* * * * *
(Edited by Gerry Dawes with input from Chef Brian Limitone, Meadow Ridge Senior Living, Redding, CT)
Club Chefs of Connecticut (and New York) Taste of Spain Tour 2014 with Gerry Dawes: Outside the trendy wine bar Monvinic in Barcelona about to tour the wine cellar, meet the owner, Sergi Ferrer Salat, and have lunch. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon 5D Mark III / Canon 28mm f2.8 rented from http://lensrental.com for this trip.
During the week of January 12-19, the Club Chefs of Connecticut, along with several Club Chefs from New York, took a gastronomic journey through Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Madrid. This prestigious group of ten executive chefs from Connecticut experienced a crash course in the tastes of Spain under the guidance of Gerry Dawes our organizer, guide and Spanish food and wine expert.
Gerry Dawes is widely recognized as one of the very top American experts on the gastronomy, wines and culture of Spain. Recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Spanish National Gastronomy Prize (2003) and Food Arts magazine’s Silver Spoon Award (2009), Gerry has long been educating American Chefs about the gastronomy, wines and culture of Spain.
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.
Flying out of JFK and arriving in Barcelona early Monday morning we gathered at the Hotel Cram, carrer Aribau 54 the tony Eixample district and proceeded to a classic Catalan breakfast restaurant, Bar Gelida. This small bar-restaurant was bustling with patrons so we were ushered through the tiny kitchen to a table set up in the storeroom. Sitting among boxes and cases of product we enjoyed a multi-course morning feast featuring the grilled sepia (squid), Spanish tortilla (egg and potato omelette), and mongetes amb botifarra (white beans with Catalan sausage).
Club Chefs of Connecticut Taste of Spain Tour 2014 with Gerry Dawes: Sitting at the kitchen storeroom 'family' table, just a couple of hours after an all-night flight from New York, at Bar Gelida, Barcelona. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS30 43-86mm f3.3 – f6.4.
Along with strong Spanish espresso coffee to accompany our desayuno, Gerry
introduced us to drinking Cava (sparkling wine) from a glass wine vessel called
a porrón (a needle-spout glass carafe, from
which wine is drunk bota-like, from a
long thin stream that must be expertly guided into one’s mouth).
Club Chefs of Connecticut Taste of Spain Tour 2014 with Gerry Dawes: Sitting at the kitchen storeroom 'family' table, just a couple of hours after an all-night flight from New York, at Bar Gelida, Barcelona, having an old-time Catalan breakfast: Victor Honrath, Wykagyl Country Club, New Rochelle, NY, drinking Catalan Cava (methode champenoise sparkling wine) at Bar Gelida as Wayne Klingman decides to go the safe route and pour himself a glass of Cava. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS30 43-86mm f3.3 – f6.4.
After our Breakfast of Champions, Gerry led us on an orientation walk around Barcelona’s fashionable Eixample and showed us architect Antoni Gaudi’s famous landmark buildings on the Passeig de Gracia, Casa Mila and Casa Batlló, then before heading back to the Hotel Cram for a nap before lunch, we made an impromptu stop at Reserva Ibérica (the ham shop), which specializes in aged, salt-and-air cured Ibérico hams and charcutería, which we sampled.
Club Chefs of Connecticut & New York Taste of Spain Tour 2014 with Gerry Dawes. Chefs James Rosenbauer (r), Country Club of Farmington, Farmington, CT and Victor Honrath, Wykagyl Country Club, New Rochelle, NY observing a ham cutter at Reserva Ibérica (The Ham Shop), Carrer Aragó, 242 Barcelona (http://www.reservaiberica.com), Jan. 13, 2014.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon EOS 6D / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon EOS 6D / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.
For Gerry, this encounter turned out to be the first stop for him on what would be a two-and-a-half week long ham run through Spain.
After a shower, a brief nap and a change of
clothes, we walked a few blocks from our hotel to fashionable Monvinic, one of
Spain’s top wine bar restaurants, where we met the owner, Sergi Ferrer, and
toured to wine cellar with wine director César Canovas, Spanish Royal Academy of
Gastronomy’s Best Sommelier 2011 and had a lunch of modern cuisine-inspired
Catalan specialties.
Cellar Master / Sommelier
César Canovas, Spanish Royal Academy of Gastronomy Best Sommelier 2011
of Monvinic Wine Center, Wine Bar & Restaurant in Barcelona. Photo
by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes
The afternoon was free to rest
before dinner at the classic Barcelona
institution Restaurante Set Portes, where we dined on Catalan regional
specialites including exquiexada (a
‘salad made with bacalao) and escalivada
(grilled vegetables), plus we were introduced to the first of what would be
many rice dishes on this trip through Mediterranean Spain: arròs caldoso (a soupy seafood rice dish), arròs
negre (black paella with squid ink) and fideuà (pasta, instead of rice, cooked
in a paella recipe).
