Angel Leon, we are fortunate to belong to the Golden Age of Spanish cuisine
Angel León is a chef known as “Chef of the Sea” and I liked the interview published by Diario de Gastronomía last Monday telling the beginnings of Angel’s interest for the sea and his vocation as a chef. Somme food for thought:
- the importance of product contact and recognition (this was also commented by one of our teachers at this showcooking)
- specialization as a means of competitiveness, although I would add here that it must be accompanied by quality and innovation
- his training as a cook at the school was essential in getting a profession out of his vocation
- Angel’s vision of current Spanish cuisine recorded in the annals of history, it’s a strong idea I couldn’t help making it the title of this post.
Here is an excerpt of the interview:
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- When does your interest in the sea begin? Does it have a pure gastronomic origin or did it attract you before?
I think I have the sea inside of me, I have an internal symbiosis since childhood. I use to say that I became a cook in contact with fish at home since I was a kid, and I started liking the kitchen because I cleaned fish, scaled it and fried it … I had a contact with the product, an emotion for going fishing.
I was a lousy student, a tremendous one and every opportunity I had to avoid it and go fishing, was great for me. I’m not saying that I was a cook with a vocation since childhood, but I think my vocation and my different approach to gastronomy have their origin in the sea. In fact, all the work and sacrifice we have made in recent years have focused on explaining and expressing the sea taking a different approach.
- Your culinary commitment, your ‘gastrosophy’ as you define it, is very clear, very concrete. But does it fit well within any current trends or is it a free rider?
I think we go it alone, we do something that stands out from everything else and the only thing that distinguishes us is to specialize in something. My father always told me: “Dude, if you’re a baker, or this or that, you have to be the best” and I always thought I should specialize in anything in life, shouldn’t know everything, but much of something and that’s what I decided, to approach it that way.
I think we were smart because we took a medium that is three-quarters of the globe and we have much more room to imagine than our competitors. I always think, who the hell named the planet Earth? Because our planet could have been named Water or something more consistent.
- Your biography, or rather your career, is probably published in many places, but I always like to hear it firsthand. What has been your history to reach Aponiente?
I wanted to be a cook at a young age, but it happened that my parents thought it was an escape, “you want to be a cook, or you don’t want to study any more in your fucking life.” But then later there was a reflection, I started at the school, four years later I went to France, where I trained as a chef, I learned and started to love cooking, discipline, doing things right and making them consistently.
But I also dreamed of having a restaurant, a human restaurant because I had been treated very badly during those four years, both mentally and physically, the kitchen is very hard. What happened is that at that time, if you wanted to dream of being a good cook you had to go to France, it was the cradle and to me it still is in many ways, I still get thrilled about traditional stews, terminations, juices, sauces, well-done things, I think we still have much to learn in the methodology of work and in that sense France gave me a lot.
- But you returned to Cádiz…
Yes, after those years I came to Spain, already thinking I wanted to do something outstanding and here, with the explosion of Ferran, we had all the super powerful trends of the moment. I always say that we are fortunate to belong to the Golden Age of Spanish cuisine, a time that will be recorded in the annals of history.
New Restaurant Compartir, with three El Bulli chefs
Big news in the foodie world: the three key chefs in the El Bulli kitchen, who worked very closely with chef Ferran Adrià during the years when the restaurant was ranked among the best in the world in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, are branching off on their own.
Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas continue to work for Adrià and will be involved in the El Bulli Foundation project (a think tank which will be built around the original, now-shuttered restaurant).
But they are also working on their own project: the restaurant Compartir, which opened early May in Cadaqués, a town on the Catalunya coast about 40 minutes North of the El Bulli site (Cala Montjoi).
Site Compartir
A Top Chef Family
What do they have in common Ferran Adria, Rene Redzepi, the Roca brothers, Andoni Aduriz, Massimo Bottura and Grant Achatz?
Find out in this brief interview with Ferran Adrià at the past awards from The World’s 50 Best Restaurants:
[video English / Spanish]
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Bluefin Food Week 2012
From 2 to May 6, it’s Bluefin Food Week 2012 in Ametlla de Mar (Tarragona, Spain). All visitors can experience firsthand the control and care activities of the bluefin tuna caught during the fishing season.
