Basque gastronomy: “Talent is my country. I’m Basque.” An article you can’t miss
We’ve brought you articles from the website Fine Dining Lovers before. As is obvious, they’re dedicated to the world of haute cuisine, and they have a huge global reach, with a large number of readers in the US, Canada, and India.
And we’re mentioning them again today because Kaja Sajovic has just penned an article on Basque cuisine and Basque chefs, and you should definitely remember this one, because it’s one of the best at explaining what they do and why. Their gastronomy, their cuisine, Basque cuisine, is the cuisine of our homeland, born of our land.
We found it simply extraordinary, not only for the focus of the article, but especially on the words of the chefs interviewed, and how they recognize tradition, roots, and the success reinforced by hard work and collaboration.
The Basque people, as a small group very given to local small-scale projects, have understood that, in order to make it internationally, in this age of global challenges, they have to stop competing amongst themselves and start collaborating. That’s why clusters were created. Basque chefs talk about the same things regarding their work:
“The competition makes us better and lets us deliver quality, excellence and also diversity. Sharing knowledge has made us strong. We are united to sell our land and our culture. We accept with pride and honor all the opportunities that we have to show ourselves to the world and to show our path of evolution. We all play with the same cards but with total freedom.” —Josean Alija
Pride and respect for ones roots; innovation; and the conviction that who they are and what they do makes them ambassadors of our nation to the world: those are some of the many good messages our chefs send out to the world via this article.
And the journalist understood that perfectly. When she landed in the Basque Country, she went to The Culinary Nation. There, she understood that, for the Basques, cuisine is a “religion” that we put our heart and soul into: be it pintxos, a menu du jour, a workmen’s pub, or a 3-Michelin-star restaurant; it doesn’t matter. Love for what is done, respect for the customer, and commitment to tradition are always the same.
So we can only thank Kaja Sajovic and ask her to return again, often, and to keep writing about our land and our gastronomy. She has so many options to choose from. From the Adour River to the Ebro River, from Bayonne in Labourd to Cortes in Navarre, our nation, the Basque Nation, is a culinary melting pot.
Fine Dining Lovers- 12/11/2019 – USA
Pride, revenge and happiness: the keys of Basque gastronomic success
At Bilbao airport, before you even collect your luggage, a sign welcomes you to “The culinary nation”. From the very traditional hard-core txokos to upscale Michelin starred restaurants, from pintxos to huge turbots in asadores, from gooey kokotxas to succulent txuletas, and from bone dry cider to ubiquitous txakoli, Basque country personifies gastronomy; and gastronomy, somehow, has become just as strong point of reference for Basques as their flag.
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Fine Dining Lovers does not allow for automatic translation, so you’ll have to copy and paste the text yourself into Google translator
Last Updated on Dec 20, 2020 by About Basque Country
