One of the pioneers of New Basque Cuisine put on a special menu to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Akelarre for participants of San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country. Sea bass in a green pepper sauce, a dish of oysters and a lobster salad, ‘entrantes diabólicos’ (devilish starters) and gin and tonic on a plate would all be part of a night to remember.

“I am very happy to finally be able to celebrate this anniversary by presenting a special menu that brings together some of the dishes that have played an important role in our history, some of them surviving as they were originally conceived, others in updated versions”. This is how Pedro Subijana received the thirty guests yesterday who enjoyed the last dinner of San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country 2020, held at the legendary Akelarre restaurant in the capital of Gipuzkoa, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, 45 years of which have seen the moustachioed chef ar the helm.

The father of New Basque Cuisine and master of all, Subijana walked between the tables to explain and comment, with that ever-present smile on his face. “This menu was devised for a special occasion but we are going to leave it on the menu. That's who we are, and that's how we want to demonstrate it”. On the table were some of the most legendary dishes of Spanish gastronomy.

The avant-garde class began with the starters: devilled butter, fried eggs with chips and ham and the classic black pudding ‘talo’ (corn tortilla with black pudding) were combined with new dishes such as a prawn fritter with a prawn tartare or ‘gilda macarron’ (cocktail stick skewer with an olive, a salted anchovy and pickled Ibarra chilli pepper in the form of a macaron), a snack that captured the essence of the best known pintxo in San Sebastian with the Subijana seal. Applause and on to the main courses: sardine terrine with a cream of ratatouille and “oysters that you eat with their shells”, a version of the oyster dish that can be found at Akelarre, on this occasion accompanied by an Iberian pork tail terrine, “as Juan Mari Arzak and I saw in France on a trip we made to Bordeaux a few years back”. It was a trip that led to the founding of New Basque Cuisine. It was and is history.

He kept revising classics: vegetable salad from the garden and lobster with its coral dome (roe), squid in coloured “sands” and lamb Pojarski with a potato foam. The latter was a version of the chef's classic Pojarski, a dish he learned during his time at Zalacaín 50 years ago. Work in the room was vindicated with a lobster distilled in its own juice, and the universal value of the kitchen, with sea bass in a green pepper sauce “which I haven't modified since I created it in 1976”. There’s no need to change it, the audience heard..

The retrospective was coming to an end, but not before fried “Frantxineta” with rhubarb cream and the classic Gin and Tonic on a plate. San Pellegrino, San Miguel and Remírez de Ganuza provided the pairings; the public, the love and the applause.  La Covid meant that the chef had to give up many of the celebrations he had planned. Gastronomika, his congress, his home, gave him a special one. Here’s to another 50 years, Pedro.