l'art de vivre

Second highlight after Arzak during our vacation in Spain was the dinner at Restaurante Martin Berasategui, in Lasarte-Oria near San Sebastian. The restaurant was rated at number 33 in 2010 by “The World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards”.

I propose that you allow me to seduce you in small mouthfuls … seductive, light and succulent, they will whet your appetite and be the introduction to a magnificent meal.

No sooner had we read these words on the menu than the first Amuse-Bouche was served: Salmon Keia lightly smoked with seaweed powder of hazelnut, coffee and vanilla. But we liked the second Amuse-Bouche much more, which was a Mille-Feuille of smoked eel, Foie Gras, spring onions and green apple. A wonderful combination with fine balanced taste. No wonder it’s a signature dish of the chef since 1995.

Next course was fake Iberian bacon cannelloni with squid and white wine. The meal was served although my hubby was not at the table at this moment. I really dislike this in such top-class restaurants. The kitchen is working hard in preparing the food and it is important that you eat it in perfect temperature. So it is really a pity when the meal becomes cold until the guest arrives back. They have a lot of service staff and you have a good overview from the kitchens door so it should be no big deal to wait with the serving until all guests are sitting at the table.
However the course itself was absolutely great, especially the first part. A wafer-thin ravioli filled with squid ink was lying on a squid Carpaccio, garnished with some squid rice crackers. Over that a clear squid soup was poured. We have been instructed to put the whole ravioli in the mouth as it will “explode” once you bite through it. Surprisingly this ink filling was very good, just outranged by the excellent soup.

Little pearls of fennel in raw, risotto and emulsion were served after it. Good but nothing special.

However the next course was fantastic: Cheese and carabana oil bubble with endives, red onions jus and Iberian bacon. Once more the cheese balls were liquid inside and exploded in the mouth, a very hearty taste. As an old Soupy-Kaspar I really enjoyed the Red Onions Jus a lot.

I believe every top restaurant in Spain needs to put an egg course on their menu. :) But why not. It’s a real challenge to make an egg-dish which sends someone into transports of delight. Farmer’s egg with beet root and liquid herb’s salad, Carpaccio of Basque stew and cheese. The Carpaccio was something like a thin sliced aromatic lardo, beneath it a poached egg yolk (without the white! How is this possible?), melting away once you touch it. It was a  wonderful great mix of the warm, liquid egg yolk and all the other ingredients.

From a visual point of view the next course was one of the prettiest, a warm vegetable hearts salad with seafood, cream of lettuce head and idionized juice. The precision on this plate was impressive. Sadly the taste was not able to keep up with the expectations.

In return the fish course was not only interesting but also convincing. The red mullet was perfectly roasted, garnished with its scales, looking like small crystals. A juice of white chocolate and seaweeds supplemented the meal. A great combination I’ve never seen before.

The main course was delicious too but a little bit to heavy for my taste, especially when you consider this big menu. The Araiz’s Pigeon looked very raw but in fact it was perfect. What I really liked was the fresh pasta with an absolutely amazing filling of mushrooms and spring onions. Not to forget the small spots of truffle cream and the Foie Gras slice.

Cold essence of basil and green beans, a lime sherbet and juniper granite was a very refreshing dessert. I would really like to try making this essence at home. It reminds me of the sorrel granite Rene Redzepi at Noma served us about three years ago and which I already prepared several times.

Not my cup of tea was the chocolate dessert but my hubby was very happy with it and it looked really nice. Instead the acacia honey ice cream with Irish Coffee was my favourite.

Altogether it was a very nice evening and we enjoyed the food, the wine and the atmosphere. Service was a little bit stiff at the beginning and the courses were served too fast. We had to ask two times before they slowed down the speed. But by and by the staff was loosening up and we had some fun together. At the end they recommended us an Armagnac that was so good my hubby had to order it right the next day.

Unlike Elena Arzak, who even speaks Germany quite fluent, Martin Berasategui seems not to be able to speak English, just Spanish/Basque and France. He was accompanied by a translator when visiting all the tables but due to the barrier of language we had just the typical small talk. What a pity! Usually I don’t like this superficial handshake while telling the chef how good he is. But on some tables they had a really intensive discussion and it was obvious that cooking and this restaurant is his passion.

Tags: spain, spainFrance2010

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