San Sebastián Gastronomika, A Basque Trilogy: Kaia-Kaipe, Elkano and Etxebarri

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Persistence of Memory* (Salvador Dalí) Five-Watch Rating

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A Basque Trilogy

by Gerry Dawes

 

(First published in Food Arts, March 2010)

I was on another multi-tasking mission to Spain last November, and high on my list was attending the San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010 chefs conference, where several New York City food folk—Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, David Bouley, Drew Nieporent, Anthony Bourdain, Colman Andrews, David Chang, and Wylie Dufresne—would be appearing. Especially appealing was the prospect of seeing what the conference organizer, Grup GSR, run by the Catalan dynamo Roser Torras, had up its sleeves for the annual event.

   
Roser Torras and Drew Nieporent at Elkano Restaurant, San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010. Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

Nieporent and I planned to meet in Bilbao Saturday evening, November 20, the night before we were due at San Sebastián Gastronomika. I was to get us a dinner reservation at the legendary Asador (grill-house) Etxebarri, southeast of Bilbao. I called Victor Arguinzoniz, the now-renowned owner/grillmeister of Etxebarri, called by some the best restaurant in northern Spain, and heard, “Sorry, but I don’t have a single seat”—not even for Nieporent, the famoso restaurateur. My fallback was Elkano, which has been called the best fish restaurant in the world, located in the magical fishing village of Getaria, near San Sebastián. “Elkano is closed for vacation,” a voice message said. Fallback position numero dos was Kaia-Kaipe, also in Getaria and also famous for whole wild grilled turbot.

   
Whole rodaballo (turbot) grilling at Kaia-Kaipe, Getaria.

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

At Kaia-Kaipe, we had house-cured anchoas (anchovies) and excellent txangurro (a classic Basque dish of centollo, or spider crabmeat, sautéed with leeks and garlic, spiked with brandy, put back in the shell and browned under a broiler). Our main course was whole wild rodaballo (turbot) grilled over wood coals and filleted at the table, a glorious dish for which Getaria is justly famous. We accompanied the anchoas and txangurro with Getariako Txakolina, Getaria’s slightly pétillant “green wine,” and with the rodaballo we had a still impeccable Monte Real Reserva 1970 at a laughably reasonable price. After dinner, Nieporent’s driver appeared and whisked him off to San Sebastián. Because my conference lodgings were unavailable until the next day, I had booked a room in Getaria at the charming Pension Getariano, just across the street from Elkano restaurant.

Sunday evening, after a press conference featuring a panel of Basque star chefs—Juan Mari Arzak, Pedro Subijana, Martín Berasategui, Andoni Aduriz, and Hilario Arbelaitz—16 emerging Basque country talents prepared some wonderful degustaciòn plates for a reception. I saw Boulud and Brazilian journalist Alexandra Forbes watching as chef Ramón Piñeiro from the Frank Gehry–designed Marqués de Riscal hotel restaurant in La Rioja Alavesa put the finishing touches on his soufflé of Idiazabal cheese with organic olive oil, herbs, and citrus. Huevo frito con patatas, a still liquid egg yolk wrapped in thin strips of potato, then flash-fried, from chef Beñat Ormaetxea of Jauregibarria was perhaps the evening’s top mouthful.

 
 Daniel Boulud and Alexandra Forbes watch Ramón Piñiero of Marques de Riscal 

restaurant put the finishing touches on his Souffle of Idiazabal cheese. 

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

San Sebastián Gastronomika took place during Thanksgiving week, with the contingent from New York appearing for their big day on Tuesday, November 23. Bouley, Boulud, Bourdain, Chang, Dufresne, and Nieporent all played to large appreciative audiences. Andrews was there for the presentation of his book, Ferran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food. Also drawing large followings were the contingent of Spanish superstar chefs: Ferran Adrià, Joan Roca, Carme Ruscalleda, and Christian Escribà from Catalonia; San Sebastián home-grown estrellas such as Arzak, Subijana, Berasategui, Aduriz, and Arbelaitz (12 Michelin stars in total); Italian chef Massimo Bottura (Osteria Francescana, Modena); and Australian Neil Perry (Rockpool Bar & Grill, Melbourne). A conference highlight was the homenaje (homage) by all his fellow Basque chefs to Spanish television’s Karlos Arguiñano, who is probably more famous here than Adrià.

 Anthony Bourdain presenting at San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010. 

