In case you missed it, try and pick up somewhere, sometime on Rick Stein’s Spanish Christmas shown last night on BBC 2.
Rick, in my view, is the most human of ‘celebrity’ cooks, with a genuine interest in Spain’s culinary habits, and a deep respect for and understanding of how food and wine –in its varied manifestations-go to the heart of the country’s soul.
As someone born in Spain to a Spanish mother and with many years of experience of living and working in the country, I felt privileged to play a small part in Stein’s project-invited as I was to share some of my own memories of childhood during the extended festive season culminating in the wonderfully mystical Epiphany or Reyes.
I was one of a number of ‘guests’ invited to sample a wonderful range of hot and cold recipes that Rick had picked up on his extensive travels through the country in a camper van and that have inspired one of the best Spanish cookery books I know of.
Rick has travelled backwards and forth to Spain over the years and deepened in his love for the land and its people. His programme showed a real insight into what makes Spain so special-its regional diversity, the richness of its natural produce, its respect for family life, and its positive historical legacy as expressed in the Latin American vegetables and oriental spices used in some of the dishes.
Rick brought a natural optimism and geniality to every human encounter, whether in a recently discovered Michelin restaurant or in an intimate family gathering of which one had a grandmother reciting a beautiful poem about the importance of defending the best in one’s roots.
Somehow Rick’s programme left me with a sense-or rather a reminder- that Spain has a certain Quixotic resilience and self-belief drawn from its land and its sea that has always allowed it to pull through in troubled times. Our shared passion lies partly in the fact that in Spain one can eat and drink well and healthily in good company. It was just the tonic to end a Euro-crisis year, and to look towards the essentials of life in 2012.
Jimmy, I watched Rick’s series and saw you at his gathering. While neither of my parents are Spanish, I had a somewhat similar Anglo-Spanish upbringing to you. My father was Minister in the embassy in Madrid during the early sixties and knew your parents quite well. I was 3 at the time and raised by an Asturian ex-nun nanny (we all have our crosses…). I, too, felt Rick’s enthusiasm for Spain, but found it all a bit OTT. Getting excited about “migas” being cooked by a tramp in Badajoz somehow left me feeling he had missed the mark for a really good program me on Spanish food. The Xmas “do” seemed a tad too stage-managed. Was this an initiative sponsored by the Spanish embassy to promote tourism, I wonder. Sorry, but I find that Rick dominates in his programmes to the point that the food is relegated to a supporting role rather than being the star.
I thought the entire series was magnificent. As someone with roots in Spain who has visited family in the country repeatedly over the years, the abiding memory of these visits is of people sat around large tables with plenty of food on them which invariably tasted wonderful. The whole series made me quite emotional actually and it occurred to me how Spaniards, rivalled by the Italians and the French more than likely in this matter, seem to be able to talk for hours on end about food and gastronomy. I can’t wait for the days when myself and my cousin resume our gastronomic tours of regions of Spain which we used to do yearly, this series has inspired me to do just that I think.