Club Chefs of Connecticut & New York Taste of Spain Tour 2014 with Gerry Dawes, Day 4 Jan. 16 Culinary Adventures in Alicante

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On Friday morning, Jan. 17, we visited Valencia’s colorful Mercat Central, located near our hotel, perusing the fish, meat, fruit-and-vegetable, cheese and spice stands, then stopping just outside the Mercat’s entrance to see the often photographed stand selling paella pans and cooking paraphernalia. And at the adjacent market bar, we sampled typical rich, thick, Spanish hot chocolate with churros.

 

 Paella pan and kitchen utensil stand just outside the main entrance to the Mercat Central, Valencia, Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon EOS 6D / Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM.

By noon, we were on our way to the interior of the province of Alicante, south of Valencia, where Rafael Poveda, Director of Bodegas Salvador Poveda, was waiting for us at his Alicante D.O. (denominación de origen) winery outside the town of Monóver.  We were offered tastes of his Fondillón from the 1947 solera, a rare, sherry-like, aged red wine of a type mentioned by Alexandre Dumas pere in The Count of Monte Cristo.   

 

 The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Rafael Poveda pouring Fondillón at Bodegas Salvador Poveda, Monóvar (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

We got to write our names in chalk on the huge 1986 vintage barrel  as did many other visitors over the course of the last 100 years of vintages on the many casks available in this cellar.  In America a bodega refers to a Hispanic convenience store but in Spain a bodega is a winery. 

The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Chef Victor Honrath, Wykagyl Country Club, New Rochelle, NY signs a Fondillón barrel at Bodegas Salvador Poveda, Monóvar (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

Rafael Poveda and one of his friends-partners in the winery, Pedro Cáceres (who, because of that chance meeting has become one of my partners in The Spanish Artisan Wine Group),

came with us to lunch at Casa Elias, a wonderful family-owned restaurant in the nearby village of Xinorlet (Chinorlet) and brought some of his wines for us to drink.  

 

 The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Gerry Dawes with Pedro Caceres (c) and Rafael Poveda (r) at Casa Elias, Xinorlet (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

At Casa Elias, a long table was set for us with little bowls of almonds, sweet, slow-cooked tomato compote, and aioli, which laid the groundwork for the dishes to come:  superb local charcutería (sliced cured sausages), snails grilled with rosemary and the star of the afternoon, paella con conejo y caracoles, rice with wild rabbit and snails cooked in a paella pan over grapevine cuttings.

The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Lunch at Casa Elias, Xinorlet (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

 

The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Lunch appetizers:  Pan-roasted almonds, aioli and tomato compote at Casa Elias, Xinorlet (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Canon 24-105mm f/4.

The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Lunch cooking, paella con conejo y caracoles (paella with rabbit and snails) cooked over grape vine cuttings, and arroz caldoso (soupy rice), cooked over wood, at Casa Elias, Xinorlet (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Canon 24-105mm f/4.

 

 Arros con conejo y caracoles (paella with rabbit and snails) that was cooked over grape vine cuttings at Casa Elías, Xinorlet (Alicante).   
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 50D / Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8.

After our idyllic lunch, we drove on to beach and port city of Alicante, where we checked in the Hotel Amerigo, whose restaurant is the Michelin one-star Monastrel, owned by Gerry Dawes’s great friend, María José San Román, one of the top women chefs in Spain. 

In the next installment, I will chronicle our adventures in Alicante city and the following day in Alicante province again, on the way to Madrid, where we had our last adventure of the trip with a typical Castilian dinner, excellent flamenco and other highlights.

Chefs participating on this tour were Chefs Brian Limitone, Meadow Ridge Senior Living, Redding, CT;  Gerard Resnick, Century Country Club, Purchase, NY; Robert Rainone, Larchmont Yacht Club, Larchmont, NY; Carey Favreau, Glen Arbor Club, Bedford Hills NY; Wayne Kregling, Brownson Country Club, Huntington, CT; Wayne Klingman, Garden City Country Club, Garden City, NY; Victor Honrath, Wykagyl Country Club, New Rochelle, NY;  Dan Neuroth, Bronxville Field Club, Bronxville, NY;  Austin Simard , Brownson Country Club, Huntington, CT; and James Rosenbauer, Country Club of Farmington, Farmington, CT.

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About Gerry Dawes

Writing, Photography, & Specialized Tours of Spain & Tour Advice

 For custom-designed tours of Spain, organized and lead by Gerry Dawes, and custom-planned Spanish wine, food, cultural and photographic itineraries, send inquiries to gerrydawes@aol.com.  

I have planned and led tours for such culinary stars as Chefs Thomas Keller, Mark Miller, Mark Kiffin, Michael Lomonaco and Michael Chiarello and such personalities as baseball great Keith Hernandez and led on shorter excursions and have given detailed travel advice to many other well-known chefs and personalities such as Drew Nieporent, Norman Van Aken, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenberg, Christopher Gross, Rick Moonen, James Campbell Caruso and many others.

