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Madrid Fusión got off to a flying start this morning: Spanish chefs demonstrating fish recipes (Hilario Arbelaitz, Aitor Elizegi, Joaquín Felipe and Carme Ruscalleda), a one-man show by Alain Llorca of Le Moulin de Mougins and the tribute to the great chefs of the 1970s (Frédy Girardet, Alain Senderens, Michel Roux, Gualtiero Marchesi, Juan Mari Arzak and Pedro Subijana). One interesting fact this year is the number of great chefs, not just demonstrating their skills, but attending as 'students' with the other 500 colleagues. No small fry, from Santi Santamaria of Can Fabes (3 Michelin stars) to young American studs like Ken Oringer of Clio, in Boston, or Wylie Dufresne of WD-50, in NYC.

"In my book" is just an expression, Boris. It means "in my opinion". I have published thousands of articles on restaurants - but no books!

A.R. Valdespino now is only a sub-brand of the José Estévez group (Tío Mateo), which acquired the centenary firm a couple of years ago.

Well, there are hundreds and hundreds of starred restaurants in France, and the inflation is more obvious every day. My remark on one-star places was made with the other European countries in mind, particularly Italy, Spain and Portugal. In Spain, where Michelin's 'unspoken quota system' keeps scores artificially low, there are in my book 10 to 15 one-star restaurants with a two-star level, and a rather large number of unstarred restaurants which should have at least one...

One problem in the US is the limited range of quality sherries available. Leave the Lustau and the Hidalgo ranges, and you'll be hard-pressed to find anything...

Be wary of Benoît if you're looking for value. For a bistrot, it's awfully expensive (but good). Only one Parisian bistrot is even dearer: L'Ami Louis.

Both L'Alezna and Taberna Viavélez Puerto have Michelin stars, Rogelio. Bux: Re getting to know traditional or regional Spanish cuisine through starred Michelin restaurants (which, BTW, we all know usually merit a detour in any country, even though the traditional description only says so for the two-star places...): yes, there are a couple of traditional dishes in many Michelin-starred places in Spain. Casa Gerardo in Asturias is a good case in point. But what no one usually mentions, or perhaps knows, is that amongst all of the 100-odd starred restaurants in Spain, there is only one which serves exclusively, 100% traditional fare: the Casa d'a Troya in Madrid. BTW, it's a Galician restaurant. Even the starred Galician restaurants in Galicia aren't 100% traditional!

They were too delicate, or too unproductive. But recovering almost lost grape varieties is never something to be pooh-poohed. It's always good news. The world of viticulture has been terribly impoverished by diminishing grape diversity.

Which other two?

Exactly. That's the same reason I never eat anything but Gray's Papaya dogs when in New York.

For the record: the UK got its fiirst three stars (Le Gavroche, London) in 1982, three years earlier than Italy with Gualtiero Marchesi. Of course the Roux brothers were French-born, while Marchesi was merely French-trained... An interesting link to British foodie chronology... http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly...1078123,00.html Spain only received its first three-star mention in 1987, to Madrid's Zalacain. Like Le Gavroche's and Gualtiero Marchesi's, these three stars are now just a memory.

Italy, outside France, is probably the one country that Michelin treats best. IMHO.

The point being......?

Big confusion here, I see. What's this three-star caper? Ducasse's future venture hasn't got any stars, nor does it appear in the Michelin guide, because of course it isn't open yet! And Italy, as mentioned before, has had three-star restaurants for a long time, Gualtiero Marchesi's original restaurant in Milan being the first one... 19 years ago! (Marchesi had been for several years a sous-chef for Troisgros in Roanne before opening his place in Milan in 1977. He has always been heavily influenced by France. His choice only furthered the suspicion that Michelin was heavily Franco-centric in every country it covered.) In the 2004 edition of the Michelin Guide to Italy there are four restaurants with three stars (same number as in Spain), with Florence's Enoteca Pinchiorri this year moving up from two stars to join Le Calandre of Rubano, Al Sorriso of Soriso and Dal Pescatore of Canneto sull'Oglio. There are 20 restaurants with two stars in Italy.

Yes, coop, that's what I make. It isn't imported into Canada yet. I'll correct a small mistake by Katie Loeb: the Austrian name of Alto Adige is not Styria, but Südtirol. Styria, BTW, is the English name of a different region, Austria's Steiermark.

