The Basque Country: Where Spain Gets Serious
San Sebastián has more Michelin stars per capita than anywhere on earth. But it's the pinxto bars and the txakoli wine poured from shoulder height that make the Basque Country the world's most serious food culture.
Txakoli is poured from a height. The waiter raises the bottle a foot above the glass and the pale, slightly fizzy white wine aerates as it falls. This theatrical pour is entirely functional — it opens the wine, brings out its mineral edge — and it's the first sign that the Basque take their food and drink more seriously than perhaps anyone on earth.
San Sebastián: The Cathedral
Eleven Michelin stars within walking distance of the old town. Mugaritz, Arzak, Akelarre, Martin Berasategui — these names represent a half-century of culinary evolution that started with a small group of Basque chefs deciding, in the 1970s, to take French technique and rebuild it with their own ingredients and identity. The result is Basque New Cuisine, and it changed what fine dining means globally.
I book Arzak for clients who want the institution — four generations of family, Juan Mari and his daughter Elena cooking side by side, a menu that evolves constantly but never loses its roots. For something more experimental, Mugaritz, where dinner is forty-plus courses over three hours and the experience is more art than meal.
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