Remembering the Great Noel Chandler, Sanferminero de Primera and the Count of Champagne in Pamplona; El Adios - Sevillanas Rocieras

 

* * * * * 

Noel Chandler, The Champagne Count of Pamplona's San Fermín

Hemingway was a great lover of Champagne and he often referred to it in his writing.  In The Sun Also Rises, three of Hemingway’s characters - - the free-spending, Champagne-loving Count Mippipopolous, the protagonist Jake Barnes, and the unforgettable femme fatale Lady Brett - - polish off three bottles of Mumms in a single session.  
  

The Champagne drinking scene took place in the opening chapters just before Jake Barnes, Lady Brett, Robert Cohn, Mike Campbell, and Bill Gorton - - fictional charter members of Gertrude Stein’s “Lost Generation” - -  headed down to Pamplona, Spain for the Fiestas de San Fermín, sans Count Mippipopolous.   At the beginning of Fiesta, Hemingway’s characters, now minus the Count’s generous Champagne contributions, switched to cheap red wine in the peasant bars of the old quarter of Pamplona. 

The Sun Also Rises, published in 1926, became a classic and spawned a cult-like devotion to San Fermín, especially among English-speaking foreigners.  It would be several decades before the modern-day incarnation of the Count surfaced at San Fermín in the person of a generous Welshman named Noel Chandler.  Chandler, like Count Mippipopolous, has drunk his share of Champagne in Paris (where he celebrates New Year’s Eve).  

Although he neither holds, nor claims a title, with his rugged countenance, polished manners, and mysterious air, Chandler is clearly a worthy spiritual descendant of Hemingway’s Champagne-loving Count and his annual San Fermín Champagne party, until a few years ago when it was decided that the well-aged timbers of Chandler’s lofty walk-up apartment above the calle Estafeta could not safely support the many scores of people who were ascending each 6th of July to party with Noel.

 

 

El Adios - Sevillanas Rocieras (video)

 

Algo se muere en el alma cuando una amigo se va

Cuando una amigo se va

algo se muere en el alma

cuando una amigo se va

algo se muere en el alma

cuando una amigo se va

cuando una amigo se va

 

y va dejando una huella

que no se puede borrar

y va dejando una huella

que no se puede borrar

No te vayas todavia,

no te vayas por favor

no te vayas todavia

 

que hasta la guitarra mia llora

cuando dice adios

 

Something dies en your soul when a friend leaves

When a friend leaves

Something dies en your soul

when a friend leaves

Something dies en your soul

when a friend leaves

when a friend leaves

 

and it leaves a wake

that cannot be erased

Don't go yet

please don't go

don't go yet

 

Even my guitar cries

when you say adios.

 

Noel Chandler (d. Oct. 14, 2015, Madrid) Que decanses en paz.

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2018

 

* * * * * 

 

 

“Most of what I know about Spain came from Gerry Dawes. Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food & Wine Road Warrior in Spain is the authoritative source for everything Spanish—people, food, wine, culture. And his diverting escapades on the road sometimes read like James Michener with Hunter Thompson in the passenger’s seat.” --Bryan J. Miller, Former New York Times Restaurant Critic; author, Dining in the Dark: A Famed Restaurant Critic's Struggle with and Triumph over Depression

 

Sunset in a Glass Volumes I & II will be published this Fall. Stay tuned.

 

* * * * *

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.

 

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?

 

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

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

Casa Román, Located in the Heart of the Barrio de Santa Cruz, Sevilla--Famous for Its Jamones Ibéricos de Bellota. The Owner Was My Landlord for Nearly Four Years

 * * * * *


Jamones Ibéricos de bellota (hams from Iberian pigs that eat acorns as a part of the diet that fattens them for the market), tapas and the Goya-esque painting that has been on walls for more than fifty years at Casa Román, Barrio de Santa Cruz, Sevilla.   Photograph copyright by Gerry Dawes 2019.

I spent nearly four of the happiest years of my life living in the Barrio de Santa Cruz at calle Justino de Neve 3.  Just around the corner, in la Plaza de los Venerables, were two my most frequented tapas bars, Hosteria del Laurel, the famous setting for scenes in Don Juan Tenorio, and  Casa Román, a tapas and copitas (glasses of vino) bar specializing in jamones Ibéricos de bellota (hams from Iberian pigs that eat acorns as a part of the diet that fattens them for the market).  Román Castro Medina, the gravedigger-hard working, never smiling founder and owner was from Guijo de Àvila, a village just five miles from the great Ibérico ham curing town of Guijuelo in the province of Salamanca.  Román Castro was also my landlord.  He owned Justino de Neve 3 and rented it to me and my Spousal Equivalent, Diana Valenti, who subsequently became my wife while we were still living in Sevilla.   Later, I will elaborate about the fantastic times we had in that wonderful house on Justino de Neve, but for now, just a few photos that I took on another of my trips back to Sevilla in February 2019.  

