* * * * *
Chef Michael Lomonaco and Gerry Dawes at the James Beard House, New York City. During the tragic events of
September, 2001, I was traveling in Spain with Santa Fe Chef Mark Miller. Our itinerary included Madrid, La
Mancha, Córdoba, Mijas, Granada, Murcia, Alicante, Valencia, Tarragona,
Priorato, Barcelona, Conca de Barbera, Navarra, The Basque Country, Ribera del
Duero, and back to Madrid. On Sept. 11,
we were having a wonderful lunch at El Poblet in Denia (Alicante), when my cell
phone rang. The call was from Teresa Barrenechea, chef-owner of Marichu
Restaurant in Manhattan. Teresa was in Marbella doing her consulting job at the
posh new Rio Real Golf Resort.
Chef-author Teresa Barrenechea. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2021.
"You won't believe it,"
she said, "a plane has hit the Torres Gemelas (the twin towers of The
World Trade Center). . . ." Then, her cell phone faded out . (Isn't it
weird how some very important calls get dropped because of poor coverage?) A
few minutes later, Teresa called again with more of the terrible news,
including the attack on the Pentagon.
Mark and I broke in the middle of
what had been one of our best meals in Spain and went into the bar area to
watch the rest of the tragic events unfold on CNN. Quique Dacosta, then a
brilliant young chef of El Poblet (now the three Chef at the same place, now
the eponymous Quique Dacosta, and most of his staff were intently focused on
the devastating events that were changing the world as we knew it. In that
moment, standing amongst the Spaniards, who were as appalled as we were, I knew
that we were all in this together and however much it might appear to be an
American problem, the scope of the events of September 11 would touch us all
deeply - - emotionally, psychologically, and economically - - before it ran its
course.
Chef Mark Miller. Photo by Gerry
Dawes©2021.
As we watched the stomach-churning
events, I worried in particular about the fate of Chef Michael Lomonaco of
Windows on the World & Wild Blue; of Jules Roinnel, Director of the World
Trade Center Club; and of several members of the World Trade Center Club, 25 of
whom Michael, Jules, and I had led on a wonderful trip around Spain in
May.
Chef Michael Lomonaco and Gerry Dawes at Porterhouse Restaurant, New York City. Photo by Kay Balun.
Mark Miller and I half-heartedly
finished our lunch, then headed for Valencia, following the news on Radio
Nacional de España. I felt in my heart that I had lost both Michael and Jules.
As one of the original members of the Chefs From Hell group that I founded in
1989, Michael had long been a dear friend and Jules and I had become very good
friends over the months of planning the WTCC trip and traveling to Spain
together on both an exploratory trip and the subsequent tour.
On the World Trade Center Club trip
to Spain in May, ironically also on the 11th day of the month, our group had
another brush with terror. Looking back, I see it was a premonition of things
to come. Our group had lunch at La Trainera, the great classic Madrid seafood
restaurant on calle Lagasca in the Barrio de Salamanca. Because Lagasca is too
narrow for a bus, our driver parked our bus in front of a BBVA bank branch on
calle Goya and we walked the three short blocks to the restaurant.
After lunch, we returned to our bus
and went to the Prado to meet our excellent guide, Juan Barrionuevo, who took
us on an enlightening tour of that magnificent museum. At my request, we began
our tour of the Prado with the Flemish masters section, which includes such masterworks
as Rogier Van der Weyden's Descent from the Cross and Hieronymous Bosch's
Garden of Earthly Delights and the table of Seven Deadly Sins. Then we went on
to the see the paintings of the great Diego Velasquez de Silva and finished the
tour with Francisco de Goya's paintings and drawings on the disasters and
futility of war.
That night, the World Trade Center
Club Group had dinner at Casa Botin, the famous roast suckling pig restaurant
where Hemingway set the last scenes of The Sun Also Rises, then many of us went
to the bar (then called the Hemingway Bar) at the Palace Hotel, which also
figures in the final pages of that book. We were having drinks, when my cell
phone rang. It was John Ewing, a dear friend who lives in Pacific Palisades,
California. John had had dinner with us at Botin and had decided to return to
his hotel, the Lagasca, coincidentally up the street from La Trainera, where
our group had lunch. On the phone, Ewing told me he had thoughts of stopping
off in the Bar Goya for a nightcap, but decided to return to his room and read
instead. Around midnight, he heard a huge explosion down the street. A car bomb
planted by the Basque terrorist group, ETA, exploded in front of the BBVA bank
branch precisely where we had parked our bus that afternoon. The explosion
trashed the block, destroyed Bar Goya, and injured 14 people, a couple of them
critically.
John Ewing and I at Las Fiestas de San Fermín in the 1990s.
The members of the World Trade
Center Club group were momentarily sobered by the event, then we toasted our
good luck in having had lunch instead of dinner at La Trainera. Two days later,
Mike Nestor carefully checked every bag that went on board our bus at the Ritz
hotel to insure that it belonged to a member of our group.
After Sept. 11, Mark Miller and I
decided to continue with the rest of our trip. Closed airports and the fact
that two of Mark's restaurant managers, Brian Cochran of Coyote Cafe in Las
Vegas and Carter Teague of Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe were already en route by
plane and arrived in Valencia on the evening of the 11th. As the days passed,
the four of us went on, alternately trying to absorb and assess the impact of
the terrorist attack and still trying to focus on the great food and wine
experiences we were having as the days went on. Each day, news from CNN &
BBC kept us informed and news from telephone calls and e-mails from America
kept us abreast of what was happening on the personal front. In this global
world of instant communications, we were probably no less informed about the
events in New York and Washington than someone in Los Angeles or Phoenix, for
instance, and certainly less affected by the rampant rumors racing around
America. As all of you might imagine, surreal is the word that comes to mind
when looking back on the events of mid-September.
