Fate has come to meet me one more year in Seville in that torrid intersection between the months of July and August. The usual scenes of semi-desert streets and runaway thermometers This time they take on greater drama due to the effects that the pandemic has produced in a city that suffers the irremediable absence of tourists.
As I arrived with enough time, I suffered a fit of melancholy and I have reached the Prado station. Specifically to Antonio’s confectionery. There, when I was a university student in the early nineties, we bought sandwiches and a can of beer for a hundred pesetas. I did not know if he had closed, retired or even if he had passed away, because on more than one occasion I passed by and saw the blind drawn. Not this time. The establishment remains as is, but with thirty more years. The paint is chipped and the photos of saints, the almanacs and the memories, many already in sepia, have been piling up over the years. Antonio is the same, but grayer. Nice and attentive as always, He regrets not recognizing me, a sign that the passage of time has not treated us both the same, and that students have continued to kick through there. I leave with a bottle of water and a mouthful of mortadella with olives, a little mayonnaise and a hit of the microwave that has left me gummy bread. The best, the reunion.
At noon I find myself, like just a year before, in the parking lot on Calle Imagen. On that occasion I had met my friend Pablo Guitarte in Palocortao, another of the branches of the Regulatory Council in the capital of Seville. Although this time the location is different, I wanted to stop by first to greet Ana Hergueta and Ángel Rodríguez, their owners. In summer they have decided to open only from Thursday to Saturday, at least not to lose money. They say they have noticed the decline in tourism, especially from British visitors who came attracted by the hundred long references of sherry in their complete wine list. A visit to enjoy our wines and an extremely interesting cuisine is still a must.
As I say, the date this time is relatively close, in the Plaza del Cristo de Burgos. The Bache San Pedro Restaurant has been working very well there for three years., one of the two successful businesses that Ale Alcántara runs far from his native Cádiz. This very young cook left the Hospitality School of his land to steal an eye in first-rate kitchens. Madrid, Lasarte, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, London or Brazil, with people like Kabuki, Martín Berasategui, Eneko Atxa, Sergi Arola. That experience allowed him to later lead the kitchens of small projects in Santiago de Compostela, Barcelona, Asturias or Madrid, and even become an advisor to the Master Chef contestants
In 2015 he set up his first restaurant in Madrid, Bache, in the Chamberí neighborhood. Two years later it opens in Seville. The same name with two very different concepts. A close and recognizable cuisine and a good positioning in networks have procured immediate recognition from its clientele.
But to tell the truth, what put Bache in orbit was feeding former President Obama on the occasion of his visit to Seville in April of last year to participate in a congress on tourism. The former US ambassador to our country, James Costos, knew about the Chamberí Bache and appeared with surprise with Obama, causing the corresponding stir.
A year later, the visit of the North American president has been immortalized in the newspaper archive and in a framed photo that hangs on the wall just to the left of the bar. However, there is not a tapa or a ration that remembers such an event. Nor has it ever transpired what they took that night.
The Bache San Pedro blind is still closed, although movement can be heard inside. The terrace has the awning down and the four tables with an ample safety distance between one and the other are empty. Normal to be a midday at the end of July in Seville. Soon we entered the interior, with a simple and classic decoration. The bar at the back, wood painted green at medium height and light colors on the walls and ceilings, and hydraulic floors whose drawing is repeated on the two pillars of the premises. The furniture, more than simple, is austere.
We took a seat on the opposite side where Obama and his entourage did, who occupied the first table on the left, under some bullfighting posters made of silk sponsored by González Byass. The place oozes Cádiz, from the decoration to the menu. The one of wines of course, with the presence of a good assortment of references of wines from Jerez and the land of Cádiz.
There is no tablecloth. Only a paper trivet with the name of the place and a service made up of a Duralex plate of a lifetime, simple cutlery and paper napkin. Although we can read the letter in the QR code on the table, I have already taken note of what is announced on the board that they have both outside and inside. Although the initial idea was to change the menu every week, the clientele did not value so much headache, so they usually have more or less fixed dishes that coexist with others outside the menu. In total, sixteen proposals, including desserts, and most also available in tapas with prices between 3.60 and 6 euros. The dishes, between 7 euros and 13.50.
Cádiz is in the carabineros, in the payoyo cheese, in the chicharrones de Chiclana, in the croquettes of puchero, in the wild asparagus and in the shrimp, in the dogfish, in the mojama and in the nettles. Ale and his team have gone around the world to show all this recognizable product in a different way.. In my opinion, behind all the paraphernalia that they work so well in the Bache there is a lot of truth, and that is the true key to their success.
From the extensive wine list, I will choose a chamomile with capital letters. Sacristy AB It is the second harvest made in the Antonio Barbadillo winery in 2016. The owner selected a third of all the boots from the Yuste winery and bottled them under his brand. A splendid chamomile with the incomparable saline and herbaceous aromas, as well as ample, dry and fresh in the mouth. Fabulous accompanying the finger-sucking olives with which we wait while the order arrives.
We open with a Ssam de ortiguillas. It is a typical dish of Korean cuisine in which the leaf of a vegetable is used to wrap a piece of meat. In this case, an iceberg lettuce leaf wraps a couple of tasty, fresh and freshly fried nettles, wakame seaweed and red onion. Exquisite bite full of freshness, marine flavor and the subtle sweetness of Asian seaweed. Memorable in its simplicity.
He chicharrones kebab with payoyo cheese it is a wonderful vulgarity. The cake arrives full of ingredients, highlighting the chicharrones style chicharrones and the cheese from the Cadiz mountain range instead of the usual yogurt sauce. Very original presentation, with two wooden sticks closing the paper that wraps the roll. Essential.
The chosen menu asks for more chamomile. Now to give greater enhancement if possible to some wild asparagus those who have only been taught the grill before dressing them with a splendid romescu sauce and some poached quail eggs. The point of the sidereal vegetables, and the touch of the sauce and poached eggs, enormous. Everything mixed with everything, nothing short of memorable. More bread and more chamomile.
But the best is yet to come. Is a head of loin baked for hours at a low temperature with homemade chips and a house barbecue sauce. The meat does not need to pass the knife. Only by dropping the fork on its side do the chunks come off with an exciting fraying. In perfect harmony with the potato fry and the sauce. Another luxury.
To put some but, it is incomprehensible that in an establishment of that level -another more- you start with the same cutlery with which you finish four dishes later. Putting a hundred or so covers in the dishwasher is not worth giving that bad impression.
In summary, the cost of the tribute is that we cannot get to the desserts, which we will leave for another occasion. Like a payoyo cheesecake that sounds like glory.
Cadiz cuisine reigns supreme in Seville, and not necessarily thanks to Obama’s visit. Ale Alcántara’s vision was completely reliable and I refer to the tests.
el bache restaurant san pedro (score: 8)
Plaza Cristo de Burgos, 23. 41003 Seville. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sundays and Mondays, closed. Average price per person: 20-30 euros.
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