Winter 2008

Alex Ureña is the chef-owner of Pamplona Restaurant and Tapas Bar in New York City. After training in Spain in such highly rated kitchens as Ferran Adrià's El Bulli north of Barcelona, and at three-star Michelin Martín Berasategui in San Sebastián, Ureña cooked at Blue Hill as co-chef with the great Dan Barber, now chef-partner in Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Westchester County, New York.

Ureña, a Dominican Republic native, went on to cook at Suba, now one of the top Spanish-influenced tapas restaurants in New York, then opened his own eponymous modern cuisine restaurant. Though critically acclaimed, the restaurant was not successful so Ureña reinvented it as Pamplona.

He began serving his own signature tapas with a modern twist and his fortunes improved almost overnight, earning him more good reviews, this time for more traditionally inspired Spanish foods. Frank Bruni, Restaurant Critic of The New York Times wrote about the new venture: "Chef Alex Ureña gets real."

Ureña's inspired food includes such dishes as bocadillo de conejo (pressed sandwich of braised rabbit–or sometimes duck–and Spanish goat cheese), gazpacho de remolacha (beet gazpacho), buñuelos de queso (fritters with Ibérico and Manchego cheese with chorizo) and montado de garbanzo y guindillas (chickpea fries with a guindilla pepper emulsion).

I interviewed Alex Ureña at the Starchefs (starchefs.com) Conference in Manhattan in September.

Q: Tell us about some of the Spanish chefs with whom you trained?

AU: I did a stage of about three months with Martín Berasategui in 1998, which was a very good experience for me. I also worked for Ferran Adrià at El Bulli. I found them to be two totally different kitchens. Ferran was doing foams, geleés, mango "caviars"– all the molecular cuisine. Martín's food was more traditionbased, but very artistically prepared.

Q: Which of the two chefs really influenced you more in your cooking?

AU: I think Martín influenced me more, because of his tradition-based style. And, now, in New York's Spanish cooking, I think more people are going towards this tradition-based food. The classic ideas that I learned from Martín work much better in New York than Ferran's style.

Q: How has Spanish cooking influenced your food at Pamplona?

AU: I have adapted what I learned in Spain to American palates. I change the dishes a little, but I don't want to play around with traditional dishes too much, because I like to respect the Spanish flavors.

Q: What Spanish influences did you bring to Suba?

AU: Suba was the first step for me in beginning to cook Spanish food in America. I brought back all the classic food memories that I learned during my two and one half years in Spain. I spent three months in La Comunitat Valenciana at L'Escaleta (one of Spain's least known, but greatest alta cocina restaurants, in Cocentaina, Alicante). While we were doing our stages together at El Bulli, I met Kiko Moya, son of one of L'Escaleta's owners. He invited me back to cook with him at L'Escaleta and his father told us to develop some new ideas, so we created some 300 dishes and they put the best of them in the menu, which has turned out very well for them. When I was working at L'Escaleta, I also learned a lot about Spanish rice dishes from Valencia and Alicante, which is where the greatest bomba rice dishes come from, so I use bomba rice for my paella at Pamplona.

Q: Besides bomba rice, what are some of the Spanish products that you like best to use at Pamplona?

AU: One of the ingredients that I use most is Spain's excellent extra virgin olive oil. When I was at Blue Hill, we developed a technique for poaching in olive oil, so I use it to poach fish, chicken, eggs, even suckling pig. I also use Spanish cheeses, Spanish wines of course, saffron from La Mancha, and pimentón (Spanish paprika, especially good from La Vera and Murcia) in a lot of dishes. The olives that come from Spain are the best and I also get sea salt from Spain. And, no tapas menu would be complete without Spain's signature jamón Serrano or jamón Ibérico, which a lot of top upscale non-Spanish restaurants also use. Spanish bacalao salado (air-dried salt cod), which I reconstitute by soaking in water for a day or so, is the best in the world and has a unique Spanish flavor. I also make dishes using piquillo peppers, guindilla peppers and exceptional pickled garlic (which is marinated, cured like olives).

Q: What are some of your most emblematic dishes that really speak of Spain?

AU: Patatas bravas, but my poached egg with piquillo peppers, skewered chorizo and white asparagus screams Pamplona and Navarra. Likewise, trucha a la navarra, trout with a slice of Serrano ham cooked in the belly, is a great dish from Pamplona. But, my bacalao with piquillo peppers is perhaps the most emblematic Spanish dish I serve.

Pamplona is located at 37 East 28th Street, New York City. Tel: 212-213-2328, www.pamplonanyc.com.

— Gerry Dawes