Asturias Week in London
09-Oct-08 - To my shame, I have visited sixteen of Spain's seventeen autonomous regions, but never Asturias. This is probably because, until a few years ago, it didn't have any wine regions, and even now it's only got the VdlT Cangas de Narcea, which is, to say the least, relatively obscure. What it does have is some of Spain's greatest cheeses, and the local cider - sidra de Asturias - is legendary throughout Spain, with its own rituals and traditions: you don't just pour it into glass and drink it. Asturias has also got some of Spain's most spectacular north-coast scenery, including the stunning Picos de Europa, and some of the cleanest beaches in Europe. It also has a Prince: the heir-apparent to the Spanish throne is always styled Principe de Asturias, in much the same way that the heir apparent to the British throne is styled 'Prince of Wales'.
Anyway, I was invited to a dinner at Ibérica, the newly-opened restaurant on Great Portland Street, to meet Nacho Manzano, chef of the family-owned Casa Marcial Restaurant in Arriondo, about 65 km south-east of Gijón and the same distance east of Oviedo. Nacho has a Michelin star in spite of the fact that he never trained outside of Asturias (never mind outside of Spain), and learned at his father's knee, and at Casa Victor in Gijón before returning to take over the range. There'll be a full interview with him in an upcoming issue of YES CHEF! Magazine.
Ibérica is on a grand scale, on the corner of Great Portland Street and Devonshire Street, and incorporates a deli, bar, bookshop and (upstairs) a restaurant, in which this dinner was to be the inaugural event. It's run by Marcos Fernández Pardo and aims to be London's premier Spanish venue (something of an ambition given the recent upswing in interest in Spanish cuisine) but it's very smart and minimalist and I consumed my fair share of jamón (Teruel, Salamanca and Jabugo) with several copitas of Tío Pepe during the interview.
The menu looked promising, but the timing didn't: the invitation was 7:00 for 7:30 pm but we were, of course, on Mediterranean time so we didn't sit down until 8:30, and the aperitivo arrived just before 9:00 - a delicious mini-revuelto of Cabrales and onion on a maize torto. Next up was roast foie-gras with mountain herbs on a brioche with a sardine and its skin. One taste of this was enough, quite frankly. Sardines are something I can well do without. Next up, according to the menu, were autumn wild mushrooms with 'woodland' sauce and chopped apple and chestnut, followed by crunchy pork with a vinaigrette of fresh vegetables and bean soup, then seabass with a herb gel, then, well, lots of other stuff, but I can't tell you about them because I had to leave after the sardine thing (at about 10:00 pm) to get a cab to Victoria. I just caught my train and got home a few minutes before midnight. Maybe it was a good dinner. I don't know. And it's a great pity because I really was keen to try Nacho's food.
The only upside was that I sat next to the lovely María-José Sevilla of ICEX and the feisty Anne Dolamore of Grub Street publishers. Perhaps we shall meet again in more relaxed circumstances. One of my dearest wishes, when dining in London, is that the main course will arrive before my cab does. It's only happened three times in the past two years (one of them last week at the Knorr dinner, see below). That's why I always try only to do lunch in London.
Anyway, I was invited to a dinner at Ibérica, the newly-opened restaurant on Great Portland Street, to meet Nacho Manzano, chef of the family-owned Casa Marcial Restaurant in Arriondo, about 65 km south-east of Gijón and the same distance east of Oviedo. Nacho has a Michelin star in spite of the fact that he never trained outside of Asturias (never mind outside of Spain), and learned at his father's knee, and at Casa Victor in Gijón before returning to take over the range. There'll be a full interview with him in an upcoming issue of YES CHEF! Magazine.
Ibérica is on a grand scale, on the corner of Great Portland Street and Devonshire Street, and incorporates a deli, bar, bookshop and (upstairs) a restaurant, in which this dinner was to be the inaugural event. It's run by Marcos Fernández Pardo and aims to be London's premier Spanish venue (something of an ambition given the recent upswing in interest in Spanish cuisine) but it's very smart and minimalist and I consumed my fair share of jamón (Teruel, Salamanca and Jabugo) with several copitas of Tío Pepe during the interview.
The menu looked promising, but the timing didn't: the invitation was 7:00 for 7:30 pm but we were, of course, on Mediterranean time so we didn't sit down until 8:30, and the aperitivo arrived just before 9:00 - a delicious mini-revuelto of Cabrales and onion on a maize torto. Next up was roast foie-gras with mountain herbs on a brioche with a sardine and its skin. One taste of this was enough, quite frankly. Sardines are something I can well do without. Next up, according to the menu, were autumn wild mushrooms with 'woodland' sauce and chopped apple and chestnut, followed by crunchy pork with a vinaigrette of fresh vegetables and bean soup, then seabass with a herb gel, then, well, lots of other stuff, but I can't tell you about them because I had to leave after the sardine thing (at about 10:00 pm) to get a cab to Victoria. I just caught my train and got home a few minutes before midnight. Maybe it was a good dinner. I don't know. And it's a great pity because I really was keen to try Nacho's food.
The only upside was that I sat next to the lovely María-José Sevilla of ICEX and the feisty Anne Dolamore of Grub Street publishers. Perhaps we shall meet again in more relaxed circumstances. One of my dearest wishes, when dining in London, is that the main course will arrive before my cab does. It's only happened three times in the past two years (one of them last week at the Knorr dinner, see below). That's why I always try only to do lunch in London.
posted by John Radford at
16:02
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