I make wine in Spain, so I'd be tempted to serve my interests first. But that's preposterous. Spanish wines are not wildly well-known, but they're still available throughout the US. OTOH, two countries making a number of great (not just good) wines are practically unknown in the US: Portugal (non-fortified wines) and Switzerland. Re Switzerland, I'm not the greatest fan of chasselas, and pinot noir (even though it can be delicious) suffers from the proximity of Burgundy. That's why I rather go for native grape varieties, some of them almost extinct, planted on only 20 or 30 hectares, for unique tastes. A few names of producers I strongly recommend (if you can locate any bottles...) are Claudy Clavien, Denis Mercier, Simon Maye & Fils and Marie-Thérèse Chappaz in Valais; Jean-Michel Novelle and Les Balisiers in Geneva. (There, the vineyards are five minutes by car from Geneva International Airport, with some exciting hillside sites!) The best native varieties are cornalin and humagne for reds, petite arvine for whites and amigne for sweet whites.

Actually - no. From Cantabria. Close, but not quite. Like Normandy and Brittany: neighbors and solid eaters, but different. There has been some recent discussion on the simultaneous anointment of three new Asturian restaurants with stars in the 2004 Michelin Guide to Spain. This brings the total in the region to seven. Of these, the granddaddy is Casa Gerardo in Prendes, where one can have both great traditional food (the best fabada - one of Europe's great traditional dishes) and excellent creative cuisine.

I grew up in Geneva (many eons ago) and regularly go back there. I have never seen any 'lotte' in markets there that isn't the 'lotte de mer', i.e. monkfish. So obviously this freshwater cousin is rare or forgotten there (at least in the southern part of the country). There's very little native fish sold in Geneva these days anyhow... Most of the 'filets de perche' and even the 'ombles chevaliers' are from central Europe...

Basically, as I can gather, the 'lotte [or lote] de rivière" (Lota lota), the only freshwater member of the cod family, is known in France as far south as the Rhône delta, but it's obviously a more northerly species and is common as far north as Sweden. We simply don't have it in Spain. This is what it looks like: La Lota Photograph with Spanish text. Burbot Photograph with English text

I have. I'd say it has a fuller style, but lots of class, and deserves to be considered alongside top-notch vintage champagne. Maurizio Zanella makes great wines...

I'm not saying the fish doesn't exist, but the name is unknown in Spain.

Allow me one question, Brad: How much did you pay for those Spanish sparklers (the name is 'cava', BTW)? $8? $10? It's hard to find 'blow-away' quality at bargain basement prices. My point: most of the cavas you'll see around the international markets, including the US, are the basic mass-produced cuvées that give reasonable bubbles at a fraction of the price of NV champagne, which is where Spain has been a big hit internationally (in number of bottles, there's as much cava as champagne around now). If you want something that will more fairly compare to better quality fizz in France or Italy, you need to search a bit more and go a bit higher. You'll find a wine like Gramona Argent Brut Reserva 1998 (price in the European Union: around 20 euros) rather intriguing. Not that I am the world's greatest fan of cava, but it's my experience that most people outside Spain who pooh-pooh it actually only know Freixenet Cordón Negro (from the same people who make Gloria Perrer, BTW) and the like... And it's a bit unfair. Our most recent tasting of cavas al www.elmundovino.com (in Spanish): http://elmundovino.elmundo.es/elmundovino/...tml?tasting=189

Actually, in British English, the translation would simply be "offal from the sea". "Offal" (in this case, of land animals) is a term routinely used by British restaurants, but I never see it in American restaurants. Too unappealing?

Dried and salted fish is a great tradition of Spain's southeastern coast, on the Mediterranean, and indeed the masters of the Andalusian 'almadrabas' (open sea tuna trap) off Cádiz are usually from Alicante. Pressed roes ('hueva') from other types of fish than grey mullet are made semi-industrially and available in good specialty shops in Spain; particularly tuna (the most appreciated one), herring and maruca (ling). The dried tuna meat (mojama), called 'the Jabugo ham of the sea' is the star of this semi-industry of 'salazones', i.e. salt fish and fish parts. Roe and dried tuna feature in many recipes (including very modern ones) by Spanish chefs, particularly on the Mediterranean and southwest (Atlantic) coasts. Another 'innard' made very fashionable by Santi Santamaria of Can Fabes is codfish 'tripe'. Kabuki's monkfish liver is simply marinated - but I don't know the secrets of the marinade!

Most of these products are too perishable to be effectively canned. In Spain you'll find a few kinds of roe, of which only grey mullet (mújol) eggs are canned industrially AFAIK. The Corte Inglés Club del Gourmet is indeed one of the best sources. In the US, the very good LA Times article already mentioned below had some useful info: http://www.latimes.com/la-fo-spain03dec03,1,7022260.story . As for restaurants, the best are mentioned in my colleague Joan Merlot's article; I'd place Can Fabes (three Michelin stars) as No. 1 nationally, and the Europa restaurant locally in Madrid. But of course Kabuki's fantastic (and rare) monkfish liver goes well beyond the average sushi house fare...