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It's a bit like Catalonia. You've got sea on one side and the mountains on the other. It's very lush, as you can see. Unfortunately, it's also very rainy, which is rather a shame because the Basque Country, particularly up here in the sort of just going up into the mountains, it's incredibly attractive. Got lovely limestone peaks. They're really jagged. So, I'm really disappointed that you can't see them in the mist. But, I'm on my way to a restaurant which I was recommended to me by a very well-known Australian chef called Neil Perry. The thing I like about it, the sound of it, is that everything the chef there, Victor, cooks is cooked over homemade charcoal. And apparently, it's all to do with his
background in the region in the mountains here. Um that he's it's he's just very familiar with cooking in this way, right back to his childhood. So, as a bit of a fan of barbecue cooking anyway, I'm really looking forward to it. Victor, that's him in the black t-shirt, and his chef, Lennox, run what's been described as the world's best barbecue joint. Victor designed and built these grills that can be lifted or lowered to control the cooking speed. And anyone who has a barbecue will know what a bonus that would be.
Lennox, would you ask Victor why he cooks in this way? Sure. He's saying opening this restaurant was a very emotional journey. As a child brought up in a house without gas or electricity, all the cooking was done over a fire, a wood fire. So, his earliest memories of food were always influenced by the flavors of smoke from the charcoal, and the food never tasted better. And now, 40 years on, he works to recapture those flavors from his youth. Even as a young adult, he worked as a forester in the hillside and would cook just like his grandmother did out on an open fire in the woods. He said it's the most natural and the best way to cook. So basically it is an emotional journey for him.
Very much so. That's really interesting because I'm a cook, too. And I mean the funny thing is that I do feel from listening to that, suddenly realized all I try to do is go back to my childhood and recreate those flavors when I was little. That's all I do. And so I'm totally sympathico with the way with what he's saying. These prawns are special. Look at that. So these are the gambas de Palamós? Could I feel diffident about I'm just going to be very Spanish and Oh, I'm sorry. Ask any chef in Spain where the tastiest prawns come from and they'll say Palamós, a fishing port on the Mediterranean in Catalonia. They're quite amazing.
Just gently warm, just you know, warm in the mouth. The succulent flavors are there. Sorry, I'm having a difficult moment. I can't talk anymore. It's just so wonderful. I know this steak is going to be great, too. Victor said it actually came from a dairy cow about 12 years old, not a young prime 3-year-old steer. Again, he said when he was growing up, this is what they used to eat for a special treat and he doesn't want to change that. Well, I can't wait to try this having watched Victor cook it. I mean, this is just central to any meat lover's love.
Today I'm meeting Floren and his wife Mercedes, vegetable growers who supply some of the top chefs in the restaurants in Spain. Chefs who really put Spain on the culinary map. What is it in Spanish? Art- Alcachofa. Is it beans? Oh, broad beans. I love them. I just discovered you supply Ferran Adria and um and Juan Mari as that with the vegetables. So, you're the vegetable king. He start 25 years ago. So, when Juan Mari is not so famous, Ferran Adria is not so famous, they start to So, they all of them start together. So, they grow up together. So, you're all a formation of the nouvelle cuisine. You the boss.
Floren and Mercedes had the perfect dish to show off their selection of vegetables, a menestra, which is like a thick soup made entirely from young vegetables. There are runner beans, which take about 30 seconds to blanch, and Floren chops up some borage stalks. That's a new one. I've only had it in Pimm's. He then blanches those, too. Next, he shows me how he prepares the young, freshly picked artichokes.
They're soft enough to be peeled and the flower part of the tip removed and then split in half. Without this artichoke, we cook yesterday. Good lord. How come they're sort of turquoise green? Just water and salt. Water and salt? Yes. Water have to be 2,000 magnesium. Is it word? And more. And the water from here have this I don't think I could do a recipe for it. It's a great color. Oh, I've got to get that. I've got to take that back to my restaurants.
