How I spent my summer vacation

I've been in the south of Spain…where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean

Hola, my friends, I’ve been so excited to share with you what I’ve been up to this summer. It’s no secret that I love the South of Spain—over at the Chef’s List, I’ve talked about some of my favorite places to go in Andalucía. But more than eating and drinking here, this place is a part of my DNA. My wife Tichi and her family are from here, and every summer we bring the girls and spend lots of time together as a family. It is one of the best times of the year for me. I like spending time in places like Zahara de los Atunes, right on the southeastern coast of Spain, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean. You can go out in the morning and get a huge breath of fresh sea air, and on a clear day, you can see Morocco! 

Imagine if this is the first thing you see in the morning?

While I think there are no two days that are exactly the same when I am here, I like to start each day the same way, with a big stretch outside, maybe a walk on the beach or a bike ride…we love to spend as much time outside as we can. Lots of beach walks and beach picnics—sometimes when my girls are visiting, they will spend the entire day on the beach!

When I am here we have lots of friends and family come to visit, so we are always, always cooking. Every day my team and I, we will visit the local mercados, which seriously have some of the best seafood in the world…they have the best of both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, as well as amazing produce. We may get a couple of big spiny lobsters, a few different kinds of shrimp, some different kinds of fish depending on what we want to cook, maybe some clams or calamares or whatever looks good. Of course the bluefin tuna here is some of the best in the world, and it is caught with nets during the high season in May—a method known as the Almadraba dating back over 3,000 years!

 After the market, I will usually go to one of my favorite restaurants in the area, a place overlooking the water called Restaurante Antonio. In my TV show with my daughters, Carlota, Inés and I try every kind of tuna dish on the menu. When I visit Restaurante Antonio after the market, I usually eat tapitas, or “little tapas”...little bites that will get my appetite ready for the big lunch I’m about to cook! And of course I will wash it down with a glass of manzanilla, or maybe a caña, a little beer! The beer comes in a small size so it stays cold while you enjoy your tapas.

Chef Hector and Chef Ramon getting ready to prepare lunch!

Usually after I finish my tapitas at Antonio, I’ll head back to prepare lunch. In this part of Spain, lunch is the biggest meal of the day, and I’ve had so many friends and family visit me this summer that I had lots of help to make these lunches! A few chefs from my team come to Spain with me to cook and do R&D with me, and this year it was Ramonet Martinez (who runs all of our Jaleos!), Hector Contreras (who you might remember when he shared his dad’s posole recipe) and Koji Terano (whose beef stew was one of the best recipes we’ve ever shared). Together we’ll talk about the menu we want to make that day based on who’s coming and what looks good at the market. It’s almost always based around seafood, and smaller bites like home-cured boquerones or shrimp cooked many different ways—al ajillo, or boiled and then chilled with a little salt. Or we’ll make salt-crusted whole fish. And when Koji’s here, he makes the most amazing sushi and nigiri from bluefin tuna and whatever else we can find!

Preparing lunch with a few friends

This summer, we had some very special chefs come visit us—like Angel León, the three-starred Michelin chef of Aponiente in Cádiz, just a bit north and west of Zahara. When he was here, Angel made the most amazing sofrito, which he sun-dried for three days, creating an intense, concentrated flavor…ohhhhh man, it was amazing! We also had Nandu Jubany of Can Jubany outside of Barcelona, and Trifón Jorge Esteban of El Fogón de Trifón in Madrid. I am always so honored when these amazing chefs come to visit me, and I love how it becomes a meeting of some of the best culinary minds in Spain, all cooking together to feed friends and family.

A few of the amazing seafood dishes you can find in this part of Spain

Lunch is our big meal of the day, and there is always lots of laughter, lots of storytelling, and of course lots of wine (including an amazing reserve bottle from Belondrade y Lurton, the Rueda winery I told you about a few months ago). And because we’re in Southern Spain, people, you have a siesta after all that food…a time to relax, nap, and enjoy some quiet. Dinner is light and simple, usually around 9 or 10, where you can either go out and have a small bite, or you can take what might be left over from lunch and have it with a simple salad or other vegetables. We love to go for long walks on the beach and we are usually in bed by midnight or 1, to get up and do it all again!

This time in the south of Spain is so special to me and my family, and I’m so happy that I get to share it with so many friends. It always allows me to go back home refreshed, inspired and ready to try new ideas that I can bring to my restaurants, so when you come through their doors—whether it’s Jaleo or Bazaar Mar—you can know that you are visiting a little part of Spain and will experience all the love that comes with it.