 

The first home I shared with the late Diana Valenti Dawes at Justino de Neve 3, in the Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter of Sevilla.  We lived here for almost four years.  ". . . .Nothing is calculated to interest the stranger as he wanders through Seville, than a view of these courts obtained from street, through the iron-grated door.  Oft I have stopped to observe them, and as often sighed that my fate did not permit me to reside in such an Eden for the remainder of my days . . . " - - George Borrow, The Bible in Spain, 1840.  Photograph copyright by Gerry Dawes.

 

Re-visiting Justino de Neve 3 in el Barrio de Santa Cruz, Sevilla during a trip in February 2019.

Photo by Kay Balun.

  Miguel Ángel Adarve Linares, the manager of his hotels and a friend during our reunion at the bar of Casa Román.

During our trip to Sevilla in February, I ran into my old friend Miguel Ángel Adarve Linares, the manager of his hotels and a friend in front of the Hotel Murillo, which Miguel Ángel owns, along with a famous family antique shop next to the Alcázar Moorish fortress in Sevilla.  Hotel Murillo and is just a block from Casa Román, so we moved our reunion to bar there, ordered some cerveza and jamón Ibérico and had a fine time reminiscing about the days when I lived in the Barrio de Santa Cruz and used to see and have drinks with Miguel Angel in the bar at Hotel Murillo, whose lobby was one of our hangouts.  In the bar of Hotel Murillo, I met numerous Americans, one of whom became a partner in Galeria Dawes, our art gallery in the village of Mijas on la Costa del Sol (Málaga).   We also met another American there, arranged for him to buy a wonderful village house in Mijas, then rented it from him while we were operating our art gallery.

Román Castro Medina, the gravedigger-hard working, never smiling founder and owner was from Guijo de Àvila, a village just five miles from the great Ibérico ham curing town of Guijuelo in the province of Salamanca.  Román Castro was also my landlord.

* * * * *

  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.

 _______________________________________________________________________________

 

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

Bryan J. Miller, Former New York Times Restaurant Critic on Sunset in a Glass, “Most of what I know about Spain came from Gerry Dawes."

 

* * * * * 

 

 

“Most of what I know about Spain came from Gerry Dawes. Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food & Wine Road Warrior in Spain is the authoritative source for everything Spanish—people, food, wine, culture. And his diverting escapades on the road sometimes read like James Michener with Hunter Thompson in the passenger’s seat.” --Bryan J. Miller, Former New York Times Restaurant Critic; author, Dining in the Dark: A Famed Restaurant Critic's Struggle with and Triumph over Depression

 

Sunset in a Glass Volumes I & II will be published this Fall. Stay tuned.

 

Bryan Miller's Dining in the Dark will be shipping from Amazon.com on Sept. 28.

 

 

* * * * *

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.

 

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?

 

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

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

The Roman Fish Factories of Claudia Baelo, a Sensational Lunch at Restaurante Campero, Barbate (Cádiz), Famous for its Almadraba, Tuna Round-up. Boquerones en Vinagre, Mojama de la Almadraba, Carpaccio of Zucchini, Seafood Rice and Black Rice with Basil All-i-oli, Plus 85€ per Person Almadraba-caught Tuna Tasting Menu Explained. Persistence of Memory* (Salvador Dalí) Fiver Melting Watch Awards

* * * * *
A superb lunch on Feb. 7, 2019 at one of the best restaurants in southern Spain, Restaurante Campero, Barbate, a town famous for its almadraba, tuna round-up, and a return lunch on Oct. 19, 2019.

(Barbate and neighboring Zahara de los Atunes are famous for the almadraba, the ancient annual tuna round-up, from which some of the world's finest tuna comes.)

Almadraba tiles (depicting the ancient tuna slaughter in the Strait of Gibraltar near Barbate and Zahara de los Atunes, in a bar in el Mercado de Triana, Sevilla, April 13, 2016.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2016, Canon EOS M3.

For openers at Restaurante Campero, Barbate (Cádiz), Feb. 7, 2019, a comped tapa of boquerones en vinagre, fresh anchovies marinated in vinegar and served with Spanish extra virgen olive oil and Raf tomatoes.

