Lard Heaven at Venta el Pan, Las Cabezas de San Juan (Sevilla) - Michael Whiteman, President of Joseph Baum and Michael Whiteman Restaurants Consultants

 

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New Yorker (Brooklyn) Michael Whiteman, President of Joseph Baum and Michael Whiteman Restaurants Consultants, contemplates three kinds of artisanal lards, including manteca colorá (with pimentón, Spanish paprika), zurrapa de lomo (bits of pork loin fried in Ibérico pork fat, all of which is put into a serving bowl and left to solidify as a spread) and just rendered pork fat, to spread on toast, good coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast at Venta el Pan, Las Cabezas de San Juan (Sevilla). 

 

 The sight of Michael carrying these large bowls of lard from the restaurant´s serving bar to the table was priceless. Mural at Venta el Pan of bakers making Andalucian country breads, Cabezas de San Juan (Sevilla). 

 

 

Venta el Pan has been open for more than 30 years, is a very large venta and hotel and its unflappable waiters and barmen serve often hundreds of people on weekend mornings, quickly and efficiently. We walked in on a Sunday morning and the place was mobbed, with buses outside, but we got a table within a few minutes, were served quickly and got our check quickly. When mayhem works, it is fun to be a part of it.

 

Comments are welcome and encouraged.

 

Text and photographs copyright by Gerry Dawes©2024.  Using photographs without crediting Gerry Dawes©2024 on Facebook.  Publication without my written permission is not authorized.

(Contact gerrydawes@aol.com for publishing rights.)

 

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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 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