“Asturian food is the root of who I am as a person and as a chef,” he says in the series on Spanish gastronomy, with a chapter that is a love song for his “home”
Asturias is the “home” of chef José Andrés. And he makes it very clear in the episode of the series ‘José Andrés and family in Spain’, released this Tuesday on HBO, and which becomes a love song to the land where he was born and where the roots of his work lie. . “This is where my love for food was born.” And you only have to see him lick his fingers so that national and international audiences are clear about it: Asturias feeds the stomach, the mind, the eyesight. And the heart.
Filmed with all the luxury of means to fill the chapter with beautiful pictures of the Principality, José Andrés’ first visit is to the Mirador del Fito to contemplate a splendid landscape in 360 degrees. “Look at this. This is Asturias. It’s as if the mountains kissed the sea.” The chef acts as a guide with his daughters, great strangers to Asturias and surprised by the emotion that seizes their father at every step. to each dish. Let’s take note: “Asturias is spectacular. It has a dramatic coastline where you can find the best seafood in the world. Fresh lobster or bugre or delicate fish. The landscape is intense green. The garden of Spain. Incredible products are grown here. Its high mountains leave you breathless. Dairy cows roam its lush pastures and produce some of the most delicate and expensive cheeses in the world.. Asturian food reflects this incredible landscape but also tells the story of the people who live here. Working people. For centuries they have lived off the fruits of the land and have created some amazing local specialties.”
Suddenly, he says: “I carry Asturias in my veins, in my blood.” And his daughters share it: “He is in our veins, in our blood.” Asturias? “Boom!” Boom is the fetish word to summarize what cannot be summarized: the perfect, the sublime in repairing and nourishing communion. “He has an incredible spiritual connection to this place,” concludes one daughter. “I want my daughters to love Asturias like me,” he says. During the chapter he shows his problems with gear cars, he meets up with old friends and tries his childhood homemade food. Brothers Manzano, Marcos Moran, Dulce Martinez… Asturian tortos with blue cheese and caramelized onion (“A dish I’m really scared to make”) or fabada (“The heart and soul of the dish are the best beans in the world, it gets rid of how buttery it is. This bean has no skin, they don’t understand it outside”).
“This dish is 150 years old, a symbol of Asturias and its people,” he explains, and concludes: “My mother made an incredible fabada.” She remembers that “I left Asturias very young and went to Barcelona. We celebrated my first communion in an Asturian restaurant and the main course was Asturian fabada. My mother began to cry, this plate symbolized who she was. And it has influenced who I am. Fabada unites people.”
And then “my favorite dessert of all time: rice pudding” arrives. He explains how to caramelize with the burner. “A heavenly sound.” what a meal. “An opportunity to share a bit of my childhood with my three daughters. Days like today make me know who I am. Surrounded by so much beauty, eating with friends.” Then, stop at Cabo Vidio to praise the Asturian shellfish: “Nothing compares to an Asturian crab or a lobster by the sea where they came from.” But today they try the barnacles, “the most expensive shellfish in the world. Yes, they look strange but they taste incredible.” Julio Cesar Nail he takes Carlota and Inés to go fishing for barnacles. And then glory: “In Asturias we like to cook simply to let these incredible ingredients speak for themselves. These juicy Asturian barnacles taste like a cross between a lobster and a clam. Incredible. Tell me it wasn’t great” .
A cow stands in the middle of the road, and begs: “Please don’t attack me, I’m from Asturias!” In Oviedo they enjoy family company and apples, “the pride of Asturias” and they go to the street for cider, “it’s like a religion”. The ritual of pouring “to get bubbles and foam” and a powerful cachopo (“Why do I keep coming back? Because it’s my home”) precede the singing of “Asturias, beloved homeland” at the top of my lungs. “They do not stop serving you, we are up to here with cider”, comments a daughter, and her father asks the cameraman “cut, cut”, qualifying: “It barely has alcohol”. Obligatory step for Camilo de Blas: “The best part of eating a sweet? This, licking your fingers.”
The Picos de Europa are home to “wild mushrooms, some of the most unique and delicious in the world”. And what a meat: “Nine years old. In the US, the oldest cow is a year and a half old. From an older cow you get a steak with more flavor.” The mushrooms lose him: “It is as if you were eating a sponge and it was full of flavor. Nothing could be more natural. The flavor of the Asturian mountains.” For dessert, a local blue cheese tart. “Almost runny, creamy, juicy.” Too bad: Lucía hates cheese.
She is not excited about meeting a cheesemaker. “The cheese capital of the world. Gamonéu, one of my mother’s favorites, and now one of mine.” The other daughters do not wrinkle and milk cow, sheep and goat. Next, she visits the sanctuary where the cheeses spend 25 days smoking. “Like we’re discovering the Holy Grail of cheese. You’re not buying cheese, you’re buying what happens in these mountains.” And as a climax, his “own feast with my family and friends. He cooks. He even eats a live shrimp. The mountains and the sea, and beans in the center. “The goodness of the land: Asturias.”
Finale: father and daughters soaking their feet. “My favorite moment: Right now. I feel like we’re closer than ever.”
Asturias boom! with Jose Andres.