San Sebastian hosts an annual culinary conference called Gastromonika. While the conference is designed for the restaurant and culinary industry, the public can participate in various activities. We attended two fun sessions in 2017 – the national grill competition and another about cooking in Portuguese Tavernas. We missed last year’s conference while traveling in Italy. This year’s conference offered many captivating choices, including wine tastings, regional food tastings, and competitions.
When evaluating the program, a lunch session caught our fancy: “Fina Puigdevall in her Landscape.” Fina is a two-star Michelin chef who has run Les Cols in Gerona (Catalunya) since 1990. Fina also happened to be a celebrity guest on our favorite gameshow, Pasapalabra. (Sadly, the show has been discontinued due to a rights dispute and we miss it a lot.) We recognized Fina’s photo and were intrigued by the opportunity to experience her creations, with wine pairings selected by the President of the Spanish Sommelier Academy, without having to travel to Girona or pay the prices of a 2-star restaurant. We were not disappointed by our choice!
On October 8, we enjoyed a 2-hour plus guided feast, which included 8 different wines with 3 appetizers, 7 small plates, and 2 desserts. It was amazing and we didn’t eat another thing the rest of the day. The food was superb, but it was also exciting to be able to understand everything going on around us. We have come a long way from the Portuguese taverna session 2 years ago, when we really struggled to understand the host’s descriptions.
Here are the highlights of our lunch, including the inspiring table setting and our hosts:
Yes, we used all of those wine (and water) glasses! Fina has the microphone in her hand, beside her is her daughter, with the sommelier. The other gentleman is a representative from Acqua Panna / San Pellegrino – each dish even had a recommended water pairing!
This colorful dish is an egg, cooked at low temperature with multiple sauces – beautiful and delicious:
The fish course – bacalao (cod) presented 4 ways:
The lamb course – before and after the sauce was poured:
And the desserts – a blackberry sorbet and an assortment of volcanic inspired pastries:
The wines were top notch. We could not have been happier with this event, which was so reasonably priced at 70E.
As you can imagine, we are disappointed to know that we will likely miss next year’s conference, but we will be in Italy again, which is gastronomically inspiring in its own way.
Buen provecho,
Shana & Jeff
No comments:
Post a Comment