We drank Catalan wines, cava, rosat and negre and, for dessert, we got our first exposure to crema catalana or Catalan crème brûlée. After dinner, we migrated to Javier de la Muela’s famous cocktail bar, Dry Martini, located a few blocks from the HotelCram, for a couple of adult libations.
Club Chefs of Connecticu
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes
We drank Catalan wines, cava, rosat and negre and, for dessert, we got our first exposure to crema catalana or Catalan crème brûlée. After dinner, we migrated to Javier de la Muela’s famous cocktail bar, Dry Martini, located a few blocks from the HotelCram, for a couple of adult libations.
Club Chefs of Connecticu
The second morning in Barcelona, we visited Jorge Mas’s Mas Gourmet specialty shop in the upscale shopping mall, L’Illa del Diagonal for a sensational second breakfast. Mas’s shop manager and hamcutter Jordi Ausro gave us a seminar and a dazzling tasting of several kinds of jamón Ibérico and charcutería, pa amb tomaquet (Catalan tomato bread), morcilla (black pudding), smoked salmon, and foie gras tapas accompanied Cava Rimarts Rosat Ahumado sparkling wine, a slightly smoky method champenoise rosé made to accompany smoked salmon.
Jordi Ausro, manager
and hamcutter at Mas Gourmets, L'Illa Diagonal shop, Barcelona,
explaining their gourmet products to the Club Chefs of Connecticu
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes
Our next stop was a visit to the bakery and workshop of super star pastry artist and culinary events maestro Christian Escribà at Escribà, where Christian Escribà’s (he was in Portugal) Projects Director Xavier Marcos, showed us a video of some of the dazzling projects in the works at this incredible world-class pastry shop.
Pastry, Desserts & Events Maestro Christian Escribà.
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010
The chocolater
New York contingent posing with Christian Escribà's sensationa
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010
At Escribà, where
Christian Escribà’s (he was in Portugal) Projects Director Xavier
Marcos, showed us a video of some of the dazzling projects in the works
at this incredible world-clas
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes
We followed the Escribà pastries visit with a tour of Mercat de la Boquería, one of the world’s greatest markets, where you can buy the freshest of seafood (we were introduced to the shellfish purveyor at her Palmira i Neus - Gemma stand, the lovely Gemma Bosch Roca, always stylishly dressed, like many women in La Boquería, wearing an elegantly embroidered bodice and looking gorgeous, all the while bagging mariscos (exquisite crustaceans and mollusks), cutting up fish, wrapping slices and filets, passing them to customers and taking payment.
The lovely Gemma Bosch Roca at her Palmira i Neus - Gemma seafood stand.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes
L’Associac
We also met another of Gerry’s friends, Llorenç Petras, the now-retired Maestro of Mushrooms, who just happened to be at his Petras stand that day (the stand is now run by his sons) and he showed us a tray with a pile of large prime of trufas negras (black truffles) and a large basket of colmenillas (morels mushrooms).
The legendary mushroom-a
The legendary mushroom-a
A basket of colmenilla
Quim Màrquez, Quim de la Boquería, La Boquería Market, Barcelona. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes
Club Chefs of Connecticu
After we had the tapas and Cava to fortify us, we strolled down Les Rambles, Barcelona’s world-famous pedestrian
thoroughfare that leads to the port, stopping for photographs with the Karen, an
attractive woman from Argentina who performs as Winged Victory, one of the few
human statues left on this street that was once filled with dozens of these
performance artists.We continued on to
our lunch destination in the Port Vell, Suquet de l’Alimirall, where chef Quim Marquès (no relation to
Quim from la Boqueria; his last name ends in ‘s,’, not ‘z,’ cooked a typical
Catalan lunch for us in his own personalized style.
Club Chefs of Connecticu
Quim, who went to culinary school with José Andrés, has developed his own unique twists on many Catalan classics. Chef Quim opened with plates of jamón Ibérico de bellota, followed
by anxoas con poma (cured anchovies encircling an apple compote with olive oil and
balsamic vinegar), then pa coca con sardinas ahumados, cebolla caramelizada, tomate cherry, jamón Ibérico & queso Brie (Catalan pizza-like crust with smoked sardines,
caramelized onions, a cherry tomato, a slice of cured Ibérico ham and a piece of Brie cheese),
buñuelos de espinacas y buñuelos de
bacalao con ailoli con miel (spinach fritters and bacalao fritters with
honey ailoli), sardinas a la brasa rellenas
(stuffed, grilled sardines topped with a slice of Ibérico ham), pa amb tomaquet
(Catalan tomato bread), sepia a la
plancha con su tinta (grilled sepia with its ink) and alcachofa y huevo (fried artichokes served with a fried egg).
