiction stories about the adventures of recognized Spanish food, wine and travel authority Gerry Dawes, recipient of the prestigious Spanish National Gastronomy Prize. Sunset in a Glass is illustrated with more than 150 color and black-and-white photographs chronicling adventures from decades of living and traveling in Spain. Foreword by José Andrés.

This book is perfect for armchair travelers deprived of their ability to travel because of the COVID pandemic and those undergoing Spain withdrawal. Sunset in a Glass is a great holiday gift for those who love travel, adventure, Spain and Spanish food and wine.

The stories in this Sunset in a Glass are from decades of crisscrossing Spain accumulating adventures with the likes of José Andrés, Anthony Bourdain, James Earl Jones, Kenneth Tynan, Keith Hernandez, Thomas Keller, Ferran Adria, top chefs and restaurateurs, star winemakers and down home artisan wine producers, professional Ibérico ham carvers, bullfighters, flamenco artists, friends of Ernest Hemingway and a marvelous collection of women in Spain.

Endorsements From Chefs, Authors and Celebrities
 
“Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country’s culinary life. He has connected with all manner of people working at every level and in every corner of Spain. You can step into a restaurant in the smallest town in Spain, and it turns out they know Gerry somehow.”—José Andrés, chef-restaurateur-humanitarian, Nobel Prize nominee.

“In his decades of wandering the back roads of Spain Gerry Dawes has built up a much stronger bank of experiences than I had to rely on when I started writing Iberia...His adventures far exceeded mine in both width and depth.”—James A. Michener, author of Iberia: Spanish Travels and Reflections.

Before the golden age of food travel media, and long before Spain became the world’s most exciting food destination, there was Gerry Dawes. A walking (and eating) encyclopedia of Spanish food and culture—from tapas to the culinary innovators, from artisan winemakers and cheesemakers to the sites only the locals know—Gerry has chronicled them all. Like few others, he continues to inspire and inform a generation of food writers, travelers and chefs like me.”—Dan Barber, Chef-owner, Blue Hill New York and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, author of The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food.
 
 
“Thanks for your artistry. If I had not seen your photography, I would not have known you as well.” —James Earl Jones, during The Great White Hope filming in Barcelona.
 
 

 
“Gerry Dawes has lived, analysed, argued, savoured, prodded, tested, teased and loved his way through Spain’s extraordinary gastronomic heritage for decades. Food as friendship is at the core of this wild, passionate road trip through Spain. This is a masterclass in storytelling - delicious and addictive.”—Gijs van Hensbergen, Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon and Gaudí: A Biography.

“Prowling through the bodegas, tapas bars, and markets of Spain with Gerry Dawes is an educational experience, sure, but more than that it’s an inside look at one of the world’s great gastronomic cultures, and more than that, it’s just a whole lot of fun. Gerry knows almost anyone you’d want to know in this delicious world, and those he doesn’t know, once he meets them, aren’t strangers for long. Sunset in a Glass will give you a tantalizing taste of the experience.”—Colman Andrews, author of Catalan Cuisine, co-founder of Saveur.

“Spain wouldn’t be as known to Americans without the stories Gerry tells and writes.”—Chef Ferran Adrià, elBulli.
  
 
 
 
 “Most of what I know about Spain came from Gerry Dawes. Sunset in a Glass is the authoritative source for everything Spanish—people, food, wine, culture. And his diverting escapades on the road sometimes read like James Michener with Hunter Thompson in the passenger’s seat.”—Bryan Miller, former New York Times restaurant critic and author, Dining in the Dark.
 
 
Reader's Reviews
 
 Chef Norman Van Aken.  Photo by Gerry Dawes. 

This just in from the great chef of Florida, Norman Van Aken, chef-owner of Norman's in the Ritz-Carlton, Orlando, FL and author of the really great book No Experience Necessary and other books on food and cooking. 
 
Norman Van Aken 5 out of 5 Stars Jan. 29, 2022
 
 "If you love Spanish food and wine, (and who couldn’t!) do yourself a favor and learn from a gentleman named Gerry Dawes the deep dive that can be had when you read his new book, “Sunset in a Glass”.
I have had the great fortune to have gone on a tour in Spain curated and hosted in part by Gerry. He took us to places we never would have found on our own. And with his often decades long personal friendships with key member of the Spanish food and wine community doors were opened that gave us the true insider’s experience.
While you might not be doing international travel just yet ‘Sunset in a Glass’ with take you there from the comfort of your favorite reading chair. And drinking a fine Rioja is perfectly appreciated as you do!" 
 
