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CHRISTMAS

Michelin star chefs design gourmet Christmas feast for soup kitchens

A group of five Michelin-star chefs have created a special menu for local soup kitchens to bring their delicacies to the poor this Christmas.

Published: 2 December 2015 14:29 CET
Michelin star chefs design gourmet Christmas feast for soup kitchens
Photo: Industrias Cárnicas Tello.

The project – called Menus in Solidarity – was organized by Toledo-based meat company Tello.

It brings together five of the top chefs from the Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha – Pepe Rodríguez of El Bohio, Manuel de la Osa of Las Rejas, Iván Cerdeño of El Carmen de Montesión, Fran Martínez of Maralba and José Carlos Fuentes of Tierra. Each has a Michelin star.

“It's an idea that's very important. I am delighted to help,” chef Rodríguez of El Bohio told The Local. “I am always delighted to help other people.”

Rodríguez said he and his kitchen team will set up at a local school to help prepare food for up to “hundreds”.

“All of the workers who form part of the Tello family are pleased to launch this initiative,” said Tello CEO Paulino Tello in a statement sent to The Local. “In this way, we want to encourage pride in belonging to something  and motivate citizens to participate in projects like this.”

The project is preparing more than 1,000 meals for six soup kitchens around the region with dishes that will be easy to prepare, but unique, according to the company. 

Each meal consists of four courses, using products from Tello. The first is an appetizer of turkey cannelloni with a spiiced vegetable salad. The second is a hot soup of giblets, egg and vegetables. The main dish will be a glazed ham hock with a potato parmentier, though this can also be substituted for chicken breast. The dessert will be arroz con leche – rice pudding.

“I hope that we can continue to do this,” Rodríguez said. “It's not just in December that people need this. People need help every day.”


The glazed ham hock with potatoes to be served at soup kitchens for Christmas. Photo: Industrias Cárnicas Tello.

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FOOD AND DRINK

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

The green northern region’s drink of choice is cider but it’s the method waiters have of pouring it from a great height that catches the attention of ‘out-ciders’.

Published: 29 February 2024 15:40 CET
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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