Club Chefs of Connecticu
Then Quim Marquès himself came out with two paellas catalanas con mariscos, mar y muntanya (Catalan "sea and
mountain" paellas), with cigalas
(Dublin Bay prawns), mejillones
(mussels), pollo (chicken) and ciruelas pasas (prunes) and plated each
portion for our group.
Chef-owner Quim Marquès shows
his paella Catalana con mariscos, mar y muntanya (Catalan "sea and
mountain" paella) with cigalas (Dublin Bay prawns), mejillones
(mussels), pollo (chicken) and ciruelas pasas (prunes), Suquet de
L'Almirall
After a walk on La Barceloneta beach, we caught a municipal bus whose route took us from the port to the front door of the Hotel Cram. We had the rest of the afternoon free until dinner to explore Barcelona.
For our second dinner in Barcelona, Gerry set up a reservation at the Michelin 2-star restaurant, ABaC, where the star chef is Jordi
Cruz, the youngest chef ever to receive a Michelin star in Spain and probably headed soon for Barcelona’s first
three-star restaurant rating.
Jordi Cruz in his open kitchen at ABaC Restaurante, Hotel ABaC, Barcelona. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon EOS 6D / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.
Jordi is one of the most brilliant cocina de vanguardia, avant-garde cuisine, chefs in the world. The value of the reservation was underscored when, as Gerry was lining up to take a photograph of our chefs group in front of ABaC before dinner, a taxi arrived and he was standing face to face with a friend of his, Roser Torras (Directora of grup gsr - produccions de gastronomia, one of most brilliant culinary event producers in the world), who was arriving for dinner as well. We were invited into ABaC's open kitchen, then we were seated at an elegantly appointed table and Jordi Cruz and his kitchen staff began to dazzle us with opening dishes such as a Nitro passion fruit “mojito,” shellfish (razor clams and cockles) bloody Mary snow and Mexican foie gras (foie with mole ice cream, corn powder and Vera Cruz salt), followed by creations such as sea urchin curry with Kafir, an anguila (sea eel) “sandwich,” Parmesan gnocchi with raw mushrooms, nuts, truffle oil and a mushroom infusion with lemongrass. A bone-dry Balma Gran Reserva Brut Nature Cava from Mas Bertran was served with the appetizers and was followed by an excellent white La Conreria d'Scala Dei Priorat Les Brugueres 2010 Garnacha Blanca.
We were seated at an elegantly
appointed table at ABaC and Jordi Cruz and his kitchen staff began to
dazzle us with opening dishes such as a Nitro passion fruit “mojito.”
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter /
Pinterest. Canon 5D Mark III / Canon 24mm f/2.8 (from lensrentals.com).
In all, there were sixteen dishes on Cruz’s menu, which finished with cocina de vanguardia versions of Casarecce pasta cooked in a squid broth, with sea
cucumbers (espardenyes), Comté cheese and lemon basil with white truffles; red
mullet with tomato bread, “concentrated” onions and lemongrass alioli; and hare
royale with fermented “potato” (bread fermented with shallots, shaped to
resemble a potato,) foie gras and Japanese mustard, accompanied by a red from the indigenous Catalan grape Trepat, Succés Vinícola del Viver El Mentider
Trepat 2011.
In just two days in Barcelona, our group of chefs managed to meet a slew of Gerry Dawes's culinary star friends, including Barcelona chefs Carles Abellàn (Comerç 24, Tapas 24 and several other restaurants), ABaC’s Jordi Cruz, Juanito Bayen (owner of the legendary market bar Pinotxo), Quím Marquéz (Quím de la Boquería), Quím Marqués (Suquet de L’Almirall), Roser Torras, Mas Gourmets owner Jorge Mas, market stand owners’ association President Salvador Capdevila, La Boquería President Oscar Uribe, Llorenç Petras, the Maestro of Mushrooms and Sergi Ferrer, the owner of Monvinic Wine Bar and Ferrer Bobet winery in Priorat.
In just two days in Barcelona, our group of chefs managed to meet a slew of Gerry Dawes's culinary star friends, including Barcelona chefs Carles Abellàn (Comerç 24, Tapas 24 and several other restaurants), ABaC’s Jordi Cruz, Juanito Bayen (owner of the legendary market bar Pinotxo), Quím Marquéz (Quím de la Boquería), Quím Marqués (Suquet de L’Almirall), Roser Torras, Mas Gourmets owner Jorge Mas, market stand owners’ association President Salvador Capdevila, La Boquería President Oscar Uribe, Llorenç Petras, the Maestro of Mushrooms and Sergi Ferrer, the owner of Monvinic Wine Bar and Ferrer Bobet winery in Priorat.
Looking out on the intersecti
Next up: Day Three, Jan. 15, San Sadurni D'Anoia (cava country) and authentic paella in Valencia.
* * * * *
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?
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
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
Posts
