The ultimate tapa...!

...or at least one of them!

Hola my friends! 

On Monday we talked about Tapas Week, an amazing celebration of the Spanish tradition of eating lots of delicious little bites. I have been thinking a lot about tapas since then, and about which recipe to share with you today. I wanted it to be my favorite tapa, but honestly, I could not come up with a favorite. That would be a true crime, I think, like calling a favorite from my three daughters…it is not possible to do. But we have covered here many of the great classics already like tortilla (or a fun version of it), olives, and croquetas. Today I am sharing one of the best, and more traditional tapas of them all: Gambas al Ajillo. It’s such a classic, it’s actually been on our menu since the very first day we opened Jaleo 30 years ago, and of course we serve thousands and thousands of them at all of our Jaleos, at San Laurel in Los Angeles, at Spanish Diner in Bethesda, and at Mercado Little Spain in New York!

I’ll tell you a story—this is one of the tapas that actually helped launch my career…I was a very young chef working at a restaurant in Roses, on the Costa Brava of Catalonia. One day a customer came in and tasted my gambas al ajillo, and asked me to come work with him. That customer was Ferran Adrià, the chef of one the most incredible restaurants of all time, elBulli, where I found my voice and learned so, so much…so you can see that this tapa really means a lot to me!