Maria Hervas is Amelia Castro.
Cooking is sharing, it is transmitting, it is deciphering recipes and transforming them until we find the special and unique ingredient in each dish and in each one of us. The ingredient that makes us special. Clara BelmonteMichelle Jenner write this in her diary. the protagonist of Castamar's cook, New serie (premiere February 21 in Atresplayer Premium), based on the homonymous novel by Fernando J. Múñez, she is a young woman who suffers from agoraphobia since her father was murdered, who goes to work in the Palace of Castamar as a means of survival and she will rediscover her salvation in her kitchen.
The kitchen, good eating, are the backbone of this series that revolves around the corruption of this Palace, supposedly located on the outskirts of Madrid. The gossip of one and another characters, noble or service, that Clara dreams of uniting through the kitchen. In that gastronomic vision we recognize ourselves. The character's salvation Duke of Castamar, Don Diego (Roberto Enriquez), for example, he will come across those dishes with the exact ingredients.
The palace of Boadilla is Castamar.
In that sense, this historical series (but with fictitious plots) is situated around 1720. And the time and premise included two challenges: find the perfect locations and reproduce cuisine and recipes faithful to the moment. It was the reign of Philip V, the first Bourbon, and although in 1720 perhaps the transition from Austrian architecture and tastes had not been completed to the French style, in the series they opted for the latter, more refined and decorative.
The location manager, Paco Úbeda, His first mission was to find a Palace more or less from the time that would serve as a reference to inspire the art team and, hopefully, that would end up being the Castamar of the series. They found it quickly, as Úbeda says “when it comes to time in Madrid, there are twenty places”. and they chose the Palace of the Infante Don Luis, in Boadilla del Monte, a set of National Heritage that is the facade of this Castamar. And where they could also shoot the central stairs and the immediate gardens.
In the kitchen.
But Castamar is chopped into a thousand places. Once again, the magic of the screen. The interiors are sets built on set. And the exteriors are divided throughout the Community of Madrid and nearby provinces. The view of the first chapter in which the Palace is seen in the background and the terrible accident of the death of Don Diego's wife occurs, it is not Boadilla, it is the gardens of the Riofrio Palace, in Segovia. While many of the walks that the inhabitants and guests of this mansion supposedly take around their estate, were recreated in The Farm, in El Escorial. "A farm from the time of Felipe II where they made the recreations of the boats, which is a typical filming location," says Úbeda.
And, lastly, they needed a service patio, the one that Clara only sees from the window, due to her terrible fear of leaving it. "There is no palace that has the kitchen areas downstairs and overlooks a patio with animals," says Úbeda. “So when the cook looks out the window on set, what she sees outside we recreate on the Charterhouse of Talamanca del Jarama, another classic of going to shoot”.
A very rural nobility.
MORE PALACES
Castamar is not the only Palace in the Court, of course. The Duke is a very well-positioned man who Felipe V himself demands his presence and his return to Madrid, so the royal palace is also represented in the series. But it is very difficult or almost impossible to shoot in the Royal Palace or the Alcázar and they recreated it between two spaces: the interiors are those of the Palace of Fernan Nunez, near Atocha, “another regular in period productions”, confirms Úbeda. And the exteriors are those of the Country house of the Duke of Arco, in El Pardo, Madrid.
They also shot interiors in house of america and for scenes in religious spaces, they used the Ucles Monastery, in Cuenca; and the one of Saint Bartholomew of Lupiana, in Guadalajara. That is the convent that Clara supposedly comes from and that they will also pass off as another religious center.
noble walks.
CAUGHT RED HANDED
The kitchen as a metaphor and engine of history is, in this case, a more important room than the main hall of the Palace. The documentation to build it as it would have been at the time went through visiting those of the Royal Palace and when it came to cooking, they had an advisor and connoisseur of the recipes and types of food that were used then.
“It was cooked with very coarse product”, Explain Mercedes Channels, designer of the sets of Castamar. “We investigated food, and we saw, for example, that the potato was not eaten, they gave it to the animals”. A lot of poultry, a lot of meat and all those garden products arrived at the kitchen a little dirty, "not as perfect as now," she says. But later they left the kitchen to the living room that makes it even sad to eat them. The decoration of the feasts was another fundamental work in this series that aspires to good eating as a tool for social equality.
Michelle Jenner is Castamar's cook.