Caught red handed
Our relationship with 21st century cuisine oscillates between the inevitable tendency to devotion and the horror vacui in front of the stove. A few months ago, a consecrated chef confided in me a truth like a temple: Never in our history has there been so much talk about cooking and, at the same time, so little cooking at home. The paradox is perhaps more eloquent when they confirm that the latest in culinary technology it is imposed between individuals –above the professional demand–.
We have accommodated ourselves, either due to the lack of hours a day, a confessed lack of interest in pots and pans, an irrepressible fear of fire or because we simply have some good hands in the dough at our side.
But it's never late. From here we encourage you to culinary self-determination. In these five kitchens you will knead bread, macerate sea bass for a ceviche, assemble a maki-sushi roll, decorate some tarts or create a cocktail of 'raise fame and go to sleep'. To start, take note of the recipe for airy cookers: a dose of technique, kilos of good raw material and passion in abundance.
Kitchen Club main room
1) ** Kitchen Club (Ballesta, 8) ** In March 2010, when the Triball neighborhood was starting to get more expensive, a new tenant moved in to the delight of his alternative neighbors ready to put on an apron. The founder, María González, brought together Carlos Pascal, Nieves Gómez and Fernando del Toro, chefs from culinary temples such as Sudestada or Arzak, and a team of sommeliers, led by Andrés Aedo, trained at the Burj al Arab, the pinnacle of luxury from Dubai. Time after, the school recruited Andrés Madrigal as gastronomic director, whose experience is made available to students under two categories: Atelier Madrigal and Low Cost Haute Cuisine.
The wide offer of it, directed especially to a public tanned in posh tables, monopolizes Asian varieties, recipes for professional carnivores, master classes with Dario Barrio, Rodrigo de la Calle or Ramón Freixa, cocktail courses, sushi, mushrooms and wine tasting.
Facade of A Punto Bookstore, in the Chueca neighborhood
**2)Librería A Punto ** **(Calle de Pelayo, 60) ** As it could not be otherwise, Chueca has its very modern cooking school. The center for the dissemination of gastronomic and wine culture was born under the guise of a bookstore to become a multidisciplinary space dedicated to worshiping the virtues of cooking.
A Punto divides its activities into three zones. At street level, a succulent shop packed with more than 3000 monothematic titles in several languages. In addition to shelves full of designer items for sale. In the basement are the other two: the tasting room and the kitchen, with a capacity for 15 people, that host meetings and daily activities: wine tastings, traditional and international cooking courses in English, classes with great chefs and even gastronomic photography lessons.
In his young team journalists meet gastronomic (Sara Cucala or Ana Lorente), chefs (Carmen Delgado from La Gorda or Luis Arévalo from Nikkei 225), communication professionals (Robert Bruno) and up to two pets: Can Penelope and El Mono A Punto.
Alembic Shop and Cooking School
3) ** Alembic (Plaza de la Encarnación, 2) ** Open since 1978, this exquisite store of tableware and kitchen items –classic and design–, became a meeting point for unsuspecting pioneers who they began experimenting with grandmother's recipes. The cooking classes, which emerged spontaneously, soon monopolized a gang that forced the school to open under the name of the author of New Kitchen Art, Juan Altimiras. Today, in addition to the Madrid store, they have a headquarters in Vigo (Argentine Republic, 25).
Your team grabs chefs from here and from other continents who illustrate the staff with techniques for making cheese, secrets for a risotto, master sessions, tricks to make bread at home and perfect measures for a cocktail. Check its programming and you will find themes linked to legumes, the flavors of India, the crepes or the orchard of the Basque Country.
Pasta decorated with basil at Cooking Club
**4)Cooking Club (Veza, 33 bajo, corner Muller) ** Next to Plaza Castilla, the school offers courses of between one and four months where up to 24 cookers They heat up delicacies at the same time in the middle of rush hour.
Their owners assure that they are a club of friends who love gastronomy that offer courses for newcomers or seasoned cooks who want to hone their techniques with classes of no more than 12 students, whose cooking skills are put to the test three recipes per head. His lessons cover vegetarian, Italian, Moroccan references, odes to foie, ceviche or creams and tailor-made courses, like those dedicated to children.
Tasting room of Librería A Punto
**5) El Granero de Lavapiés (Calle de Argumosa, 10) ** The vegetarian of the Lavapies promenade adds more than 30 years cooking healthy. His diners, who always repeat experience, they find ecological, fresh and natural products that are manifested in a menu of homemade recipes presented with a salt shaker and frankly affordable.
After years receiving compliments for their skill and inventiveness, today they invite you to discover the ins and outs of their kitchen. From March, make available the stoves of El Granero to bring whoever is encouraged a gastronomy that, apart from meat and fish, offers a suggestive range of possibilities.
You can sneak in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., in its Eden of green creations: mushroom croquettes, vegetarian sushi, Turkish rice, seitan burgers with caramelized onion and arugula, tofu cake with kiwi, vegetables stuffed with bulgur and tofu, hummus, curried lentils... Satisfied appetite?
Vegetarian cuisine at El Granero de Lavapiés