Kay with her carpaccio de tapín (zucchini), with guacamole, pine nuts, Raf tomatoes, soy vinaigrette and truffles at Restaurante Campero, Barbate (Cádiz), Feb. 7, 2019.

Carpaccio de tapín (zucchini), with guacamole, pine nuts, Raf tomatoes, soy vinaigrette and truffles at Restaurante Campero, Barbate (Cádiz), Feb. 7, 2019.

Carpaccio de tapín (zucchini), with guacamole, pine nuts, Raf tomatoes, soy vinaigrette and truffles at Restaurante Campero, Barbate (Cádiz), Feb. 7, 2019.

Mojama, salt-and-air cured tuna in a style that goes back to the Phoenicians and Romans, with Marcona almonds, with Spanish Extra Virgen Olive Oil at Restaurante Campero, Barbate (Cádiz), Feb. 7, 2019.

 

Vicente Leal, the great maestro de salazones, (salt-and-air cured fish, a craft as old as civilization in the Mediterrean). at his stand in el Mercado de Abastos de Alicante, where he sliced us samples of his exceptional mojama de atún and hueva de atún. 

 The rice dishes we had at Restaurante Campero.

 Arroz marinero (pescado y marisco pelado), rice with fish and peeled shellfish, at Restaurante Campero, Barbate (Cádiz), Feb. 7, 2019.

 Arroz negro de atún con ali oil de albahaca, squid ink-colored black rice with basil all-i-oli at Restaurante Campero, Barbate (Cádiz), Feb. 7, 2019.

 Arroz negro de atún con ali oil de albahaca, squid ink-colored black rice with basil all-i-oli at Restaurante Campero, Barbate (Cádiz), Feb. 7, 2019.

 Guímaro, a Godello-based white wine from Ribeira Sacra, our luncheon wine at Restaurante Campaero, Barbate. 

Kay and Salvador Cardoso, Jefe de Sala, at Restaurante Campero who took such good care of us at this memorable luncheon.

Claudia Baelo, near the village of Bolonia, some 15 miles (25 miles by car) down the coast from Barbate, was an important Roman fishing processing center, where salt-and-air cured mojama and garum, a prized fermented fish sauce, were made.

 Claudia Baelo, down the coast from Barbate, was an important Roman fishing processing center, where salt-and-air cured mojama and garum, a prized fermented fish sauce, were made.

 Important Roman fish processing works at Claudia Baelo near Barbate.

Restaurante Campero

Avenida Constitución, Local 5 C

11160 Barbate, Cádiz, Spain

Phone: +34 650 42 07 92

www.restaurantecampero.es 

Gerry Dawes's Persistence of Memory* (Salvador Dalí)  Melting Watch Awards.

The Whispering of the Tuna 

Restaurante Campero Menú de Atún Rojo Salvaje de Almadraba 2019

(We did not opt for this 85€ per person almadraba-caught tuna tasting menu--without vino--because neither of us was up to either that much tuna, nor had the appetite or the time nor wanted to pay the price, but it sure looks terrific--at least to me (Kay can do without the exotica!)

   

Chart showing different parts of wild almadraba tuna (chart not from Restaurante Campero).

Ijar, olivada y piparra

 Bluefin tuna Ijar (tuna belly), olivada and piparra.  

 
Tuna ijar o ijada, a ham-like cut of ventresca, or tuna belly (video).

Niguiri de ventresca

Sushi Niguiri rice with raw tuna belly

 Carpaccio de paladar 
 Carpaccio of palate of tuna

Paladar of tuna, photo Restaurante Campero, Chef Julio Vázquez.

 Tosta, lomo y trufa

Tuna loin and truffle toast

 Tartar de toro

Toro tuna tartare

Dados de tarantelo con ajo blanco

Cubes of Tarantelo (the slender end piece of the white loin of tuna) with ajo blanco white garlic cream

  Tarantelo (the slender end piece of the white loin of tuna) 

Usuzukuri
 Tuna sliced very thin

 Parrillada (morrillo y corazón)

Grilled loin piece just behind head and slices of tuna heart

Chart showing the location of different cuts of tuna served on the Campero menu, including Morrillo, Ventresca or Ijar, Tarantelo, Galeta, Mormo and Solomillo.  (Courtesy of cheffuri.com)

 
Ventresca con miso y mostaza
Tuna belly with miso and mustard

Galete
Tuna piece from the head (see 'galeta' photo above.)
 
Contramormo

Delicacy from the front of the tuna head

 
Drawing of tuna head, showing different delicacy sections.
 

