Archive for February, 2012

“I was born a poor black child.”

Steve Martin, The Jerk

While I clearly was not born a poor Mexican child, there were times when I ate like one. For a significant period in the early 70s my mother was working in Los Angeles and my father at the hospital. That left our Mexican housekeeper to prepare meals for my sister and me. For us, then, tacos and enchiladas were our hot dogs and hamburgers. Tamales played a larger role in our life than spaghetti and refrijoles meant more to us than French fries.

The idea came from a free Amuse Bouche offered by Panzano, the restaurant inside the Kimpton Hotel Group offering in Denver, the Hotel Monaco, at the 5:00 p.m. lobby happy hour. Theirs was a nugget of hamburger over a cranberry jam topped with a dot of fresh mayonnaise and garnished with apple slivers.

Before I started working at Special Delivery it had been many years since I had stood behind a hot stove preparing food for someone I did not know and likely would never meet. Those days, back in the 70s and 80s, I was no doubt a far less skilled cook than I am today. And yet, I could not help wonder how what I prepare might relate to the food I would serve in some mythical restaurant that (I promise you, Nancy) will never happen. The notion, though, led to the idea for this and a related series of articles focusing on the dishes I am developing for Special Delivery and slightly more elegant versions thereof.

 There is no country in the world in which I enjoy travelling more than Spain. There is, for that matter, no country I have travelled more extensively than Spain. I have been to a greater percentage of Spain’s regions than American States. And there is no region in Spain I enjoy – or have travelled to more often – than the Basque Country.