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Homemade Spanish food hits Hollywood

A Los Angeles food stand and catering company offering traditional Spanish cuisine has become a Hollywood star and now counts Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson, Katherine Bigelow and Lena Headey among its loyal customers.

Published: 21 August 2013 16:58 CEST

Homemade Spanish food hits Hollywood

Stars and directors now have Spanish delicacies and dishes delivered to their homes and movie sets by Carmen Ruiz. Photo: Españolita Foods

Carmen Ruiz de Huidobro moved to the United States from Spain to work as an art director but changed her career course after having a baby.

The company she founded, Españolita Foods, has gone on to become an unexpected smash hit in 'tinseltown'.

Speaking to Spanish daily ABC she said, "It all started five years ago with a paella I ordered that turned out to be very mediocre."

She added: "I found that Spanish food was very poorly represented in California."

"One one hand you have restaurants with Latin American cooks who make everything hot and spicy or Americans who love our country but don't know how to simply interpret our flavours."

In her opinion, "There wasn't anywhere normal, unpretentious and open to everyone that showed how we eat in Spain."

On her company website, she writes: "The way in which I believed Españolita could be introduced was by embracing California's love for seasonal and fresh food, that I also remembered from my childhood summers in Mallorca, Spain."

The Españolita Foods and Imports stand in the Farmer's Market of Studio City has become extremely popular.

"The reception has been wonderful," says Carmen.

Meanwhile, her catering service now supplies movie director Paul Thomas Anderson at home every week plus the office of Steven Spielberg at Dreamworks.

Other acclaimed directors such as Paul Ross and Katherine Bigelow visit her stand to buy gourmet Spanish delicacies and Game of Thrones star Lena Heady both visits and orders Bellota ham to be delivered to her on-set.

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Why do they pour cider like that in Spain's Asturias?

They say Asturian blood is 50 percent water and 50 percent cider, and given the 40 million bottles produced every year in the region, it doesn’t seem too hard to believe.

However, it’s the method of serving cider in Asturias which really captures the imagination.

The bottle will either come attached to a contraption which sucks up the cider and splurts it into a wide but thin-rimmed glass.

Or the waiter will come out every few minutes to grab your bottle and glass, lift the former high up with one arm and the latter down low around waist height before pouring some of the cider into the glass from at an arm’s length.

There’s even a verb for this action – escanciar – to decant.

The objective is for the cider to be shaken and aerated so that its natural carbon dioxide ‘awakens’.

When it is poured from above and hits the glass, carbon dioxide bubbles are produced that make the aroma of the cider come alive.

It’s good and normal for there to be splashback when pouring Asturian cider, but the aim is still to get most of it in the glass. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

These bubbles go away quickly so once served, the customer should quickly drink the culín (small bottom) up in one swig.

The action of escanciar imitates how cider would be traditionally served when it went directly from big oak barrels to the glass, as cider has been the drink of choice in Asturians since before Roman times.

READ ALSO: Why Spaniards’ habit of drinking alcohol every day is surprisingly healthy

This is after all natural cider which doesn’t come with the sugar, additives and pre-carbonated mixes of brands such as Strongbow, Magners or Kopparberg.

“It took me some time to get the hang of pouring cider, I missed the mark a lot, and my arm used to get very tired at first,” a Latin American waitress at a bar in Gijón told The Local Spain.

Many sidrerías (cider houses) and restaurants have cylindrical tubes on wheels where escanciadores (the waiters in charge of pouring cider) can put the glass in to avoid making a mess on the floor or splashing customers, as there is always some splatter even if they don’t completely miss the mark.

A waiter pours cider for customers at a cider bar in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo (Photo by RAFA RIVAS / AFP)

The more old-school chigres (cider house in Asturian) prefer to have sawdust all over the floor to absorb the spilt cider.

To pour, tirar (throw) or escanciar (decant) cider like an Asturian, you should tilt the bottle slowly from above and aim for the cider to hit the top part of the inside side of the glass, which has to be held at a 45-degree angle. It’s this that brings out the effervescence out in la sidra natural.

So when you visit the beautiful region of Asturias and you tuck into their famously ample servings of fabada asturiana (Asturian bean stew) or cachopo (meat, cheese and ham all together in breadcrumbs), washed down with one or two bottles of sidra, now you’ll understand what’s behind this eye-catching tradition.

READ ALSO: Eight fascinating facts about Spain’s Asturias region

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