* * * * *
Photo by Kay Balun: May
19, with my friend of more than 30 years, José Andrés at his huge book
launch party for his new book Spain My Way at Mercado Little Spain in
New York City.
Foreword by José Andrés to my book Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain (available on Amazon.com)
"The words that follow in the Foreword are words that I penned for the December 2009 issue of Food Arts magazine in tribute to my good friend Gerry Dawes receiving the Silver Spoon Award. They are as true today as they were when I first wrote them down, perhaps more true. They have aged much like a fine wine, which is just one of the many areas of Spanish culture and gastronomy in which I consider Gerry to be the definitive expert. It is fitting that
Gerry’s love affair with Spain began in 1968, a year before I was born in Asturias in 1969, the same year that Gerry finished his US Navy hitch and embarked on the project of a lifetime to discover
and share the captivating stories of every tapa, every bodega, every chef and artisan and proprietor whose paths he crossed. In the process, Gerry became a voice for Spain when Spain
was voiceless—an enthusiastic adventurer, an expressive interpreter, a tireless champion.
Gerry is the very embodiment of the word “guide,” not merely as a noun describing a profession, but as a verb—“to show the way.” Read on and Gerry will do just that, show the way.
Gerry also has opened doors with his customized guided tours of Spain. Over the years he has brought dozens of high-profile American chefs and other well-known personalities to Spain,
giving them their first taste of Spanish cooking, wine and culture. And it’s worked the other way, too. Gerry has befriended dozens of Spanish chefs, including Ferran Adrià and Juan Mari Arzak, creating a connection that helped bring many of them to the United States.
But for Gerry, Spain is more than just the Adriàs and Arzaks. He has connected with all manner of people working at every level and in every corner of Spain. I’m always amazed at his reach. You can step into a restaurant in the smallest town in Spain and it turns out they know Gerry somehow. I remember one rainy night in Madrid during the 2003 Madrid Fusión congress. I wanted to go to my favorite place for patatas bravas, the ultimate tapa. But Gerry had another place in mind, and I didn’t know about it. But Gerry is always right. Those potatoes at his place were amazing.
La Real Academia Española de Gastronomía awarded Gerry the Premio Nacional de Gastronomia in 2003 in recognition of his outstanding contributions. And, among other awards[GD13.1], he was singled out for the Silver Spoon Award from Food Arts Magazine, for whom Gerry was a contributing author for many years. Thanks to Gerry’s work we are all richer.
Chef-restaurateur-human tarian José Andrés is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Oscar presenter, 2019; also, he is chef-partner of Mercado Little Spain at Hudson Yards, New York.
Photo by Kay Balun: May 19, with my friend of more than 30 years, José Andrés at his huge book launch party for his new book Spain My Way at Mercado Little Spain in New York City.
"The words that follow in the Foreword are words that I penned for the December 2009 issue of Food Arts magazine in tribute to my good friend Gerry Dawes receiving the Silver Spoon Award. They are as true today as they were when I first wrote them down, perhaps more true. They have aged much like a fine wine, which is just one of the many areas of Spanish culture and gastronomy in which I consider Gerry to be the definitive expert. It is fitting that
Gerry’s love affair with Spain began in 1968, a year before I was born in Asturias in 1969, the same year that Gerry finished his US Navy hitch and embarked on the project of a lifetime to discover
and share the captivating stories of every tapa, every bodega, every chef and artisan and proprietor whose paths he crossed. In the process, Gerry became a voice for Spain when Spain
was voiceless—an enthusiastic adventurer, an expressive interpreter, a tireless champion.
Gerry is the very embodiment of the word “guide,” not merely as a noun describing a profession, but as a verb—“to show the way.” Read on and Gerry will do just that, show the way.
Gerry also has opened doors with his customized guided tours of Spain. Over the years he has brought dozens of high-profile American chefs and other well-known personalities to Spain,
giving them their first taste of Spanish cooking, wine and culture. And it’s worked the other way, too. Gerry has befriended dozens of Spanish chefs, including Ferran Adrià and Juan Mari Arzak, creating a connection that helped bring many of them to the United States.
But for Gerry, Spain is more than just the Adriàs and Arzaks. He has connected with all manner of people working at every level and in every corner of Spain. I’m always amazed at his reach. You can step into a restaurant in the smallest town in Spain and it turns out they know Gerry somehow. I remember one rainy night in Madrid during the 2003 Madrid Fusión congress. I wanted to go to my favorite place for patatas bravas, the ultimate tapa. But Gerry had another place in mind, and I didn’t know about it. But Gerry is always right. Those potatoes at his place were amazing.
La Real Academia Española de Gastronomía awarded Gerry the Premio Nacional de Gastronomia in 2003 in recognition of his outstanding contributions. And, among other awards[GD13.1], he was singled out for the Silver Spoon Award from Food Arts Magazine, for whom Gerry was a contributing author for many years. Thanks to Gerry’s work we are all richer.
Chef-restaurateur-human tarian José Andrés is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Oscar presenter, 2019; also, he is chef-partner of Mercado Little Spain at Hudson Yards, New York.
Photo by Kay Balun: May 19, with my friend of more than 30 years, José Andrés at his huge book launch party for his new book Spain My Way at Mercado Little Spain in New York City.
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?
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
"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.
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.
Pilot for a reality television series
on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
Experience
Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural
Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain
Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com
Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com
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