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

Interwoven between the daily presentations was the star-studded scene at the Joselito Ibérico stand, where Spain’s ham king, José Gómez, and his crew of ham slicers served some of the world’s best air-cured hams, chorizo, lomo (loin), and salchichón (salami) trucked over from his aging plant in Guijuelo (Salamanca). Gómez likes to serve top Spanish red wines and French Champagne with his Ibérico pig products. It was not unusual to see the likes of Keller, Boulud, Adriá, and Arzak sitting together, toasting with flutes of bubbly while munching on Joselito’s stellar jamón Ibérico de bellota—air-cured hams from the acorn-fattened pata negra (black foot) breed of Iberian hogs.

  

 

 José Gómez, Joselito the Jamón king at San Sebastián Gastronomika. 

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

To honor the New York presenters, Christian Escribà, the legendary Barcelona pastelero-chocolatero (pastry and chocolates) maestro, rolled on stage his large chocolate and marzipan creation of the New York City skyline with marzipan figures of the New Yorkers with their initials on their chef’s jackets. Andrews’ figure held a tiny copy of his book Ferran. “I really felt special, humbled, and honored to have Escribà’s amazing, extraordinarily meticulous New York piece presented to us,” Keller said. 

 
 Christian Escribà at San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

 
New York contingent posing with Christian Escribà's sensational pastry-and-chocolate creation of New York, New York at San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010. Boulud, Nieporent, Dufresne, Andrews, Chang, Keller & Bourdain. Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

Boulud cooked his famous foie gras/short rib/beef burgers on stage and passed out at least 200 portions to an appreciative audience in the VIP section of the 1,800 seat Kursaal Auditorium. Keller’s cooking demonstration was “certainly a departure. Everybody at San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010 was doing demonstrations based on formulas and  techniques,” he said. “Rather than trying to intellectualize or formulate something, my Per Se sous chef David Breeden and I went to La Bretxa market in the old quarter, and from ingredients available that morning, we just spontaneously prepared some beautiful dishes.” Beautiful indeed: citrus-cured mackerel with cipollini and compressed sour apples; uni with avocado, orange suprêmes, and arugula; Idiazabal with artichokes cooked sous-vide with compressed Paris mushrooms and watercress.

 
Three-star Michelin Chefs Juan Mari Arzak & Thomas Keller at San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010. 
I first took Thomas Keller to Arzak in 1990, before he opened The French Laundry. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

As the conference broke for lunch, Arzak hailed me: “Gerry Adams! [that’s what he calls me], you have a rental car, no? I got a reservation at Etxebarri!” (See Departures profile of Etxebarri.) I jumped at the chance to have lunch there. It was after 3:30 when I pulled into Etxebarri’s parking lot in the Basque hamlet of Axpe. I hoped to photograph Arguinzoniz working at his specially designed grills, but I was informed by the woman running Etxebarri’s dining room that he didn’t want the distraction of photographers during service. Arguinzoniz’s style of grilling is a precise discipline that requires his full attention, especially when he performs such miracles as smoking caviar in a self-designed grill pan with microscopically fine mesh laser-bored openings that allow smoke to come through while holding in moisture.

 
Victor Arguinzoniz at the grills he designed himself at Etxebarri. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

I opted for the shorter tasting menu: smoked house-made mozzarella perched on a single slice of eggplant; a perfect house-cured and seasoned anchoa on a thin strip of grilled bread soaked with olive oil; exquisite pieces of nécora crab grilled in the shell; a pair each of lightly grilled, rosy pink gambas de Palamós (highly prized shrimp from the Costa Brava); a pair of lightly smoky grilled oysters with oyster liquor espuma (foam), perched on a slice of pickled eggplant; and grilled becada (woodcock) with its detached head and beak presiding over an assortment of grilled fall vegetables, a chestnut, and carrot puree. My only caveat was the repetition of smoke in every dish.

 
Necora crab a la parilla at Etxebarrr.
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

The meal at Etxebarri was yet another Spanish Basque triumph of exceptional product sourcing married to simple, but exceptionally refined, techniques, which, in the best places, trumps cocina de vanguardia sleights-of-hand nearly every time. In the hands of experienced maestros at Extebarri, Elkano, and Kaia, such dishes, because of their exquisite simplicity and pure flavors, remain etched in memory long after many of the cocina de vanguardia pyrotechnics evaporate like an espuma in the dessert. Perhaps that’s why so many Spanish vanguardia chefs have opened modernized traditional tapas bars in the past few years.

Fortunately, dinners begin late in Spain, which allowed a couple of hours after Etxebarri before dinner at Elkano (click to see Departures profile on Elkano, the third gastronomic thoroughbred in my trifecta. I arrived to find Elkano’s father-and-son owners, Pedro and Aitor Arregui, and their longtime grill chef, Luis Mari Manterola, sweating “la gota gorda” (the big drop) at the prospects of serving 130 people, including the culinary heavyweights attending the conference. 

