Up early again and we head off to Avda. Tibidabo to meet with Jordi Cruz who currently holds 2 Michelin stars with the ABaC hotel - a 15 bedroom boutique property in the centre of the city. He taught me to make a typical Catalan dish ... with a HUGE twist! Jordi was the youngest chef in Spain and 2nd youngest in the world to win a "star" by the way!
So he took sausages, tomato and bread ... VERY basic local ingredients and did this, that and the other to it ... turning it into 2 small spoonfuls of sausage and tomato gnocchi with a small cup of tomato water & olive oil ... all smoked with beech wood! OK - sounds easy but it took agar baths ... heating to 64 degrees and a HUGE amount of skill to make this dish! WATCH THE SHOW to see more! The dish was delicious by the way!
In the past two days I have cooked with 2 Michelin "stars" and both were thoroughly decent & lovely human beings ... some idiot "celebrity" chefs could learn so much from these two ...
Onwards and off to meet Norman Vilalta ... one of the greatest bespoke shoemakers in Europe. He takes over 200 hours to make each pair from the design to the final product. He makes around 100 pairs a year ... and the start price for a pair is around Euros 2500!! I totally fell in love with every shoe I saw ... all for men and all totally unique. I have my shoes made for me ... or buy from Tod's ... I like shoes ... I LOVE shoes ... did I order a pair? Well, that's between me, Norman ... and my bank manager! haha!
Gemima - the pooch - is a Cocker Spaniel and therefore has Spanish heritage! I met many pups today ... none as lovely as Moo but all very friendly and quite fun.
In the late afternoon, the rain started to fall. I had, by this time, met with Cristina Mila from the Barcelona Guide Bureau ... she knows EVERYTHING about modernism architecture in the city. We visited Gaudi's Casa Batllo .. the publishing house of Montaner i Simon and others. There are hundreds of properties in Barcelona that have this beautiful type of architecture that came about in the 1880's when old buildings were torn down and rich families wanted to build amazing, ostentatious homes ... to outdo their other rich neighbours.
You HAVE to see Barcelona on foot ... so you can appreciate these buildings!
We ended the tour at Colmado Quilez - the oldest grocers in town - opened in 1908 - the FIRST place in Barcelona to sell single-malt whisky! I celebrated this fact by buying a couple of bottles for my collection!
Tomorrow looks like rain! Grrrr....
Song of the Day: Kinky Afro - Happy Mondays
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3XIlEUO-VE
Weather: Frustrating!
basic ingredients ... yum!
with Jordi Cruz
shoes! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Norman
nice!
Tools of the trade ...
Yuko the very sweet pup
MODERNISM! The three busts include one of Cervantes ... and one of Dante ... a dose of The Inferno anyone?
WHISKY!
Cristina and 6 shelves of water that cost on average Euros 10 a bottle!
