Paul Read is a Renaissance man with a difference. His Renaissance is Chinese. He’s a Londoner and a Tai Chi master, among other things, who transported himself to Spain. He tried the Med coast and the big city and finally opted for a house in the middle of a medium-sized provincial town in Granada. From there he observes–both on the street and on the Web–writes, produces videos, organizes his fellow guiris, and does his best to live a human life on this planet. This is his video, entitled “Observando,” “Observing.” See if it doesn’t start your Monday morning out on the right foot. (We have the highest admiration for anyone who can slip his dog so artfully into a video!) More…
In the context of the International Madrid Fusion Gastronomy Summit ICEX, the Spanish export agency, presented the fifth edition of its Young Chefs Culinary Scholarship in Spain. Fifteen young chefs from 13 different countries have come here to learn about Spanish cuisine and products with the objective of returning to their countries of origin and becoming Spanish gastronomy ambassadors. Their kitchen training is directly in 28 restaurants of Spanish chefs like Ramón Freixa, Juan Mari Arzak and Pepe Solla. More…
“Euskadi,” “Basque Country” in the Basque language, is a small region (7,234 square kilometers, substantially smaller than either Connecticut or the island of Crete) in Spain’s northwest corner. It has its own character, language, customs and, incidentally, 15 Michelin-starred restaurants. With a bevy of world-class cooks like Martín Berasategui, Juan Mari Arzac or Pedro Subijana, it’s easy to understand why, in recent years, Euskadi has become a place of pilgrimage for people interested in extraordinary dining, whether in bucolic farmhouse restaurants in their deep-green hills or in great gastronomic emporiums. This is a region whose cooks have brilliantly rescued it from post-industrial oblivion. More…
Often when Spanish people want to describe something that’s super fine they call it “pata negra,” “black leg.” Therein lies a story. There are two versions of Spain’s renowned “jamón serrano,” or “mountain ham,” salt cured traditionally in villages at high altitudes with crisp temperatures and mountain air.
If the main food market is the place you like to stop first in every new city you visit, you have a treat in store for you in Barcelona. Located in the middle of La Rambla pedestrian boulevard with its flower and bird stalls, and opposite the evocative Barrio Gótico restaurant quarter, the 19th-century Boquería Market (Mercado de San Josep) is one of Europe’s largest and most colorful. More…
The Roca brothers–Joan, Josep and Jordi–now face the quandary of all the most successful people in the world: what to do for an encore? The Rocas are partners in the Celler de Can Roca restaurant in Girona, Spain, north of Barcelona, the newly proclaimed “Best Restaurant in the World” by London’s Restaurant magazine. More…
Jean-Dominique Dallet (“Domingo” to his Spanish friends) is a French photographer born in North Africa who studied and worked in France and Denmark before setting up base in southern Spain. Since then, he has specialized in Spain and other Mediterranean countries, although his work has taken him as far afield as the Philippines, Macau, Malaysia and Egypt. More information on Jean Dominique Dallet and his work here on his website. More…
It almost escaped us. One of Spain’s most colorful, most exciting and most señorial fiestas, La Feria del Caballo, opens its 2013 edition tomorrow, May 4, 2013, in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz). More…
This last video in the series discusses innovative wine-making techniques, the fascinating process of making oak wine barrels, the carefully controlled aging of fine Spanish wines, and modern bottling procedures. (Answering a question you’ve always wondered about: “How do they get that wire netting around the bottle, anyway?”) More…