posted on March 17, 2011 15:53
Martin Berasatequi has spent 35 years devoting both body and soul to what he enjoys most in the world, cooking. He has always striven to be precise with our gestures, discreet with the oven, precise with the blade, refined with the nose, intelligent at the market and upright at the stove.
Martín Berasategui (Donostia-San Sebastián, 1960) is one of the standard-bearers of Spanish avant-garde cuisine and, one of the six Spanish chefs with three Michelin stars – for his restaurant in Lasarte, the hub of the Berasategui group. As a child, Berasategui learnt cooking from his mother Gabriela and his aunt María in their traditional Basque restaurant, Bodegón Alejandro in the old centre of Donostia-San Sebastián. At fifteen, he enjoyed helping prepare popular dishes such as meatballs, marmitako (tuna stew) and squid in its own ink. He was one of four children but the only one interested in taking up a career as a cook and, at 20, after the death of his father, he took charge of the restaurant. On his few days off and during the holidays, he studied – pastry making, charcuterie and ice cream – in France, mostly in the region of Les Landes. Then back home, he gradually introduced changes and new techniques, eventually receiving his first Michelin star at Bodegón Alejandro.
Whilst developing his own personal style and was eventually able to open his own restaurant in 1993. Located in Lasarte-Oria, very close to the city of Donostia-San Sebastián, the Martín Berasategui restaurant, launched a review of traditional Basque cuisine and showed that signature cuisine is possible in small and large establishments alike. In 2001, his was the fourth Spanish restaurant to receive a third Michelin star, after Arzak. El Racó de Can Fabes and elBulli.
Martin later created the Berasategui group. It manages not only the Lasarte-Orio restaurant (three stars) but also advisory services for other restaurants in Spain. The Group’s other business lines include publishing and an advisory department for the food and hospitality sector which has collaborated, amongst others, in the design of china for the Porcelanas Bidasoa Company under the Vajilla Quatrum brand, and the launch of the spuMb line of disposable catering equipment.
There are three specific features in Berasategui’s professional approach which he has been defending for the last three decades
- Excellent food products mostly local ingredient.
- Skilled techniques acquired through years of cooking
- Hard work which is the essential for any restaurant with Michelin Stars to their accolade
There is also a clear influence from Basque cuisine result in cooking that is sincere, reveals character and achieves harmony between the products and the cooking styles used. Berasategui openly acknowledges that he likes cooking to be straightforward, with a minimum of distractions. It is flavour that should stand out, and that flavour should be as natural as possible.
He prefers local ingredients, especially if they can be grown close at hand, reaching him with all their properties almost intact, and playing a full role in the creative process. He often focuses on Spanish products: olive oil, wine, garlic. This is his personal way of remembering his childhood, when he used to accompany his mother or his aunt to the Bretxa Market in San Sebastián to buy fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, all at peak freshness. And mention must be made of the careful service at the restaurant tables under the supervision of his wife, Oneka Aguirre.
But cooking for Berasategui does not end in the restaurant. He says that he alone is allowed to cook at home because, if he cooks for his customers, obviously he also has to cook for family and friends. His favourite dishes include, for the home scene, potato omelette with salt cod or hake cheeks, At home, he still uses an old, energy-saving, coal-fired range, standing next to a simple, modern cooker.
It’s not that difficult to get food right, it’s enough to know how to make the most of what we’ve got and improve it, as we live in a privileged country. Martin's daily struggle with his team is the oldest in the world: where hand confronts fire. The old battle of flesh against flame.
Martín Berasategui may have taken a bit of stick for being the only heavyweight Basque chef to take his brand of cooking worldwide (he has an outlet in Shanghai), but the food at his flagship continues to impress.
The menu comprises 13 tiny, neatly presented dishes and foams, jellies and spherified balls abound, but Berasategui stays true to his roots: he uses very little non-regional produce and all his plates reference traditional dishes.
His passion for professional excellence and discipline has not kept him from developing a key aspect of gastronomy today, teamwork. Training has been provided in his kitchens for some of the great young chefs who are planning to keep the flag flying for Spanish gastronomy, guaranteeing a future that is more than promising. By way of footnote, mention should be made of a sign affixed at the entrance to his restaurant, announcing in the Basque language to visitors and those working for Berasategui, "Those who work shall eat".
In 2008, the Berasategui Group had some changes in direction with Andoni Luis Aduriz and Bixente Arrieta severed their ties with Martín Berasategui and took over total responsibility for Mugaritz, El Bodegón de Alejandro and the Guggenheim restaurant. Martín Berasategui focused on his restaurant in Lasarte and his gastronomic advisory services. A few months after this news, Aduriz and Arrieta announced that as from 1 January 2010 they would also be taking charge of the restaurant at the Kursaal, the Auditorium and Congress Centre in Donostia-San Sebastián, formerly in the hands of Berasategui.
The redesign of the Berasategui Group allowed Martín the opportunity to devise new projects. In mid-2009 with a venture into China where he announced that he was to open the Martín Shanghai restaurant in Shanghai. This represents Martin’s first international venture and was opened officially in September 2009 in a particularly attractive venue, a French-style mansion dating from 1921, close to the well-known Xujiahui Park. With three floors and an outdoor terrace, the restaurant seats about 150. Two menus are on offer -one hot, one cold- and the dishes result from the combination of signature creations at the Berasategui restaurant in Lasarte (Basque Country) and the local Chinese ingredients.
Contact Details
Address: Loidi Kalea 4, 20160 Lasarte-Oria, San Sebastian, Guipuzcoa, Spain
Telephone: +34 943 366 471
Web Site: www.martinberasategui.com
Blog: www.martinberasateguiblog.com
Great videos: ROBINFOOD / Muxarra vinaigrette tomato + chicken skewers the Martian
Scrambled eggs in the microwave and creamy yogurt with stewed apricots: Click here
Michelin: 3 Stars
Gourmetour: 9.5
Campsa: 3 sols
Recommended dishes: Scallop sandwich with herbs, baked sole with mussels, lemon, mint and dried manadarin, Txakoli (Basque white wine) with strawberries, homemade lemon ice cream, honey sorbet...set menu available.
Reviews: SweetCusine.net
Restaurante Martin Berasategi: 3D