His Mother’s Son
The first time I read about Spanish avant-garde chef Francis Paniego I fell in love, with his mother. An award winning chef in her own right, Marisa Sánchez is responsible for Echaurren, a restaurant serving traditional Riojan food connected by a small inn to El Portal, the cutting edge restaurant run by her son.
Now that I am looking more thoughtfully at traditional cooking, I see the push and pull between old and new everywhere. I like of the thought of these two restaurants sharing a kitchen, side by side like a whim of Gaudí. I decided to try to make Marisa’s Chicken and Serrano Ham Croquetas, served at both restaurants. I included a picture above of the uncooked breaded croquetas because they were much prettier before I inflicted my skittish frying on them, as seen below. Read more