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“The American writer and town crier for all good Spanish things Gerry Dawes . . . the American connoisseur of all things Spanish . . .” Michael Paterniti, The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge and The World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese

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"Gerry Dawes, I can't thank you enough for opening up Spain to me." -- Michael Chiarello on Twitter. 

"Chiarello embarked on a crash course by traveling to Spain for 10 days in 2011 with Food Arts

contributing authority Gerry Dawes, a noted expert on Spanish food and wine.  Coqueta's (Chiarello's new restaurant at Pier Five, San Francisco) chef de cuisine, Ryan McIlwraith, later joined Dawes for his own two week excursion, as well. Sampling both old and new, they visited wineries and marketplaces, as well as some of Spain's most revered dining establishments, including the Michelin three-star Arzak, Etxebarri, the temple to live fire-grilling; Tickets, the playful Barcelona tapas bar run by Ferran Adrià and his brother, Albert; and ABaC, where Catalan cooking goes avant-garde." - - Carolyn Jung, Food Arts, May 2013.

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"In his nearly thirty years 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

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Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés.

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 
 

". . .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 with Gerry Dawes  
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

Gastronomic Adventures in Alicante Province: Quique Dacosta Gets His Well-deserved Third Michelin Star; Plus Personal Adventures with Quique & Casa Elías in Xinorelet

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Quique Dacosta at Casa Elías, Xinorlet (Alicante), October 18, 2012.

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011. gerrydawes@aol.com

Quique Dacosta has long been a friend of mine.  I was very happy to hear that is was announced in November that he had received his third Michelin star, for which he has worked so hard for so many years.  I last ate at Restaurante Quique Dacosta in October 2011, when I was staying in Denia at Hotel La Posada del Mar.  I was traveling with Ryan Mcilwraith, Michael Chiarello's executive sous chef and we were supposed to go to Quique Dacosta that night.  Ryan was sick with a bad stomach, so I decided not to go either, but Quique called me on my cell phone at 10:30 p.m. and demanded that I get my ass over there (it is about 2 kilometers from the hotel), so I ended up going by myself.  I was pretty wiped out from ten days of taking Michael and Ryan around northern Spain (Michael had left the day before from Barcelona), so I told Quique I was only up for an abbreviated menu.  He sent out a dazzling parade of his incredible cocina de vanguardia estilo Quique dishes, then came out and sat with me for half an hour.

Quique Dacosta, Denia (Alicante). Dish with the spooky vapors of the dry ice beneath swirling around your food.

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011. gerrydawes@aol.com

In October 2012, I was the inaugural speaker at the annual Turismo conference in Benidorm (Alicante) and I met Director General de Turismo de Valencia Sebastian Fernández, who told me he was going for lunch at one of my favorite restaurantes in Spain, Casa Elías, a exceptional family place in the small village of Xinorlet.   Casa Elías specializes in wonderful thin-layered arroses (rice dishes, call them paellas) con conejo y caracoles (rabbit and local snails [with fresh rosemary]) cooked over grape vine cuttings, usually from the local Monastrell vineyards.  Casa Elías also serves a number of other authentic local speciaties (see photos of the luncheon here: Xinorlet (Alicante) Casa Elias Rabbit & Snail Paella Paco Torreblanca - Quique Dacosta Oct 18, 2012).  Sr. Fernández also told me that two great friends--two of my favorite Spanish chefs--Quique Dacosta and Paco Torreblanca were also coming.  I managed to wrangle (not wangle) an invitation to accompany Sr. Fernández to the luncheon.  

We got to Casa Elías first and I hid in a private dining room until Paco, his wife Chelo, Quique and journalist Maria Canabal (http://www.gastronomad.eu) were in the main dining, then came out to surprise them (I took it as a good sign that they didn't flee).  I felt like I had hit the lottery.  Not only did I get to schmooze the Director of Tourism for Valencia on the hour-long ride from Benidorm to Xinorlet and have a chance to eat the terrific food at Casa Elías again, among my dining companions for the next two hours were two of Spain's real culinary super stars:  Paco Torreblanca may be the top chocolatier in Europe and Quique Dacosta could well be the heir apparent to Ferran Adrià's throne, now that elBulli has closed. 

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Paco Torreblanca Slideshow, Including the Full Food Arts Article.

I never see Quique without remembering (how could I not?) that on September 11, 2001 I was having lunch with Santa Fe Chef Mark Miller (then owner of Coyote Cafe) at Quique's restaurant in Denia, at the time called El Poblet.  Halfway through a terrific meal--we were having a course of supernal grilled gambas de Denia  (superb rosa-colored shrimp that actually come from deep water off the Balearic island of Ibiza), when my Spanish cell phone rang.  It was chef Teresa Barrenechea, who then owned Marichu restaurant in Manhattan.  She, too, was traveling in Spain.  She told me that a plane had hit The World Trade Center.  I thought, "Wow, someone has had the misfortune to have crashed a private plane into The World Trade Center!"   Soon enough, Quique called us to the bar, where we saw the rest in real time, including the second plane crashing into the second tower.  Mark Miller, Quique, myself and his employees watched dumbfounded as we the events unfolded on television.  Mark Miller's Coyote Cafe restaurant managers from Santa Fe and Las Vegas were still in-flight headed for Valencia, where we were supposed to pick them up after lunch.  

