We are killing the usual restaurant
At what point did the party get screwed? At what point did we decide to forget our gastronomic richness and the immense heritage of popular cuisine in pursuit of so much trendy restaurant and so many photocopied letters ?
Sea bass ceviche, bao bao and tuna tartar with avocado ; the chef with a future (he did a stage at elBulli!) and the disembodied, ghostly headwaiter: because I don't see him.
What the hell are we doing? We have an infinite coquinera heritage (pay attention to the chefBNE project of the National Library) and we are putting it away in the drawer of expendable things. We'll cry, yeah.
For so many stews, soups and funds . The sea as a pantry and its sole, espardeñas or red mullet. The cuisine of autumn and cold, with its mushrooms and game; woodcock, pigeon or pheasant.
I return to the pages of we ate and drank (Libros del Asteroides editions) of my admired Ignacio Peyró and it is impossible not to fall into discouragement, of so much emotion before the gastronomy that we have had the immense luck to enjoy and despondency before what is coming.
“I miss a kitchen stuck to the rhythms of the year and capable of distinguish the ordinary time from the feast . I admire restaurants that are better known than their chef and, if I distrust the artist in the painter's workshop, even more distrust of the artist in the kitchen . Usually, a great sanitizer is to pay for what you eat ”. How not to feel a little sadness before what already is: the restaurant (the kitchen, in short) without a soul.
Los Cuenllas, Asturianos or Arce by Iñaki Camba; Can Vilaró, Via Veneto or the Galaxia bar, the late Morgado, the takeaway chickens from Rausell or Casa Milan.
We are letting the usual restaurant die because of that sickly construct called "the new" and this trip, I'm afraid, has no return ticket.
We are that generation of provincial viticulturists who decided to uproot centuries-old native vineyards to plant chardonnay or pinot noir because it was “the fashion”; It is true that a generation of new winegrowers (essentially the work of Luis Gutiérrez The new vintners in Editorial PlanetadeLibros ) is trying to retrace that path, but it's still a tangential move: you just have to take a walk through any supermarket.
What are we doing? casual haute cuisine (second brands of great chefs) and the great gastronomic restaurants , those that ordinary mortals will only visit, at most, once in their lives; Coquettish interior design, gourmet taverns and experience as a unique selling point.
And how lazy with the 'gastronomic experience' of the nose, if I just wanted to eat well.
Perhaps we screwed up the day we stopped enjoying, without further ado, some fried eggs with chorizo and began to philosophize with the transcendence of a cococha.
Maybe it's not too late, maybe it's just a matter of stopping for a moment and Let common sense speak. I wish.