San Sebastián Gastronomika. In a Few Words.

San Sebastián. The world's greatest chefs. An exchanging of techniques, ideas, and old-fashioned facetime.  Put it all together, and what do you get? San Sebastián Gastronomika.

Star of the show=France, as invited country.

Flavors the flowed from the fount of 'nouvelle cuisine' at SSG12: Roast duck, mushroom, sorrel, apple, black truffle, cassis, wild herbs, beets, walnuts...many of these modified with a place name. A return to terroir.

Spanish chefs=wilder combos. See above in La Grand Bouffe, a light-hearted cookoff between eight young chefs. Coconut,  herb charcaol, tapioca, lime granita, fermented garlic, soy sauce, parsley foam, spider crab, green tea, barnacles, smoked tuna, frozen gazpacho.

foto via Katharine Giery

And, after parties. Ice-cold French oysters, champagne, gooey cheeses, fried chicken, chefs and journalists happy.

Good Year.

behind the pintxos

Earlier this week, I posted a 365 entry about a young cook and friend here in San Sebastián, Aleks Villegas.  He helped me come to the conclusion that it's a whole lot more useful to look at the pass and into the kitchen than to go by signs outside of bars when picking pintxo spots.  That is to say that, more so than in many other places, your dining experience is in the hands of one or two cooks.

Just like Aleks, many of these pintxo bar cooks start out staging in local restaurants, which happen to be some of the best in the world: Arzak, Mugaritz, Akelarre.

Then, if they're lucky, they stick around, getting jobs in other restaurants and the city's famed bars.  The vast majority of these pintxo bars are small, one or two-man operations. What does that mean?

That much of what makes a pintxo bar good, bad or excellent is the lone cook holding down the kitchen. Is it someone's cousin who's pinch hitting for a couple months? Or does it happen to be a cook with big dreams fresh off being mentored by one of the world's greatest chefs?  Now you see what I mean.

A chef with big dreams might be like Aleks, creating signature dishes that in a season or two become ubiquitous.  He claims the confit chicken wing, slow-cooked in oil, deboned, then re-seared before serving, as his own creation.  He debuted it at a small bar in Gros, Dardara, where it remains on the menu. Then he took it with him to Astelena. It has also begun to pop up on a couple other menus across town, and it's no coincidence.

San Sebastián is a tiny town with an outsize appetite and culinary talent.  Before graduating to fame, fortune and Michelin stars, it all starts small....with stages and pintxos.

Day Three: San Sebastián Gastronomika

Dear Johnny-

How are things at Bottega?
It’s that time of year again, when magical things happen in San Sebastián. Wait..what time of year is that? Well...it’s Gastronomika...and there’s lots of food...and Nate Appleman is here, which reminds me of the Bottega kitchen, and the honey panna cotta with blackberry and buckwheat cookie panzanella that I never made and still think about.
Lots of cool stuff to see here...wanted to send you some of the flavor combos to see if you some inspiration will rub off.

fish bones | soy sauce | mandarin foam
ray fish | brown butter
raw mushrooms | orange juice | dried banana skin
coconut cream | herb coal | smoked salt | purple violet | tapioca sorbet
bonbon of foie | horchata soup | fried horchata slices | truffle oil
peas | wasabi | julienned pea pods | pea sorbet
suckling pig | garlic | melon | peach | reisling
green citrus caviar | garlic creme | coriander
chestnut pure | raw chestnut | fried slices | truffle
red cabbage | green yuzu | squid
pumpkin | orange | fennel | crab
caramelized onion | squid | red pepper
raw scallop | grape | horseradish
horchata | parsley juice | anchovy | garlic | cilantro
sea urchin | squid | tropical fruit | grapes | aji
white chocolate | raspberry | shortbread
tomato | apple | jamón ibérico | jamón infused salt
salmon | cucumber | chives | berries | radishes
red mullet {split, deboned, liver diced and returned to spine, wrapped and cooked sous-vide with olive oil}
deconstructed calamari a la romana {perfectly grilled calamari, sprinkled with balls of fried tempura and lemon zest, i think it was}
deconstructed liver & onions {caramelized onion puré, pate, and an onion microwave cake}
pumpkin {candied in lime and sugar, torched}
vegetable gazpacho {vegetables slow-cooked en papillote with aromatics}
mussels {cooked and pureed in their liquid, mixed with rice flour and piped into boiling water to make ‘beans’}


Those are just a sprinkling of the incredible flavors from Gastronomika.
I teared up two or three times. One, watching the Mugaritz video. The rest thinking of the kitchen.
You should have been here.
Miss you,
Marti