Family Meal @Berasategui
One of the hottest cookbooks of this past holiday season was Ferran Adria’s The Family Meal, a collection of staff meals at El Bulli. The book’s success indicates that people are as interested in the behind-the-scenes as they are in the dining room itself.
enjoying my broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes with a Galparsoro baguette.
Honoring this trend, I’m sharing our family meal menu at Martin Berasategui. Meal time is one of the few moments during the day that we get to relax. We sit on stools, we lean against tables, we chit-chat about our weekends.
One of the prep tables that doubles as our dining room. Serious carb-loading going on with a few of these plates...
Unfortunately, I do not have recipes or step-by-step photos of the dishes that make up our family meals, as The Family Meal does, but I thought it might be nice to share what we eat. Perhaps future BasqueStages will want to know what they’ll be having for lunch when they come!
This menu can vary in the order in which certain meals appear, but these nine are the set meals we eat. Every day, we also receive two large bags of bread from the famed Donostia bakery Galparsoro Okindegia. It’s pretty nice to have fresh baguettes every day.
Wednesday Lunch– Fried Eggs and Bacon, rice
Dinner– Rulos de Jamon y Queso (fried ham and cheese roll-ups), Kiwis
Thursday Lunch– Chicken Thighs in Soffrito sauce, Chorizo and Potato stew, occasionally an Infusion de Canela appears. Similar to egg nog, this cinnamon- and armagnac-infused milk drink is one of my favorites. It’s pretty heavy on the cream, though; I try to enjoy it sparingly.
Dinner– Pork cutlets, Chorizo and Potato stew, Green Salad with tomatoes, onions, ham, cheese
Friday Lunch– Beef tongue with tomato and onion sauce, Lentil stew
Dinner– Frankfurters with onion compote; Broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes with garlic.
Elisha lines up for Pasta and Green Salad
Saturday Lunch– Mussels with spaghetti or penne, tomato sauce with diced ham; Green salad.
Dinner- McMonday Bocadillo- ham and cheese baguette sandwich, named for the Head Prep Cook who is responsible for many of the staff meals. Frequently, leftover pasta and green salad supplement the sandwiches.
Sunday Lunch– Ensalada rusa (diced carrots and potatoes with mayonnaise and tuna), thin-sliced steaks, potato chips, chocolate mousse (made with leftover ganache from pastry station ! 😉 topped with powdered milk struesel.
