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| Eneko |
After attending the recent Gastronomika event in San Sebastian, I was intrigued to try Azurmendi, then a newish Two-Star Michelin place near Bilbao, which was run by a 35 year-old chef called Eneko Atxa. I had just gorged myself at Mugaritz the night before, so wasn’t really expecting anything that would blow me away. Before we got down to lunch, I made a tour of the family Txakoli vineyards with Soren Frank, the wine writer from Denmark. The ones we tasted were exceptionally good examples of this rather harsh fizzy wine that Basque like to drink when on pintxos crawls in bars. This was of a higher realm, though the prices too were double figures, which was unusual for such a wine.
The restaurant is perched on the side of a mountainous hill overlooking the main road from Bilbao to the airport. Not ideal but it is so high up that you can ignore the actual vehicular stuff on the motorway if you look on a horizontal plane at the neighbouring hills.
It is a vast complex, complete with the wine making operation and a conference hall with the restaurant perched above all this in what must be the most eco-friendly restaurant in Europe. The lobby has a range of contemporary art and plants and above all of this is a large garden on the roof.
There are only 45 covers but from the outside at least, you could easily imagine it to hold four times
The food is decidedly contemporary in style but fortunately it also possesses a large amount of flavour.
It was impressive to find so much intensity on what is quite crafted cuisine. I only had time for a quick lunch, so I will go back next year to do a proper review of the food. While I was there, I spoke to Eneko, who is an attractive character – very animated and passionate.
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| Eneko's impressive truffle infused egg |
Less than a fortnight after I ate there, Michelin awarded him his Third Michelin star, so he is more than someone to watch – he has already arrived big time.
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Grilled squid, mantle of its own juice, crunches and onion: Basque -Txibiak txingarretan eginak, tipula eta beren saldan mantu kurruskariarekin: Spanish - Chipirones a la brasa, manto de su jugo, crocantes y cebolla |
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Salted stew: vegetables, anchovies and iberics with “Idiazabal” cream cheese balls: Basque - Erregosi gazitua; barazkiak, antxoak, iberiarrak eta Idiazabal bonboiekin: Spanish - A modo de estofado de salazones; vegetales, anchoas e ibérico con bombones de Idiazabal |
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"Betizu” oxtail raviolis, wrapped in corn bread with legume broth: Basque - Betizu behiaren ravioliak arto-ogi tartean eta lekale zukua: Spanish - Raviolis de vaca Betizu, envueltos en pan de maíz y jugo de legumbres |
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Oyster, salicornia, iodinated tremella, seaweed and small crunchy nettles with natural aromas from the sea: Basque - Ostra, salicornia, tremella iodatua, algak eta itsas-asun kirrikatsuak itsas lurrinarekin: Spanish - Ostra, Salicornia, Tremella iodada, algas y ortiguilla crujientes con aromas del mar |
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Confit of lobster with essential herbs from our garden and pork jowl: Basque - Abakando konfitatua gure lorategiko lore esentzial eta txerri golapearekin: Spanish - Bogavante confitado con hierbas esenciales de nuestro jardín y papada |
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Pigeon, "hazelnuts", and leafs from the forest: Basque - Usakumea, “hurrak”, basoko osto jauziekin: Spanish - Pichón, “avellanas”, hojas caídas del bosque |
What is your background in cuisine - did you always want to be a chef and if so, where did the inspiration come from?
I probably decided to be a cook because no one in my family had ever been one. Even so, the kitchen table was the place that everything centred and moved around. I also learnt quite a lot from the stories that the older members of the family told me around the kitchen table. I was brought up in the town of Amorebieta-Etxano, just outside Bilbao (and only a few miles from Guernica). This is now the heart of the Txakoli production of my family.(Gorka Izagirre, Eneko´s uncle, runs what is arguably the most high end Txakoli winery in the Basque Country).
Where did you first work as a chef?
When I was 15, I started working in modest local restaurants, while at the same studying for a chefs diploma, which I gained by the age of 17. By 18, I had my first job in a Michelin starred restaurant (Andra Mari in Basque Country at Galdakao)
I feel very privileged because being so close to the coast and sea, we have wonderful ingredients to play with, not to forget the wider culinary inheritance of the Basque Country. Throughout all of my apprenticeships, I picked up various techniques and learning and if you put all that together in a cocktail shaker, I knew very well what I wanted to do with my cooking. I think of gastronomy as a universal language and I want to transmit, through this language, where I have come from and who I am and where I want to go in the future.
I probably worked in seven or eight different places before working at Martin Berasategui (the Three Star Michelin establishment near San Sebastian). There was another Three Star Michelin chef that had a big impact on me in 2005. I learned a lot from Yoshihiro Murata the famed kaiseki chef at Kikunoi Honten, Kyoto) as I worked with him in Japan. I had been talking with him for a few days and asked him if I could witness his creative process in the kitchen. In response, Muratasan told me to meet him at five in the morning so I imagined he would take me to his kitchen and we could cook together. We got into his car and surprisingly, we didn’t go to his kitchen but instead to one of his producers. We had some tea and then spoke for two hours about which produce he should use because of the seasonality. It made me realize that factors like seasons and availability of various products was so important. We visited one who provided vegetables, another who dealt with general produce, who also knew things such as when the best fish are available and why. This was a very valuable lesson to me as I opened my first restaurant at the end of 2005. I was always very clear about what I wanted to do in my own kitchen – to make something from the local produce that had a universal message.