Now, we're going to clean the asparagus. We're going to show you how we clean, right? Okay. Like that. I love gadgets. Can I just have a look? Yes, of course. Oh, I've got to have one of those. I'm surprised Flo hasn't got his name on it. Which one? The other one? He's going to present to you. He's nice. Oh, I'm very he can go with you everywhere you go. He's going to remember us in Tudela and our vegetable garden.
Just for you. A present to you. He's going to be your partner in your trip. So The asparagus will take about 5 minutes to soften and Florin is ready to start the final part of the process. He's frying off onions, again picked a minute ago from his waiter, along with some young tender garlic stalks and all at that stage straight out of the ground. They're mild and subtle. Now he adds flour because the minestra is quite thick. That will absorb some of the oil while it cooks out and then for the stock.
He uses a cupful of water from the asparagus and another from the electric soup. I mean that is great. It looks a bit like something out of science fiction, but I mean that will give the finished minestra such a lovely green spring-like color. Now he puts in the artichokes. The thing about this dish is that you use whatever is in season when it's just at its tippy-top best and I think it's a great thing to cook in an allotment. That's if you get the weather. I like these baby broad beans, sweet and tender. They'll take seconds to soften. And now for the asparagus. The Spanish love their fat white asparagus. Look at that green now.
Just the water? I just somehow can't believe it. Then more runner beans, one of my favorite vegetables, fresh and young. And lastly, tiny peas, which Florin calls the caviar of the land. It's lovely watching this in this allotment. Lovely cooking outdoors, you know, cuz it seems right. You can go and pick the artichokes or the broad beans. You know, the queen of the vegetable, right? King, king, king. Sorry. Yeah. Well, but he has long hair, SO MAYBE
WELL, IT'S TIME FOR LUNCH, AND THAT, I'm pleased to say, means a glass, or possibly two, of wine. Although not as famous as its neighbor, Rioja, I think the wines here in Navarra are just as good. You see what I mean about this dish? It is just like a thick soup. Salud. What's really nice about this that they're all friends, they're all restaurateurs. Well, I think one's got a disco, but maybe he's he or she cooks in disco. One of them cooks at El Bulli, which is just around the corner. But what I really like about it is they're all good cooks, so I'm picking up tons of stuff, and I know that everything they cook will be the best possible dish, so I'm very excited.
Once the fish is fried and put to one side, the pan is deglazed with fish stock, and then in goes some romesco paste. That's all mixed together and immediately sieved to achieve a smoother sauce for the stew. Finally, the fish goes back, and remember, they've chosen fish which Rafa refers to as duro. That means it won't break up in the cooking. While that simmers, Rafa finishes off the fideuà by ladling in fish caldo, fish stock. I've just been talking to Rafa and he's saying that dishes like this, these fish dishes, originated from the fishermen. I mean, basically, they would just be coming home from sea, got all of sorted all their good fish for market and kept all the little ones
for making a stew for themselves and they just boil up, sometimes in sea water, with whatever was available, olive oil, garlic, tomato, and sometimes a pinch of saffron and that would be a dish. And now they fetch big money in top restaurants. Okay. I think I'm right in what Rafa has just said cuz I wonder why I was putting this newspaper on top of this pan and he said it's just to scare the little vermicelli. Yeah? Just to scare them and they all come up like this so they're all pointy upwards. Maybe you put them in the dark and they're saying, "Where's the light?" That's right. And sure enough, as the little pasta
pieces soak up the stock, they begin to point upwards like delicate little flowers searching for sunlight. Finally, it's time for lunch, late even by Spanish standards. The fideuá is traditionally served with alioli, a fiercely garlicky mayonnaise, which works so well with the pasta that has soaked up the good fish stock. Excellent. Really good. Rafa has just said what's lovely about occasions like this is not just the food, it's to be here with all his friends who love his cooking as well. After eating the fideuá, it was time for the fish stew, which has been cooked
with that fabulous romesco sauce, and it didn't disappoint. With great food like this, everyone got into the celebratory spirit. It may be to do with all the wine they had while making lunch, but in this part of the world, next to their love of food, it's football and their beloved Barcelona. BARCA! [screaming]