Bluefin tuna are caught wild and fed a diet of oily fish, the same consumed by those that remain wild, so that little by little, over time, they get the fat percentage that makes them distinctive and highly valued in the world of haute cuisine.
For decades, is a product coveted by Japanese cuisine but again this fish has gained in recent years the product name ‘gourmet’.
This week, with the help of professional chefs of Ametlla de Mar, visitors can enjoy free presentations to learn how to prepare dishes with tuna.
In addition, 13 restaurants of Ametlla de Mar have created a special menu with bluefin tuna available from 2 to May 13, paired with the exquisite Inedit Estrella Damm beer.
A unique beer
Inedit is a unique coupage of barley malt and wheat, flavored with coriander, orange peel and liquorice.
Inedit is the first beer specifically created to accompany food. It is born from the conviction that a beer that could be paired with the utmost respect to the best cuisine was necessary. That is its aim and its virtue, and that is what makes Inedit different, special and unique.
Has been created by Damm brewmasters, heirs to a century-old tradition, and developers of highly appreciated beers, and by Ferran Adrià, Juli Soler and El Bulli’s sommeliers’ team.
To deliver the best of Inedit, we suggest keeping Estrella Damm Inedit in a wine cooler while it is being served in white wine glasses. It is important not to fill the glass more than half full so as to appreciate all its virtues.
Saint George’s Day
Saint George’s Day is celebrated on 23 April, the traditionally accepted date of Saint George’s death in AD 303. Saint George is associated with several areas of Spain, like Aragon, Caceres and Catalonia.
La Diada de Sant Jordi (Saint George’s Day), also known as El dia de la Rosa (The Day of the Rose) or El dia del Llibre (The Day of the Book) is a Catalan holiday held on 23 April, with similarities to Valentine’s Day and some unique twists that reflect the antiquity of the celebrations. The main event is the exchange of gifts between sweethearts, loved ones and colleagues. Historically, men gave women roses, and women gave men a book to celebrate the occasion—”a rose for love and a book forever.”
Legend and tradition
The legend of Sant Jordi and the dragon
According to popular tradition, Sant Jordi was a Roman soldier and was born in the 3rd century in Capadocia in Turkey. This Saint, who was under the orders of the emperor Diocletian, refused to carry out the emperor’s edict to persecute all Christians and for this reason he was martyred and decapitated by his companions. In the eastern part of the Roman Empire, he soon became venerated as a martyr and shortly after this, fantastic stories related to him began to appear.
The exploits of Sant Jordi and the Dragon became popular throughout Europe around the 9th century under the name of “Golden legend” and were compiled by the archbishop of Genoa, Iacopo da Varazze, in 1264, in the book ‘Legenda sanctorum ‘. In this version, however, the exploits took place in Libya.
The most popular legend in Catalonia about Sant Jordi tells that at Montblanc, in Conca de Barberà, there was a terrible dragon which viciously attacked men and beasts. To pacify it, lots were drawn and a person was chosen to be given as a sacrifice to the monster. One day, the misfortune fell on the king’s daughter, who would have died in the beast’s claws if it had not been for the arrival of a handsome knight who challenged the dragon and killed it.
This same legend, although with slight variations, is told as a popular legend in England, Portugal and Greece.
Source: Generalitat de Catalunya
Guess the price for the best cheese in the world
Last month, the World Championship Cheese Contest took place in Wisconsin. The wheel of Vermeer, a low-fat Gouda-style cheese, scored a mild upset at the World Championship Cheese Contest, beating out two cheeses from Switzerland and preventing the Swiss from capturing a fourth straight title.
Then a 24-pound wheel of Vermeer cheese has been auctioned off for $8,400, or $350 per pound..
The title question has some trap. Well actually it is an auction of gold-medal cheeses that raises money to help educate cheesemakers and it raised more than $140,000.
Source: Associated Press
Pictures: World Championship Cheese Contest
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