For the Love of Spain and "Mr. Spain" 
 
Samantha (and Ed) Kamenitzer 5.0 out of 5 stars 
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2022
 

Best book ever on Spain and it’s food, wine and people.

mel master (Melvyn Master, Former owner of JAMS restaurant, wine executive)       5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2021

No one is better equipped to write about Spain and its glorious food and wine than the irrepressible Spanish expert, Gerry Dawes. His stories about his experiences with so many fascinating people and wonderful places are an absolute joy to read. The book is not just well written but extremely informative and the photography is superb. It made me want to get in a plane immediately and head to Spain with “sunset in a glass” as my luggage! 

laura shapiro 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2022

This magnificent tribute to the wine, food, and beauty of Spain is a must for those of you who love Spain and for those who want to travel but can’t right now.
Filled with beautiful imagery and great stories, few know Spain as well as Gerry Dawes. Seeing Spain through his eyes and experiences is truly magical.

Your one-stop book for learning about the wines, food, and cities of Spain

David Ramey (Esteemed Sonoma winemaker)  5.0 out of 5 stars                          Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2022

Gerry Dawes has been a wine expert for over forty years and a frequent traveler in Spain for over fifty. In these essays and photos he shares with us his immense knowledge and love of Spanish wine, food, and the country. Pour yourself a glass of Rioja and take a tour with him of this fascinating culture.

Beautiful photos, a remembrance of Spain!   

Kenneth W. Blair 5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2022

I particularly enjoyed chapter 8, the great Barcelona market experience brought back memories of my own trip to the great market. Mr. Dawes book paints a beautiful picture of Spain, it’s food, wine, and beauty! 

 A Spanish adventure in a book!

Elena 5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2021

This book transports you through The beautiful landscape and culture of Spain. Gerry Dawes is well-known in gastronomic circles as the leading Authority in the country on Spanish food & wine. This book details his travels, the unique characters, and delicious food and wine he encounters along the way. Reading this really makes you feel like you are immersed in Spanish culture, with his Vivid writing style and gorgeous color photographs that he has captured throughout his travels. It makes you want to travel to Espana to sit on the beautiful playas, sipping Manzanilla and eating mariscos on the shores at sunset. Perfect for the traveler and wannabe adventurer in your family. 

A MUST Read if you eat, drink and enjoy life’s adventures.

 
mariarev (Philip S. Kampe, food, wine and travel journalist) 5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2022
 
Who is this guy Gerry Dawes?  After reading his epic journey and basically his life story in a couple hundred pages, I have to say that I’m in awe of his life’s saga.
Mr. Dawes is a significant traveler and educator who has focused his life on ‘everything Spanish.’ From politics to bullfighting to wine and food, this man has a significant place in Spanish history as possibly the best modern day biographer of this most interesting country. If you want to join his journey, I recommend reading this book because if you don’t you will be missing a Spanish education that only Gerry Dawes can give you.

I’m on my second reading because it’s one of those books you can’t put down.
Hopefully, there will be a second book that contains those observations of Spain that did not make it into this book.  BRAVO Gerry Dawes! 
 
Personal experiences in Spain over the past 50 years.
 
Boston Boy 5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2022
 
I first met Gerry Dawes over 50 years ago when we were at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. We were then assigned to the U.S. Naval Base in Rota, Spain. I spent most of my spare time playing golf at the lovely golf course on the base. One of the very few words in Spanish that I learned was "pelota de golf." Meanwhie, Gerry was immersing himself in Spanish language, cuisine and culture. He was a quick study, and when we were discharged in early 1970, he decided to stay on and live in Sevilla. The result of those fifty-plus years is this remarkable book. Not to exaggerate, but Gerry knows just about all there is on Spanish culture, wine, cuisine, history and travel. This book is is a compendium of his experiences in Spain and is filled with colorful incidents and historical background. One note: Thinking of running the bulls in Pamplona? Read Gerry's experiences from the "encierro" of 1970. You might want to reconsider! Buy this book for more exciting and informative stories of over fifty years in Spain. Definitive! 
 
Cara de Silva, author and Food Writer.
 
 
 Adventures in Spain for the reader's mind, mouth, and heart.
 
