On a late autumn trip to the southwestern US, my route included a stopover in Minneapolis, MN, which gave me a chance to try a
Spanish restaurant, Solera, that I had read about. I was curious to see how well Spanish food translated in an
area with a long history of Scandinavian immigrants. Solera is a fourstory tapas bar-restaurant with a lively rooftop nightclub
scene in good weather. The brainchild of two of Minneapolis’s star restaurant luminaries, Josh Thoma (co-owner)
and Tim McKee (executive chef of La Belle Vie, one of the top restaurants in the city), Solera
has been drawing rave reviews from both restaurant critics and on-line bloggers since it opened. In fact, Minneapolis’s City
Pages website rated it in Best Restaurant in the Twin Cities in 2004. A recurring complaint, however, from bloggers
about Solera is that it is often too packed to get in; the night scene there is Minneapolis’s version of Madrid’s movida night
life. The decor takes a design page from legendary Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí’s book, with colorful light sconces
and overhead fixtures, multi-faceted tiled columns and a serpentine tapas bar that would not be out of place in Barcelona. Solera
has a modern, exciting, sexy tapas scene, where the food keeps pace with the ambience and decor.
Solera’s menu is sensibly divided into three tapas categories, which reflect three of the basic culinary themes of today’s
Spain: Seasonal~ Creative tapas, changing with the seasons; Nuevas~ Modern tapas inspired by the cuisines of
Spain; and Traditional~ Classic small plates of Spain. These are coupled with a menu of three paellas and two fideuà (paella-like
dishes in which spaghetti-like noodles are substituted for rice). On the Seasonal menu, such dishes as coca (Catalan pizza-like
flatbread) is topped with sweet peppers, chorizo and Spanish goat cheese; sautéed trout is accompanied by serrano ham
and romesco sauce; and a pork belly dish is glazed with Sherry. Among the tapas Nuevas dishes are a plate of serrano ham
served with manchego cheese drizzled with Spanish rosemary honey; scallops a la plancha with serrano ham
and saffron; grilled asparagus with lomo (cured loin) and Mahón cheese from Minorca; and spicy beef pinchos grilled
on skewers and served with tomato couscous and mojo picón, a spicy Canary Islands sauce. The Tradicional tapas
menu features dishes that include patatas bravas with allioli, assorted Spanish olives cured in Cava vinegar,
and shrimp and Galician Tetilla cheese croquettes, along with dishes featuring piquillo peppers, Marcona almonds,
Spanish sausages, serrano ham and membrillo (quince preserves). The wine list offers nearly 150 Spanish wines
from a broad range of regions and grape varieties and features an astonishing 35 Sherries (and several vinos generosos)
by the glass.
The Twin Cities of Minnesota-St. Paul might be the last place one would expect to find one of the best Spanish restaurants in
the US, but amongst other attractions in these northern cities, Solera is one worthy of more than just a stopover.
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January’s eagerly awaited, annual, star-studded culinary conference,
Madrid Fusión 2007, may turn out to be a watershed
moment in the history of modern Spanish cuisine. The theme
of this year’s star-studded conference was La Materia Prima:
Base de la Creatividad (Product: The Base of Creativity) and
it brought into high relief the sea change that I have been observing
all over the country during the past three years. This
year’s conference, whose focus has been about innovation and
technique, turned out to be a tug-of-war between two modern
Spanish culinary movements, which share some elements, but
whose results are often clearly different.
Cocina de vanguardia, a style whose most famous proponent
is chef Ferran Adrià and whose global face has been characterized
by such innovations as flavored foams, mango and
olive oil caviar, titanium-laced wafers, eggs with a gold leaf
veil, and perfume-flavored ice creams, is currently being challenged
by a more restrained modern style that features Spanish
product-driven, regional, tradition-derived dishes. These are
not as perplexing to diners and are not just user-friendly, they
are often more delicious and comprehensible as well. In places
such as Valencia and Alicante this emerging direction is drawing
national and international attention. Call it cocina moderna
neo-tradicional for lack of a formal term.
Ferran Adrià did his annual show that featured a nine-point
manifesto entitled Culinary Reflections on the Product (Before
Cooking), including such points as the source, in-depth knowledge,
proximity, ecological impact, and price of the ingredients
used in cooking. American chef Dan Barber (Blue Hill at Stone
Barns in New York), who eschews scientific pyrotechnics in his
kitchen, presented an elaborate, thoughtful talk describing his
efforts to develop better agricultural techniques on Blue Hill’s
own farm in order to ensure the highest quality organically
grown, sustainable products for his kitchen. Spanish chefs Juan
Mari Arzak, Dani García (Calima, Marbella), Quique Dacosta (El
Poblet, Denia, Alicante) and London chef Heston Blumenthal all kept the vanguardista flag flying, and Charlie
Trotter (Charlie Trotter’s, Chicago), Tetsuya Wakuda (Tetsuya’s, Sydney)
and Grant Achatz (Alinea, Chicago) put their unique twists on
the theme. But the headline grabber was three-star chef Santi
Santamaria (Can Fabes in Sant Celoni, outside Barcelona), who
appeared for the first time at Madrid Fusión (he disdains culinary
conferences) and dropped a culinary mega-bomb, basically denouncing
vanguardista cuisine and drawing a five-minute standing
ovation.
Somewhere between Santamaria’s diatribe and the 3-D
glasses and candy aromas that were part of Heston Blumenthal’s
presentation lies a common ground where modern cuisine is
heading. Technology, science and equipment will still figure in
the evolution of food in Spain. However, they will no longer
define and characterize Spanish modern cuisine. There will be
more focus on getting the best possible food on the plate, something
Spanish chefs are particularly gifted at doing.
Gerry Dawes was awarded the Spanish National Gastronomy Prize (2003). Please contact gerrydawes@aol.com with any Spanish product
or restaurant news. |