Were there any other people who inspired your culinary style?
Apart from the leading Basque master chefs, I was also affected by the way that my ancestors dealt with extreme poverty during the Spanish Civil War, when they had very little to eat and high quality products were extremely scarce. This was conveyed to me through my grandmothers who lived through this period, plus what I read too.
Are there any other practices that make your restaurant different from others?
The one thing that was always very clear to me was although I conceived of Azurmendi as a restaurant, I also wanted to be my home, so everyone involved has to think of themselves not as a cook or a waiter but everyone who formed part of the project had to behave like a host. And that is all of the members and staff. There will always be a host to greet our guests and then we start with a small walk. We are happy for people to arrive in electric cars because we have a free service for them to recharge.
We try and encourage this whole attitude within this complex. We have been in touch with the American authorities to see if we qualify as the most ecological restaurant in the world as we are definitely the most advanced one in Europe but we don’t know yet if we quality on the world level too. We are not completely sustainable at the moment but that is definitely the path we are striving to achieve.
How many products do you grow on the roof?
At this stage, we have 36. I have been thinking of this project all of my life trying to give it form. Many times chefs talk about the products and the producers but most of the time it is something that is actually intangible that you can’t see or touch so we created this space not to be self- sufficient but to reflect on what our local producers actually do. Most of the 36 species are endangered and some were thought to be extinct already. Here we have red, green and white beans but the season is about to finish so we are allowing these green beans to dry so we will have the necessary seeds for next season. The winter vegetables that are becoming available now are brussel sprouts, cauliflowers, courgettes and pumpkins. We also have a wide range of peppers that come from a wide range of producers. We work with a specialized company for products, so they know what can and can’t be achieved and they take care of all of it. This might look like a wild garden but it is actually a fresh herb garden. Thyme, lemon thyme, rosemary, poppy seeds, the flowers are now in the green house due to the wintry conditions.
Some of the other plants are considered by some people to be weeds, but because we don’t use any insecticides or poisons so we have a microclimate with these plants that attract the insects that would otherwise attacks the edible plants we use in the kitchen. So this ecological approach shows nature helping us. We like to experience the whole thing in four acts as if it is a theatrical show. The first act is in the green house and we then continue with the second act in the garden, the third act is the vista and then the final act, if the weather allows us, is to stretch out in these hammocks, enjoy a gin and tonic surrounded by nature. So you have already seen his first investigation centre which is the lab to learn techniques and then there is a second centre, which highlights the products.
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| Eneko checking out his roof |
And then there is the greenhouse. It may look like a normal greenhouse perfectly controlled but it is connected to a central computer, which receives an input of everything that happens in there. Humidity, temperature, amount of watering. The computers decide on when the windows should be open to control the temperature and even when to feed the vegetables which means that some of the vegetables grow an inch a day. We wanted some pansies because they always attract the insects first and we have basil at the back and then there are miniature cauliflowers and we are trying to grow miniature eggplants the size of avocadoes. We also have experiments with peppers to see if the controlled ones are superior to the ones that just survive on their own outside.
So we actually start the meal experience up there with the carrots in the earth and the more earth you have the nicer the carrots will be. So the first recipe you try is always produced by mother nature, the earth.
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| The Azurmendi picnic basket |
We also have some very delicate special tomatoes, which have basil and extra virgin olive oil inside them. Then, after that first act is concluded, we go into the garden and have a picnic.
When did you start building the restaurant?
We opened last February – it took 18 months. Before it was located above the winery, which started in 2004. The architect is a young Spanish architect called Naia Eguino As I said earlier, we want to break the barriers between cooks and waiters – instead of viewing ourselves in that spectrum, we consider ourselves to be hosts to the whole of the house or family. That’s why when the guests arrive we take them for a little tour, showing them the surroundings of the restaurant, the vegetable garden, the herb garden, the investigations centre.
All of the materials we have used in the construction are very well connected to me - stones mean the roots of this culture, the wood offers the warmth we want to offer the guests and iron offers strength and I like to think that all of us have elements of all three within ourselves but the most important thing is for us to have a balance between all of these elements within ourselves.
There are also various artists represented by works throughout our property.
Did the money for construction come off the back of the winery?
It was all family money and the banks! My father was a factory worker, so the money came from another part of the family but mostly from banks. It developed organically – little by little.
Because I thought of this building as my home, it made sense to have electric power supplies for cars – most of the water is recycled and the building is heated by geo-thermal energy and a great deal of the electricity comes from solar panels along the side of the building.
What do you think of the New Nordic culinary movement?
I have been to Noma in Copenhagen and enjoyed it very much. I learned quite a lot about the culture, produce and how they work there. I understand what they are doing but I prefer to be a bit more versatile because we like to work with local products but we don’t turn our back on what is not local. For instance with our coffee, we are in partnership with a company in Ethiopia and I think we are helping people become more sustainable by working with them. It is much more sustainable to think like this rather than not having anything from outside the locality.
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| Azurmend's tea ceremony |
How important has Ferran Adria been as a culinary influence?
I see techniques as tools to help me create my ideas. So I think that Ferran is one of the most important chefs given the techniques that he created. I am not that radical about always trying to use local produce, but I always want to give importance to it, especially if it is endangered, like the purple onion that we use – there is only one producer of it still selling them. So if we don’t use these products, they will end up disappearing, so we should do everything we can to save unique produce. Once it becomes more popular with other chefs, I gradually use them less and try to find other ones that are on what is the equivalent of the danger list.
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