  
 Luís Mari Manterola grilling turbot at Elkano. San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

From previous meals at Elkano, I had no doubts that they would impress even this crowd. And they did, serving us superb almejas (clams); a tartare of chipirón (small squid) with sea urchin and trails of chipirón ink sauce (a Getaria speciality); two preparations of kokotxas (hake glands), one grilled, the other battered and deep-fried, both ethereal; small samplings of fat sea-tasting percebes (goose barnacles); wood charcoal grilled langosta (lobster); and whole wild rodaballo (turbot) filleted at the table, all accompanied by light, refreshing small producer Txakolis from Getaria.  We finished by dipping into whole, wonderfully oozing Torta del Casar sheep’s milk cheeses from Extremadura and texturas de manzana reineta a la parrilla, a sensational grilled apple dessert.

   
Elkano owner Pedro Arregui, El Maestro, with two of the whole grilled rodaballo (turbot). San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010. Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

I sat with Nieporent, who agreed that Elkano was indeed the best fish restaurant in the world. Boulud took the microphone at the end of the meal and reaffirmed that appraisal. Chang was impressed: “The last thing I wanted to do was eat again, but I am so glad I went. It was one of the best meals I’ve ever had.” 

 
Wylie Dufresne and David Chang at the Elkano dinner. San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com. 

 

 (Portions of this article was first published in Food Arts, March 2010)

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Constructive comments are welcome and encouraged.

 

Help Support Gerry Dawes's Spain & Its Content

 

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.

 

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  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.

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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 was 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

The Triumph of Sherry Married to Modern Cuisine Dishes - COPA Jerez 2009

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"I believe the more Sherry is used as a pairing by reputable chefs and sommeliers, the more people will start to take them on, on their own. I have always included sherries with our wine pairings at any event possible (our Pata Negra dinner, James Beard House appearances, our in house pairings, etc.) and we have always seen a tremendous, positive response. Sherry is still an unknown to many people and by offering a glass as part of a pairing, there is far less fear to be had and people are far more likely to experiment than if left to order it on their own." - - Roger Kugler, Wine Director, Suba and the Boquería restaurants, New York City; Winner 'Top Sommelier', COPA Jerez 2009

COPA Jerez

 

Sherry Pairings with Modern Cuisine Dishes

Heavenly Matches Made in Jerez

I have been drinking sherries and visiting sherry bodegas for forty years and have written at least a dozen articles, some with extensive notes on the wide range of sherries available. I have taught courses at Artisanal Cheese Center , pairing a range of seven different sherries with seven different cheeses and I have done the same at the Culinary Institute of America-Greystone in Napa Valley at the Worlds of Flavor conferences. Here and there, I have been running into sherry and star chefs' dishes over the years. Most notably, the great pairings that Juan Pablo de Felipe has done over the years at El Chaflán in Madrid and at Terrance Brennan's Picholine. Recently at Picholine, I have had sherries with Brennan's tapas menu in the bar--paella spring roll with manzanilla--and with some of the dishes in his new 16-course "small plates" tasting menu (a virtuoso parade of artistic tapas-sized portions). At a recent dinner, Emilio Lustau Pata de Gallina Oloroso was matched to "bacon-n-eggs" (a brioche-wrapped quail's egg with American caviar and a thin slice of Ibérico ham wrapped around a fig with fig jam), followed by a trio of foie gras interpertations, for which the oloroso was also an excellent pairing.

But, not until this year, when--along with Andy Nusser, Chef and proprietor, Casa Mono, New York City; Michael Weiss, Director of Wine Studies, Culinary Institute of America-Hyde Park; and Steven Olson, aka wine geek, Beverage Alcohol Resource--I was invited to judge the 2009 COPA Jerez Food and Sherry Pairing Finals in New York City, did I begin to grasp how versatile Sherries really are. The finalists were a star-studded lineup of chefs and their sommeliers- wine directors from around the country: Chef Wylie DuFresne and Dewey DuFresne, WD-50, New York City; Chef Seamus Mullen and Roger Kugler, Suba (and Boquería Restaurants), New York City; Chef Michelle Bernstein and Allegra Angelo, Michy's, Miami, Florida; Chad Johnson and Kevin Pelley, Sidebern's, Tampa, Florida; and Matthew Accarrino and David Lusby, Tom Colicchio's Craft, Los Angeles.

