Posts Tagged ‘Spanish cuisine’
Happy 40th Birthday, Jose Andres
I have no idea when José Andrés‘ real birth date is, but I know they’re celebrating the Spanish chef’s 40th tonight at an undisclosed location, kind of like Dick Cheney might , only with actual friends involved in this case.
In a weird case of synchronicity, a City Paper employee met today with a publicist for the National Gallery of Art, who told him how Jaleo, the flagship in Andrés’ restaurant empire, got its name. The CP employee asked me if I knew the inspiration for Jaleo’s name. I had to admit I didn’t.
The publicist said that Andrés was visiting the National Gallery nearly 17 years ago when he came across the above painting by John Singer Sargent. Its name?
Did Y&H Get Played by Canales Deli Over the Price of Iberico?
Despite its portmanteau name that dredges up images of those foot-fetish Georgetown boutiques, Cheesetique is, without a doubt, my favorite cheese shop in the area (not to mention a two-time Best of D.C. winner). The staff here is sort of the anti-Ray Bowers, the chronically cranky cheesemonger who runs Bowers Fancy Dairy Products in the Eastern Market; Cheesetique employees are polite and knowledgeable while still projecting an appropriate amount of artisan-shop quirkiness. Even better, I never get the sense they’re trying to gouge me.
Case in point: Cheesetique’s price for iberico de bellota. The shop sells the hard-to-find cured Spanish hams for $99 a pound. Contrast that with the price I paid recently at the noisy, no-frills, baby-stroller choked Eastern Market, where the seemingly kindly man behind the counter at Canales Deli charged me $150 a pound for the same meat, a 50 percent increase over the stuff at Cheesetique.
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Highlights from Last Night’s Spanish ‘Vanguard Cuisine’ Talk
Dufresne, Andrés, and Colman: foaming over Spanish avant-garde cooking
Chefs Wylie Dufresne and José Andrés took to the stage last night at the National Museum of American History and said that, despite all the hype and hero-worship around him, Ferran Adrià is indeed the man responsible for the foams, spherifications, and other elements of modern avant-garde cooking.
Well, I should clarify: Andrés said that, but Dufresne didn’t disagree.
The Adrià coronation was part of an hour-long discussion, presented by the Spain-USA Foundation and hosted by writer Colman Andrews, designed to dissect Spanish “vanguard cuisine” and its influence on U.S. chefs. Despite its academic bent, the discussion had some moments of levity, even insight.
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