Veronica F. (Cara de Silva, author, food writer and editor of In Memory's Kitchen) 
5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2022
 
Gerry Dawes' ability to transport the readers of this book to Spain through a rich narrative imbued with a sense of the country and its wine, food is truly inimitable. And I have to thank him for it. There are places that are part of us before we ever get there. That is how Spain was for me. On my first visit, my dreams made real lay before me: Seville, the Sierra Nevada, the Alhambra, Barcelona, flamenco, the White towns, the faces of the Spaniards and especially of the young man with whom I fell in love. But beyond those there were also the country’s flavors and they greeted and enchanted me: Jamón Iberico (some would say the greatest cured ham in the world); churros and chocolate, cochinillo (whole roast suckling pig), patatas brava, manzanilla, fino, and Asturian cider among them. So when many visits later, I left Spain for what unbeknownst to me would be decades, I felt a yearning for all of that so keen that it shocked me. I have not yet made it back, so the fierce longing continues. But when I read the first volume of "Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain," what a “homecoming” it was. Written by the estimable Dawes, a deeply knowledgeable traveler and food and wine writer (among many other accolades he is a recipient of Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía), the book is chockablock with tales and photographs of people, places, food, chefs, wine and wine makers, traditional and modern. But it isn't just chockablock with them. It is powerfully alive with them. I knew before I had even turned the first page that "Sunset in a Glass" would soothe my heart. And how right I was. Gracias, Gerry, for setting down your adventures. No te puedo agradecer lo suficiente. I would give your book ten stars if I could And I cannot wait for the volumes yet to come. 
 
Most Comprehensive guide to Spanish food and wine
 
John Mariani (author, food writer, Mariani's Virtual Gourmet) 5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2022
 
Gerry Dawes has given us a book that is not just the most comprehensive guide to Spanish food culture but imbues it with the passion of someone who fell in thrall with the country and its people decades ago. He is that most intrepid of reporters, asking every question an outsider needs to ask to make ancient traditions clear. I suspect he knows more about Spanish wines and food than most Spaniards who have nothing close to his intimacy with each and every region. 
 
Jeff Cox (author and food and wine writer) 5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2022
 
Loved the book. Gerry excels as a travel writer for two chief reasons. First, he describes in sensuous detail the sights and sounds and smells and people of the places he visits and friends he cares about; and second, he focuses on the foods and wines of the place--kind of verbal terroir--especially of the unique specialties to be found there. His book is like a diary of his experiences in Spain and offers us a rare glimpse into that country's romance and sensory wonders.
One person found this helpful
 
Gerry Dawes is the most knowledgeable guide you will ever have related to all things Spain
 
Stephen Kalt (Chef, Los Angeles) 5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2021
 
You can immerse yourself from afar, using this book as the ultimate guide and resource for wine and food of Spain. Dawes is an author, a traveler, an expert, a raconteur, a deeply thoughtful and extremely funny guy. He is the one to follow when it comes to the beauty that is Spain. 
 
Colman Andrews, Madrid, Photo by Gerry Dawes. 
 
Gerry Dawes Has Spain in His Veins
 
Colman Andrews (Author of Catalan Cuisine, founder of Saveur magazine) 5.0 out of 5 stars  Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2021
 
Nobody else writing in English (and not all that many writing in Spanish) know the foods, wines, and gastronomic personalities of Spain like this hombre. He writes with passion and deep knowledge about what fuels the country he knows so well -- and he's a double threat, supplying evocative photographs as well. If you love Spanish food and wine, this is an essential -- and if you don't, read it anyway and you will be the time you get finished.
 
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Poem by Archer M. Huntington inscribed under the Don Quixote on his horse Rocinante bas-relief sculpture by his wife, Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington,
in the courtyard of the Hispanic Society of America’s incredible museum at 613 W. 155th Street, New York City.
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 Gastronomy Blogs

In 2019, again ranked in the Top 50 Gastronomy Blogs and Websites for Gastronomists & Gastronomes in 2019 by Feedspot. (Last Updated Oct 23, 2019) 

"The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science blogs in our index using search and social metrics. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information."  

36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel


 
About Gerry Dawes

My good friend Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country's culinary life." -- Chef-restaurateur-humanitarian José Andrés, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and Oscar Presenter 2019


Gerry Dawes is the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York (streaming live and archived at www.pawlingpublicradio.org and at www.beatofthevalley.com.)

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. 


". . .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. 
 
 
Pilot for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 
 
 
 
 
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