Each chef presented three dishes each and matched them to a Sherry in three different categories--dry, medium and sweet. The fifteen dishes each paired to a Sherry chosen by each team was a tour de force that was like a wakeup call for a Sherry lover (see the list of COPA Jerez winners and their matches below). The quality of these matches opened up an personal awareness that there was an entire new world of possibilities for this classic wine in the era of modern cuisine, or as it is often called in Spain these days, cocina de vanguardia.

The COPA Jerez competition demonstrated that Sherries are not just perfect matches for Spanish tapas, for which they are a classic accompaniment, it revealed conclusively that Sherries make an incredibly good match for a wide variety of modern cuisine dishes. And that they are especially suited for the menus de degustacion being offered by many restaurants, like Picholine, who are offering such menus and switching to "small plates" menus in this era of changing tastes and economic downturn.

With some of the top chefs in America --Terrance Brennan, Wylie Dufresne, Michelle Bernstein and many others--discovering the virtues of matching sherries to some of their best dishes-it may come as a surprise that, from an economic standpoint, Sherries are an incredible bargain in an over-inflated wine market. A single bottle of Sherry, served in 3-4 ounces pours (or six - seven servings per bottle), goes a long way--in restaurants or at home--and that quality-price ratio, makes pairing Sherries to tasting menus a natural. Plus the range of Sherries--manzanillas, finos, amontillados, palo cortados, dry olorosos, sweetened olorosos, ultra-sweet Pedro Ximénez wines and moscatels--offers a stunning array of flavors, aromas and colors to play with. A chef and sommelier, as underscored by the COPA Jerez competition, can come up with an endless list of combinations to enhance and add an exotic touch to their tasting menus.

This market niche for Sherries could open up to reveal a whole new breed of sherry drinkers, especially with the proliferation of tapas bars, gastrobares, gastropubs and restaurants specializing in "small plates" that have been opening in the past two years in the United States and in Europe. Sherries may be finally be poised to make a big comeback and recuperate some of their mislaid glory and popularity.

(Double click on the images to see a full-size slideshow from the USA COPA Jerez Finals.)

The winners of the USA COPA Jerez Finals

First course and dry Sherry pairing:

Suba's Roger Kugler, the eventual Top Sommelier in the New York competition, who went on the wine the Top Sommelier honor in the finals in Jerez, justified his pairing of Chef Seamus Mullen's dish (Sardina Ahumada Y Ajo Blanco) paired with González-Byass "Tío Pepe" Fino (kosher)

"This is a dish of strong texture, which needs a wine with depth, but not necessarily weight to compliment it. Both the dish and the wine are wonderful on their own, but together they create a beautiful symbiosis of food and wine. Contrasts of light and dark, strong/sharp flavors to cool/round crispness abound in leading the diner through the experience. . ."

Second course and medium Sherry pairing

Sommelier Allegra Angelo talked about his pairing of El Maestro Sierra's Oloroso 1/14 VORS (aged 30 years in solera) with seared sea scallops with rabo encendido from Chef Michelle Bernstein of Michy's in Miami:

"The Maestro Sierra Oloroso has different layers of taste: burnt orange, candided kumquat, allspice, toffee, roasted hazelnuts, cinnamon, chinese five spice. These flavors are robust and intense, like the rabo encendido. But the VORS 1/14 has elegancy, a dainty, clean fisnish. Its texture and delivery mimic the scallop, soft and feminine. The oloroso, thus, has dual personalities."

Third course and sweet Sherry pairing

Dewie Dufresne of WD-50 talks about Wylie Dufresne's Soy Custard, Banana, Caramel, Granola paired with Lustau East India Solera:

"The sherry's exceptional smoothness with flavors of raisins, candied peel and nuts sings an accompaniment to the banana, caramel, and granola. This great wine with a dash of salinity and a bit of Pedro Ximénez is a palate seducer."

And this justification by COPA Jerez Top Sommelier winner, Roger Kugler, for his pairing with Seamus Mullen's Rouget a la plancha, Pata Negra ham, La Ratte potatoes, chanterelle mushrooms and fava beans) to a Hidalgo Amontillado "Viejo" VORS sherry from Sanlúcar de Barrameda:

"This extraordinary wine compliments all the participants. . .the saltiness fo theis seaside amonillado is perfect for the soft fish, sweet vegetables and mushrooms while the rich texture. . . stands up to the crunchy pata negra ham. . .a metaphor might be a fully ripe heirloom strawberry. . . Full flavor balanced with perfect acidity, a bright nose and deep, but not dusky color. . . retaining much of the blush of youth."

And by Dewey Dufresne of New York's WD-50, explaining his match of La Cigarerra Manzanilla to his son Dewey's dish of foie gras, fennel, malt & sherry vinegar jam:

"The fresh minerally sherry with its briny notes and sea sweet aftertaste is an agreeable foil to the velvety foie gras. . .The malt presence in the dish is a reminder to us of the flor (yeast) used in the sherry's development."