As we traveled, the fact that our
world had changed forever soaked in a little deeper each day. Just how the
attack was going to affect everyone's livelihood became more sharply focused as
I periodically got more bits of information from Mark, Brian, and Carter. Washington
had become a ghost town, hotels were at 10% capacity, and many restaurants
closed at night. Business was down dramatically in Las Vegas, where hotels were
at 35% occupancy and that was just the first week. Business was off
substantially in Santa Fe. There would be layoffs, pay cuts, cutbacks in
expansion plans, glitches in plans for a new restaurant in Australia. It was
obvious that the extent of the economic damage had radiated far beyond Ground
Zero in New York.
Reaching people in New York by phone
was tough. Within a couple of days, my daughter Elena called from Phoenix to
let me know that she had seen Jules Roinnel in a television interview. Someone
else e-mailed me to let me know that Michael Lomonaco was alive and cooking for
relief teams. Through miracles, Michael, Jules, and others I knew at Windows on
the World, were spared the physical fate that befell their friends and
colleagues. Emotionally, they will live forever with the scars of what
occurred.
Michael Lomonaco escaped because he
stopped on the first floor to get his eyeglasses fixed, Jules Roinnel was saved
because he decided to work the dinner shift instead of his normal breakfast and
lunch turn. Michael Nestor, who was also on the Spain tour, had breakfast at
Windows on the World, caught the elevator at the 107th floor, and had reached
the 77th floor cross-over when the first plane hit. After a harrowing time,
during which he suffered neck injuries helping others to escape, Mike cleared
the north tower just before it collapsed. Another of our tour members, Vondell
Carter, was in the Pentagon, but escaped injury. It took me a couple of days to
find out about Michael and Jules. I was relieved, but still concerned for other
members of our tour group, with whom I had formed a family-like bond during the
trip. It would be several more days, before I would learn that no one from our
tour to Spain was killed.
World Trade Center Club Tour Jules Roinnell Director at Mesón Cinco Jotas in Madrid on an exploratory trip to Spain in early 2001. We visited every restaurant and every hotel I proposed before Jules would okay for the WTC group. Photo by Gerry
Dawes©2021.
There was little point in canceling
this expensive, laboriously-planned trip and trying to fly back under the
chaotic conditions the country was experiencing during those first few days
after the attack. Many American airports were closed, including those in New
York. (Friends were three hours into a Madrid - New York flight on Sept. 11,
when the plane turned back. They were stranded for five days before they were
able return to New York.)
In spite of having this heavy
communal cloud hanging over heads, we decided to make the best of our
experiences in Spain. Mark, Brian, Carter, and I had some fine culinary and
wine experiences in Valencia, in the rice-growing area of the delta of the Ebro
river, in Priorato, and in Barcelona, where we had a remarkable day touring La
Boqueria market and a number of Barcelona restaurants and tapas bars.
After Barcelona, we drove across
northern Spain, stopping for lunch in Tudela, the capital of the La Ribera, the
center of the great vegetable-growing region of Navarra. After lunch, I took
Mark and his crew on a walking tour of the Tudela's old Jewish quarters and
Moorish quarters. Once the home of Benjamín de Tudela, Tudela's attractions
also include the remarkable Romanesque portal of the Cathedral, the remains of
the synagogue (along one wall of the cloister), and an exceptional town plaza.
We wandered around for a couple of hours before leaving for San Sebastián.
Within a few days, in Tudela Spanish police arrested a suspected Al Qaeda
terrorist, who had been living in a nearby village and was believed to be the
man slated as the suicide bomber for a planned attack on the American Embassy
in Paris.
In San Sebastian, Telebista (Basque
television), who has plenty of first-hand experience with ETA terrorism,
interviewed me for 45 minutes about the situation in America (why me?). I
basically told them that this was not an American problem, that people from
more than 60 nationalities were working in those buildings, that companies from
24 countries had offices there, and that this was an attack on the Western
economic system. I believed then and I believe now that the short and long-term
economic effects of this attack are far more pervasive and dangerous than
terrorist threats and the anthrax scare. The cumulative effects of these events
has ripped through our economy, devastated many restaurants, not just in New
York, but elsewhere, and shot holes in the livelihoods of anyone who depends on
tourism. The ripple effects through other industries are also taking their
toll, as the shock waves from the collapse of the Twin Towers continue to be
felt.
Spanish tourism, as one might
imagine, is also being hit hard. If the planes I was on to and from Spain are
an indicator, they are flying at 25% - 50% capacity. Conversations with airline
employees verify the drop. While I am convinced that Spain is a very safe place
to travel, fear of flying and travel to foreign countries in general is taking
its toll. (Basque terrorism seldom touches tourists and certainly is not aimed
at Americans, since most Basques have American relatives living somewhere in
the United States, usually in the western states; Spanish police arrested
several suspected Al Qaeda operatives during September.)--Excerpted from Sunset
in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain by Gerry
Dawes©2021.
* * * * *
Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food & Wine Road Warrior in Spain (Volumes I, II, III & IV; publication of the first two volumes in Fall 2021.
“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. I have always loved his writings and deep, deep
knowledge of Spain and often hear accolades about him from mutual
friends in Spain "--Spain expert Gijs van Hensbergen, author of Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon, In the Kitchens of Castile and Gaudí: A Biography. (Endorsement quote for Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food & Wine Road Warrior in Spain.)
* * * * *
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.
__________________________________________________________________________________
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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