Respecting the local product and taste memories: this is how Paul Arrillaga, from the Bar Zazpi in San Sebastián creates his pintxos, and he showed how he does this in a Keler video by preparing three bar snacks “that define the way that we are”. A personality, gastronomically speaking, at the bar counter, “which is not going to die because of the coronavirus”.

Paul Arrillaga, chef and owner of the bar Zazpi in San Sebastián, which opened in 2014,  spoke on behalf of all Basque bars and restaurants: “This virus will pass and everything will go back to normal. We’ll continue to fill the bar counters with friends and smiles. It’s a part of our way of understanding gastronomy and socialising”, he says in a video that he has recorded with Keler for San Sebastian Gastronomika – Euskadi Basque Country.

A participant in the 1st Congress Pintxos and Tapas Congress that Gastronomika hosted last year, Arrillaga has reviewed the way he understands pintxo counters, where “the cold classic snacks that people expect to accompany their beers must be present, such as pickles, fishcakes or egg with mayonnaise”. Perennial items that can be found here but that the owner of Zazpi accompanies with others, “to give more importance to the cold snack counter, so that there is a variety of flavours”.

Creativity can also be seen on his hot snack counter. Here, he claims, “we draw on two clear foundations: local products and the taste memories of the people of Guipuzcoa”. To provide an example, the chef cooked an oxtail with foie: “a classic oxtail stew, in a grilled terrine, that we add a piece of grilled foie and garlic and parsley to”. In mounting this, the terrine is placed on a roasted garlic emulsion and is soaked with a red wine sauce.

Another way that he champions local products is his version of Squid “a lo Pelayo”. “This is all about getting the most out of the product, so all we do is grill it. This way it keeps its texture and flavour”. The squid is accompanied by a reduced broth of its tentacles and part of its innards and, “to give it a touch of acidity”, an orange foam.

Arrillaga finished with a recipe where he included beer as a cooking ingredient, “an essential companion as a pairing for any socialising at a bar”. He has done this by preparing some hake dumplings in green sauce, where he has replaced the usual txakolí with Keler beer. “A really traditional Basque dish but in a slightly new version”, with a final San Sebastián touch: a cream ale “that provides a bitter flavour”.

“We’ll go back to the bar counters”, the owner of Zazpi said in closing, aware of the changes that he has currently had to apply due to the effects of the Coronavirus. “The different way of understanding gastronomy that we have cannot die”.