(Stay tuned for a Report on the COPA Jerez finals in Jerez de la Frontera, where Roger Kugler won top sommelier, Juli Soler of El Bulli & Pitu Roca of Can Roca were judges and the teams from the United States and several European Union countries showed why sherries are a stunning complement to modern menus. Plus Bodegas Hidalgo-La Gitana of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Maestro Sierra and Emilio Lustau of Jerez de la Fronteraand Gútierrez Colosía of El Puerto de Santa María, four Sherry greats and, of course, lunch at Bigote in Sanlúcar and more, plus plenty of photographs.)

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From "Spanish Wine & Food Pairing: Possibilities Are Limitless", and article on the Culinary Institute of America-Greystone's new Worlds of Flavor Spain-dedicated website:

"Sherry (Jerez) Spain’s great classic wine, sherry, has long been pigeonholed as a wine to be served with Spanish tapas or perhaps, in its sweeter versions, sipped in front of a fireplace, accompanied by quiet conversation or a good book. Relatively few people understand that sherry and its nearby cousin, montilla, range in style from bone-dry to richly sweet, which makes them excellent matches for anything from Japanese (especially sushi and tempura) and other Asian cuisines, to fried foods, to a broad range of artisan cheeses (sweet sherries matched to blue cheeses are spectacular).Among dry sherries, all of which should always be served chilled, crisp, fresh, salty, apple-y manzanilla is a great match for shrimp, oysters, scallops, clams, and other shellfish; it is a quintessential accompaniment to tapas; and it offers a refreshing counterpoint for cheeses, especially Spain’s aged ewe’s milk cheeses. Fino, from inland Jerez, is also bone-dry and a bit weightier, gutsier and more alcoholic, but is still a good match with many of same foods and a fine substitute for sake with Japanese food.

Amontillado, in some of its best versions, is also dry, but many amontillados have been sweetened for broader market appeal. The drier versions are longer-aged and more complex than manzanillas and finos, and are splendid with richer dishes like game, duck risotto, and organ meats, as well as superb companions to cheeses. The sweeter amontillados also go well with cheeses and especially foie gras.

Olorosos come in both dry and sweet versions and can be among the most monumentally great and emblematic sherries. Dry oloroso, it is often said, is best in front of a fireplace with a serious contemplative attitude, a good book and a dish of nuts, but these wines are also superb when sipped as a course match on a tasting menu, especially with a game bird or a dish with cheese in the sauce. Sweet olorosos and cream sherries make for lovely sipping, good matches for foie gras and game courses, and may just be the perfect match for sipping with espresso, or café con leche (milky coffee).

Super sweet, syrupy Pedro Ximénez sherries, redolent of orange peel, raisins, prunes, figs, and baking spices can be sipped alone, but are used by many chefs to sauce foie gras and game dishes, but can also be poured of ice creams as a fabulous sauce, especially when blended with chocolate."

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About the author

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.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television

series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com

Apicius: The Arrival of the American Edition of One of the World's Greatest Culinary Publications

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The Publication of the American Edition of Apicius:

A Gastronomic Publication of Extraordinary Quality Comes to the U.S.

by Gerry Dawes©2009

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Apicius 2003-2008 la otra vision

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Apicius is a publication without peer in the world of cocina de vanguardia, modern vanguard cuisine. As might be expected, Apicius is published in Barcelona, near the epicenter of the Ferran Adrià gastronomic Krakatoa eruption that forever changed the way we look at food.

Now, Apicius, edited published by Montagud Editores, who also publishes some of the best, most beautiful, cutting edge books on gastronomy in the world, has joined forces with San Francisco-based Jing Tio, who is listed as co-publisher and also wrote the foreword for the first issue of the American edition.

(Double click on image for an enlarged slide show sampling of Apicius and order form.)

" After five years success Spanish market following several editions different languages, our Journal Haute Cuisine opens up to English-speaking market, backed quality design that characterize every project Montagud Editores and co-edited by Le Sanctuaire for American Edition," wrote Francisco Marfull, General Manager Montaud Editores. "Because we believe in universality the content of Apicius amd we want to boost its recognition on an international level.

Joan Roca, Heston Blumenthal, Pierre Hermé, Mari Carmen Vélez of La Sirena in Alicante, American chef Wylie Dufresne and Spanish star chef Quique Dacosta are all featured in articles in the first American Editon.

--Fin--

About the author

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.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television

series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary 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@hotmail.com