Just had an email from Andoni Luis Aduriz at Mugaritz asking for a translation of a couple of new items on his Spring menu. Both are vegetable dishes and involve the use of such rare and exotic ingredients as aniseed buds and winter purslane. Trying to capture the mood of the menu whilst accurately describing the ingredients can be quite an effort. How to translate the texture -texturas
insípidas - without making it sound like a soggy biscuit?

This focus on greens is no doubt due to the 2^nd International Congress “Vive las Verduras” - in praise of vegetables - taking place in Pamplona and all the stars are there. Ferrán Adrià and Martín Berasategui of course, plus my chum Álex Múgica and many others from around the world are climbing onto the stage to prepare their signature vegetable recipes in front of their peers. Chinese cooking bok choi, Italians on courgette flowers, Germans praising cabbage (!) and from the United States, Anita Lo of ‘Annisa’ (avocado soup) and Dan Barber of ‘Blue Hill’ (Jerusalem artichokes) all strutting their stuff, making the most of the extraordinary variety and quality of produce grown in the Ebro valley of Navarra.

Gordon Ramsey’s recent outburst calling for chefs to be fined should they not use local produce has had its effect. There’s not a single British chef or restaurant represented at the Congress.

As a rule, you shouldn’t really name something that you intend eating which is why Freddie and Roger are cats and the rabbits are rabbits. My sister, Finola, refuses to eat anything with a mother, which excludes even eggs, but she’s a vegan and lives on rice cakes. Some of the chickens, the ones that lay eggs or hatch chicks are called Betty or Dixie and there’s Kato, of course, the rooster who wakes us at dawn (not now, Kato!). However, the capons are just ‘the boys’. Foxes don’t know this rule which is why the duck brothers Huey, Dewey, Louie and Chewy disappeared one frosty moonlit night.

Macgregor, the buck rabbit is an exception as he lives in his own segregated run whilst the rest of the does and their young enjoy Bunny Guantanamo with its imposing Taj Mahal. This enormous hutch was knocked up by Bautista out of some white insulating board and is now the home to about 40 rabbits. Because they have burrowed under the hazel trees it is impossible to catch them when the pot requires filling. As soon as I step into the enclosure they scatter and make a dash for their underground shelters. Identifying and culling the males is also very difficult but I have come up with a solution. An air rifle with telescopic sights.

I can now sit on the terrace, glass of wine in hand and keep an eye on my flock whilst enjoying the sunshine. Any hint of typical adult male behaviour by a suitably sized rabbit and ‘pop!’ coniglio in padella for dinner. Marcella Hazan, Italy’s finest cookery writer, advises stewing the rabbit in its own juices then simmering it in white wine and rosemary. ¡Buen provecho!

 

 

 

In the fast-food industry, an employee who stays on for a whole year is awarded a star to wear on his chest. Someone so lacking in talent and ambition that he flips burgers for a second year gets a second star. Hence Billy Two Stars, a useless individual, going nowhere, without fresh ideas or innovation.

In the airline industry, seniority is all-important. The more senior you are the more choice you have and the more money you get. And sometimes the more stuck in your ways you become. When crew would brag of having 25 years’ experience I would ask, “Actually, that’s just one year of experience repeated 24 times. What have you learned in the last 12 months?”

In the wine industry the most exciting wines are being made by young, enthusiastic wine-makers. Men and more often, women, straight from university, with hands-on experience in the vineyards, eager to try new ideas and reluctant to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors. Not that they lack respect for the traditions and knowledge of the original wine-makers but ‘more of the same’ is not what they want to do. The result is new varietals being grown in older vineyards, new plantings in areas previously untried and modern techniques applied in the cellars to produce fresh, interesting and exciting five-star wines.

Not Billy Two Stars.