Solomillo

Loin of tuna (See photo of whole tuna with parts labeled above.)

PREPOSTRE Té verde, cítricos y frutos rojos

POSTRE  Chocolate, yuzu y sésamo negro

Bebidas no incluídas

* * * * *

  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.

 _______________________________________________________________________________

 

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

The Master Ham Carvers of Spain By Gerry Dawes, Mariani´s Virtual Gourmet - Part I of II

 

* * * * *  

The Master Ham Carvers of Spain Part One By Gerry Dawes

Mariani´s Virtual Gourmet (Click on link.)

 

Clemente Gómez, Maestro Cortador Oficial de Pedroches at Alimentaria Barcelona.

 

Maestros Cortadores de Jamón are men (and a few women cortadoras) who actually specialize in carving Spanish jamón Ibérico de bellota hams—costing $600 to $800 apiece—into paper-thin slices that literally melt in your mouth.  The jamones they so expertly carve come from free-range pata negra (black hoof) Ibérico pigs that fatten themselves on acorns in the vast oak tree-endowed dehesas in southwestern Spain.  These hams are Spain’s gastronomic equivalent of the best foie-gras from France and caviar from the Caspian Sea. At special events, food fairs, private parties and even weddings, Spain’s cortadores de jamón, literally ham cutters, or ham carvers as I prefer to call them, may earn from $250 to $4,000 for slowly slicing a ham by hand over a couple of hours into thin, sometimes almost translucent serving pieces, one exquisite slice at a time.    (Read the rest of the article by clicking on the title link to John Mariani's Virtual Gourmet.)

 

  

A fenómeno who stands apart from other ham carvers is Florencio Sanchidrián, a 59-year old force-of-nature from the historic provincial capital of Ávila.

 

From the end of one of his long carving knives Florencio Sanchidrián offers Gerry Dawes a bit of ham he has just cut at his restaurant el Rincón de Jabugo in Ávila.  Photograph by John Sconzo (DocSconz)©2021. 

 

 

 Gerry Dawes with Iberico Pigs on the Dehesa de Extremadura near Montánchez (Cáceres) during la montanera, the months’ long period when they are allowed to forage free-range  on acorns. Photograph by John Sconzo (DocSconz)©2021.

 

 

Ibérico pigs foraging for bellotas (acorns) on the Dehesa de Extremaudura near Montánchez (Cáceres).  

 

 

 

 Pedro Seco, Oficial Cortador of Carrasco Guijuelo at Madrid Fusión 2018.  

 

 

 

 Jesus Gonzalez, Cortador Oficial D. O. P.  Dehesa de Extremadura at Madrid Fusión 2018.

 

 

Sometimes, if there is a bumper crop of acorns the pigs can engorge themselves to the point that this vegetable-like oil actually pools between layers of their muscles and can cause problems for the pigs. One day a few years ago during a lull when he was cutting jamones at the Pedroches stand at Barcelona’s sprawling biennial Alimentaria food fair, Pedroches Maestro Cortador Clemente Gómez, pointed out a pool of oil seeping out from the muscles of a ham he was cutting and told me, “If these pigs eat too many acorns during la montanera, the two to three months they are allowed to roam free-range in the hills of Extremadura and northern Andalucía foraging on grass, plants, herbs and a slew of acorns—the oleic acid they produce from the nuts can seep out from their muscles and make it painful for them to walk.”

 

I longed for a spoon and a small container to take away some of the essence of acorn oil from the ham Clemente Gómez was cutting.  At Madrid Fusión 2018, one of the world’s top gastronomic conferences, I saw that someone had finally packaged this oil for use in kitchens, but the aceite de jamón Ibérico they were offering is actually ham fat melted in olive and/or sunflower oil and is not the real pure essence that Clemente Gómez showed me.

 

Some ham carvers prefer a Japanese alveolated jamonero knife, often referred to as a cuchillo de salmon, a cured-salmon cutting knife.

 

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“Most of what I know about Spain came from Gerry Dawes. Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food & Wine Road Warrior in Spain is the authoritative source for everything Spanish—people, food, wine, culture. And his diverting escapades on the road sometimes read like James Michener with Hunter Thompson in the passenger’s seat.” --Bryan J. Miller, Former New York Times Restaurant Critic; author, Dining in the Dark: A Famed Restaurant Critic's Struggle with and Triumph over Depression

 

Sunset in a Glass Volumes I & II will be published this Fall. Stay tuned.

 

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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.

 

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.

 

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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.

 __________________________________________________________________________________

 

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 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