Spanish Chefs Update Summer Menus

Menus at Restaurante Guggenheim and Akelarre are Inspired by Local Ingredients and Traditions

Jun 24, 2009

With summer drifting into northern Spain, top chefs are perfecting the best of what their surrounding tierra has to offer.

This season, menus across Spain, which is consistently home to the world's most innovative cuisine, share some commonalities that are a function of both tradition and shared inspiration.

Revisiting Local Tradition in the Soup Bowl

Smart chefs know that the higher you get, the more it pays to return to your roots. Chefs across northern Spain lately seem to be looking into their grandma’s soup pots for inspiration.

At Restaurante Guggenheim, in Bilbao, chef Josean Martinez Alija is serving a sopako bread soup alongside a grill-roasted cod. Soup with bread chunks in it has a venerated place in the Basque culinary repertoire. At Akelarre, Pedro Subijana ladles out a fish and shellfish soup “a la donostiarra”, or San Sebastian style. And El Celler de San Roca’s spin on pot-au-feu, originally a French beef stew, is distinctly catalunyan, using local and typical ingredients.

Eau de What?

Perfume is strictly off-limits in a professional kitchen. Spanish chefs, however, are blatantly ignoring this particular rule. Chef Andoni Aduriz of Mugaritz perfumes his carrots with clay, ash, and grains, imparting a unique scent. On the Guggenheim’s menu, perfumed basque chicken with rosemary and lime leaves is on offer. Akelarre takes its eau de toilette to dessert, dishing up curled coconut, lightly lime-perfumed.

Old Favorites in a New Fashion

At a restaurant where plates cost over $30, one typically expects to see foie gras on the menu. Most often, it comes in the deliciously unexciting form of mousse, to be spread on some crusty bread or eaten with another accompaniment. But this summer, it can be found in pearls (Akelarre) and in cream (El Celler de San Roca) to be served with morels. For those who don’t consume animal livers, foie is off-limits. But at the Restaurante Guggenheim, a vegetarian foie is on offer. It’s a miraculously creamy, avocado based mousse, served with coriander and the juice of baby squid.

Lamb is an iconic spring-summer protein, and a longtime favorite of the Basque palate. The many variations in which it appears this summer attest to its valued place in cuisine. The lamb at Akelarre, roasted in live coal, features a typically Basque manner of preparation. The Guggenheim accompanies a roasted suckling lamb shoulder with sherry pepper seeds and yellow lemon skin. At Mugaritz, however, they up the seasonality factor, serving a roasted milk-fed lamb over broken curd, a bunch of garlic, and spring flowers. Pretty as a picture.

After-Dinner Drink, On a Plate

Spanish chefs are playful, but sometimes seem to pull back when confronted with the seriousness of a large piece of protein. Dessert is where they really let loose. In accordance with the pervasiveness of the after-dinner drink, many menus feature a solidified, sweetened version. At Las Duelas, in the Rioja region of Spain, yogurt ice cream is accompanied by a tempranillo wine sorbet. Guggenheim ups the populist appeal and presents a toasted beer ice cream, served alongside pumpkin and a bergamot biscuit. At Akelarre, the chef goes for the hard stuff, featuring a gin and tonic on a plate.

But El Celler de San Roca hasn’t forgotten the kid in us. For those who prefer a tall glass of milk before bed, pastry chef Jordi Roca features the Lactic Dessert, which consists of fried milk, ewe’s cheese ice cream, ewe’s milk cheese foam, ewe’s milk yogurt, and a lactic cloud.

The copyright of the article Spanish Chefs Update Summer Menus in European Culinary Travel is owned by Marti Kilpatrick. Permission to republish Spanish Chefs Update Summer Menus in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.