Looking Back: Food Arts Magazine Silver Spoon Award Ferran Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak July 2003

Ferran Adrià.

Ferran Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak

by Gerry Dawes / July 2003 

Food Arts presents the July/August 2003 Silver Spoon Award for plata de ley performance to two Spaniards, Basque chef Juan Mari Arzak, the Wilbur Wright of modern Spanish Cuisine, and Ferran Adrià, the Catalan wizard who has taken Spanish food into the culinary stratosphere. Arzak, chef/owner of the Michelin three-star Arzak in San Sebastián, is revered as the father of Spanish cucina nueva vasca (new Basque cuisine), a cooking doctrine that was the vital bridge between traditional Spanish food and an internationally oriented modern cuisine. Adrià, chef/partner of the now mythical Michelin three-star El Bulli, which overlooks an isolated seaside cove two hours north of Barcelona, is widely considered to be the most innovative, creative, original, and, to some, best chef in the world.

The 60-something Arzak and 40-year old Adrià have led the dizzying ascendancy of Spanish gastronomy to the point where a growing number of savvy culinary professionals, including envious Frenchmen, now consider Spanish chefs to be the most exciting in Europe. Arzak is not alone in believing that "at this moment, Spain has one of the most important cuisines in the world." On these pilgrimages to see the two maestros and other great Spanish chefs, many culinarians have also discovered the glories of traditional Spanish cuisine; thus, Arzak and Adrià have helped raise all boats in their wake.

Arzak was born in the building that houses Arzak (once his family's tavern/restaurant). He learned the basics at his mother's side and, through intelligence and imagination, elevated his family's restaurant to the Michelin three-star pantheon in 1989. With his daughter Elena in the kitchen alongside him, Arzak adds twists to traditional Basque dishes such as ventresca de bonito, lightly smoked cuts of choice bonito belly speared with a mentholated bone. El Viejo Rockero (The Old Rocker), as Arzak sometimes calls himself, still claims that his favorite dish is fried farmhouse eggs served with roasted red peppers.

Adrià, the creator of wildly imitated foams and other coolly calculated concoctions meant to stimulate the brain as well as the palate, is now the most sought after chef in the world. His recently published book, elBulli 1998-2002 (with brother/pastry chef Alberto Adrià and restaurant partner Juli Soler), the first in what will be three volumes celebrating Andrià's 20 years at El Bulli, will not be published in English until later this year, yet acolytes have bought up more than 100 copies at $175 a pop at Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York City "as if it cost $14.95," reports Nach Waxman, the bookstore's owner. 

Adrià's menus, conceived in his off-premise laboratory during El Bulli's five month winter hibernation, are controversial, electrifying feats of artistic and technological virtuosity. His menú de degustación can total 30 samples of what might be called "tapas with attitude," several of which are indeed served on a silver spoon. Like Arzak's, Adrià's favorite dish is somewhat more plebeian: skillet cooked green asparagus, sprinkled with olive oil and sea salt, please hold the foam.

___________________________________________________  

About Gerry Dawes  

Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel  

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. 

Mr. Dawes is currently working on 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