Mark Miller (at the end of the table) and some friends tasting wines with me at Taberna La Boca in Santa Fe 

during the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta in September 2012

Miller's managers were able to get to Valencia on time, but, as we soon found out, there would be no going back to the U.S. right away, since all flights were grounded, so we continued on our planned intinerary to Barcelona, Navarra, The Basque Country, la Rioja and back to Madrid.   In Navarra, we had lunch in Tudela, and found out the next day that an Al-Qaeda operative who had planned to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris had been apprehended in a nearby village, where he had been living for several months.

For several days, I was sure that I had lost friends in The World Trade Center attack, including Michael Lomonaco, one of the original members of my Chefs From Hell Club, who was then Executive Chef of Windows on the World, Cellar in the Sky and The World Trade Center Club; Jules Roinnel, the Managing Director of The World Trade Center Club; and a number of others who had been on a trip to Spain with me that spring.

Chef Michael Lomonaco, now Chef-partner at Porterhouse New York.

Ironically, in May of 2001, I had led a group of 26 people from The World Trade Center Club around Spain for eleven days.  The group include Jules Roinnel, the Club's Director and my old friend, Michael Lomonaco, Executive Chef of Windows on the World, Cellar in the Sky and The World Trade Center Club.  Ironically, on that trip, we had gone for lunch one day in Madrid at a great seafood restaurant, La Trainera, on calle Lagasca.  Since the street was too narrow for our bus, the driver double-parked the bus alongside some parked cars on calle Goya across the street from Bar Goya and in front of a BBVA bank branch and we walked a block or so to the restaurant.  After a terrific lunch, at which on old friend of mine, John Ewing, joined the group, we drove back to our hotel and continuing touring Madrid in the afternoon.  

After dinner, some of us decided to have a drink in the Hemingway Bar at the Hotel Palace. John Ewing, who had also joined us for dinner, decided to call it night and took a cab back to his hotel, which coincidentally was the Hotel Lagasca, on the street where we had had lunch.  Within half an hour, Ewing called me on my cell phone and told me, "You won't believe what just happened!  A bomb just exploded and damned near blew me out of bed."The Basque separatist group ETA had planted a bomb in a car parked in front of that BBVA bank branch where our bus was parked during lunch.  

For all we knew the bomb could have been there while our bus was there.  The bomb injured 14 people, destroyed a number of cars and wrecked a number of business along calle Goya, including the Bar Goya, which got destroyed and was where John Ewing had considered stopping for a nightcap, but opted to return to his hotel, go to bed and read a book, a decision that may have saved his life.

The next morning, our World Trade Center Club group was preparing to leave for Ribera del Duero, Burgos and The Basque Country.  The Deputy Security Inspector for The Bridge and Tunnel Authority (in charge of The World Trade Center), had his offices on the 77th Floor of the tower that was home to the World Trade Center Club, Windows on the World, Cellar in the Sky and City Lights Bar.  He stood outside the cargo compartments of the bus and made sure that each bag belonged to its owner and was verified.  Looking back, I have always considered that Basque bomb on calle Goya as a harbinger of things to come.

As Mark Miller, his Coyote Cafe managers and I continued our trip, I checked newspapers at every stop and listened to Spanish radio in the car, but, in the absence of any direct news about my friends, I was almost sure that they had perished.  Then three days later, my daughter, Elena, who had dined with me at Windows on the World in August, called crying about the attacks, but told me that she had seen my friend, Chef Lomonaco, on television.  Michael had survived because he took 15 minutes to have his glasses repaired and did not catch the elevator that would have taken him 110 stories to his kitchens at Windows on the World and to certain death.  

Later I would find out that Jules Roinnel had switched shifts and planned to work that evening.  Mike Nester, the Deputy Inspector who had checked the bags going on the bus in front of the Hotel Ritz in May had had breakfast at The World Trade Center Club and had just reached the 77th floor when the first plane hit.  He was able to get out in time by walking down all those flights of stairs, helping and injured person to get out as well, injuring his neck in the process.  But, of the some 24 people on that Spain trip with me, not a one perished.  Pardon me if I have digressed in reporting about Quique Dacosta's third Michelin star, but I spent one of the most unforgettable days of my life in his restaurant.  

Subsequent meals at Quique Dacosta have fortunately had a much happier outcome, but we seldom see one another for any length of time without recalling that incredible afternoon that we watched unfold on television together.  

(A video trailer on Valencia and Alicante showing Quique Dacosta, Paco Torreblanca and Casa Elías.)
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About Gerry Dawes 

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. 

He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. 

He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

In 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.
 

Gerry Dawes would like to host a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain that features a different star American chef in each episode.  Serious inquiries welcome.

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com.

 

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Grilled snails with sea salt and rosemary at Casa Elias, Xinorlet (Alicante).

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Grilled snails with sea salt and rosemary at Casa Elias, Xinorlet (Alicante).

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2010 / gerrydawes@aol.com.