Blue Hill Fusión Casa José

[pedro]

For a couple of days, yesterday and today, Juan Cuevas from Blue Hill NYC and Fernando del Cerro, the young chef of Casa José in Aranjuez (Madrid), will be cooking at Casa José. Later in August, the del Cerro family will go to NY where Fernando will cook both at Blue Hill NYC and Stone Barn with Juan Cuevas and Dan Barber.

Yesterday night, a tuesday in July in Aranjuez, the dining room was packed with people who came from Madrid, Juan and Fernando were excited and happy as two children and the menu was balanced and well conceived, with an exceptional carré of lamb over purée of aubergines trademark of Juan.

The beginning of all this goes back to 2006, when Bux introduced Juan Cuevas to vserna and gave him notice of his attending to Madrid Fusión and Víctor took Juan for dinner at Casa José. Good for all of them!

Edited July 11, 2007 by pedro (log)

[vserna]

I'm going tonight. Hope to report back tomorrow.

Fusion is not necessarily a dirty world in the refined world of fine cuisine - at least in Madrid, this least provincial of all Spanish towns, we like to think so. The Blue Hill/Casa José shindig is but one more, brief example of the general trend in Madrid, which is fast becomingthe most cosmopolitan and even exotic of all dining destinations in continental Europe (London still reigns supreme in the world cuisine field, of course). It's interesting that over the past 18 months, the three most noteworthy restaurant openings in Madrid have been radically exotic - Sudestada, Diverxo and Astrid y Gastón...

[docsconz]

I'm going tonight. Hope to report back tomorrow.

Fusion is not necessarily a dirty world in the refined world of fine cuisine - at least in Madrid, this least provincial of all Spanish towns, we like to think so. The Blue Hill/Casa José shindig is but one more, brief example of the general trend in Madrid, which is fast becomingthe most cosmopolitan and even exotic of all dining destinations in continental Europe (London still reigns supreme in the world cuisine field, of course). It's interesting that over the past 18 months, the three most noteworthy restaurant openings in Madrid have been radically exotic - Sudestada, Diverxo and Astrid y Gastón...

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Astrid y Gaston, the Peruvian gem, I am familiar with. Victor, would you care to elaborate on the others? I am also looking forward to reading about your experience with this event as well as anyone else's who may attend. I wish I could attend the reciprocal event in New York.

[vserna]

Excellemt, delicate menu by Juan José Cuevas, very Blue Hill-ish in his way of presenting the pristine flavors of excellent ingredients - in this case, not from the Hudson but from the Aranjuez orchards on the Tejo river (the first tomatoes, string beans and mangetouts of the season were remarkable), plus Castilian baby lamb and northern Atlantic hake...

We had a sensational 'green gazpacho' - a cold purée of mixed Aranjuez vegetables and aromatic herbs, with a dollop of yogurt ice; then a tomato salad 'in textures'; then an al-dente 'menestra' with mangetouts, string beans, beetroot and 'corteza de cerdo' (crispy pork rinds); then a whale of a `potato and onion-blood sausage 'parmentier' topped by a soft free-grange egg; then a fresh hake steak, (barely) cooked in duck fat, with a brunoise vinaigrette of tomatoes and summer vegetables; then a rack of Castilian lamb, served rare with roast zucchini flowrs on an eggplant cream. Finally, a cava mousse with a fresh 'breva' (early summer fig) coulis, and some morello cherries, marinaded in kirsch with a 'fromage blanc' and black pepper ice.

(Will report on Sudestada and Diverxo when I have a little time, John.)

[docsconz]

Sounds wonderful, Victor. Thank you. What are mangetouts? I am not familiar with that name, though I understand the literal translation.

[vserna]

Sorry - in the US, snow peas.

[docsconz]

Thank you, Victor. The name mangetout makes sense. That is not a vegetable that I typically associate with Spain or Spanish cooking. Is it popular there?

[vserna]

Mangetout is the French name, also used in the UK. In Spanish it's 'tirabeque' - a totally traditional vegetable here. The mindboggling wealth of native vegetables is one of the best-kept secrets of Spain's cuisines.

(Despite the very wise Ferran Adrià saying you use in your posts ("remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster"), Spain's cutting-edge deconstructive cuisine doesn't place much of a premium on showing off pristine ingredients, and that sort of cuisine is the one monopolizing international fascination with Spain. This is one of the causes for our vegetable array being such a secret, I guess…)

Casa José and Blue Hill represent another attitude to modern cuisine – Dan Barber, Juan José Cuevas and Fernando del Cerro are all obsessed with 'ingredients, ingredients, ingredients'.

On Sudestada and Diverxo: remember, Rogelio recently gave an excellent (and well-illustrated) report on Diverxo on eGullet. And back in December, 2005 I wrote here: "Remember, you read it first here too (tomorrow in El Mundo's Metrópoli): Sudestada, the outstanding, idiosyncratic South-East Asian restaurant in Buenos Aires, has dispatched co-owner and chef Estanis Carenzo to Madrid to launch their European sister restaurant. It's a terrific, un-self conscious explosion of fresh vegetables, fish, seafood, meats, herbs, spices, and the best new foreign restaurant in this city in quite some time. Looks like a luncheonette - looks can be deceiving! (Modesto Lafuente 64, tel. 91 533 41 54.)"

Since then, Estanis and his partners succeeded in getting a Spanish visa for Thien, their revered friend and Vietnamese chef who had had to return to Hanoi during the terrible financial crisis in Argentina back in 2001-02. ("Thien, you're now making even less money in Buenos Aires than in Vietnam – you must unfortunately return home, because there's no future here," Estanis told him then!) With Thien on board in Madrid, they've gone from strength to strength with their mainly Vietnamese and Thai (but also Burmese, Malaysian, Filipino…) offering of simple 'street food'.

[Pablo Carrion]

For a couple of days, yesterday and today, Juan Cuevas from Blue Hill NYC and Fernando del Cerro, the young chef of Casa José in Aranjuez (Madrid), will be cooking at Casa José. Later in August, the del Cerro family will go to NY where Fernando will cook both at Blue Hill NYC and Stone Barn with Juan Cuevas and Dan Barber.

Yesterday night, a tuesday in July in Aranjuez, the dining room was packed with people who came from Madrid, Juan and Fernando were excited and happy as two children and the menu was balanced and well conceived, with an exceptional carré of lamb over purée of aubergines trademark of Juan.

The beginning of all this goes back to 2006, when Bux introduced Juan Cuevas to vserna and gave him notice of his attending to Madrid Fusión and Víctor took Juan for dinner at Casa José. Good for all of them!

←

I just had a terrific meal at Casa Jose and chatted with Fernando about local products from the Aranjuez area. He tells me that many of the vegetable gardens from where he gets his excellent seasonal artichokes, leeks, etc. have been around since Carlos III set about establishing Aranjuez as the major vegetable and fruit orchard in the 1700´s.

What a great experience...