Spanish restaurants in the US

[FoodMan]

Chef-

In the US we have relatively few authentic Spanish restaurants as opposed to say Italian restaurants or French ones. It is true that Spain and it's food (besides tapas) is gaining popularity and I am very happy about that becuase it is a remarkable cuisine, but still in a city as big as Houston, you will find maybe one or two Spanish restaurants, and even those they mainly emphasize tapas.

In her book, The New Spanish Table, Anya Von Bremzen attributes that to the extreme regionality and ingredient specific dishes that can be only found in Spain. Meaning that many Spanish dishes cannot be made properly outside of their hometown.

Do you agree? If not what is your take on the subject?

I'll reserve my opinion of her statement till you post yours

Many thanks for taking the time to join us Chef!

[Jose Andres]

Chef-

In the US we have relatively few authentic Spanish restaurants as opposed to say Italian restaurants or French ones. It is true that Spain and it's food (besides tapas) is gaining popularity and I am very happy about that becuase it is a remarkable cuisine, but still in a city as big as Houston, you will find maybe one or two Spanish restaurants, and even those they mainly emphasize tapas.

In her book, The New Spanish Table, Anya Von Bremzen attributes that to the extreme regionality and ingredient specific dishes that can be only found in Spain. Meaning that many Spanish dishes cannot be made properly outside of their hometown.

Do you agree? If not what is your take on the subject?

I'll reserve my opinion of her statement till you post yours 

Many thanks for taking the time to join us Chef!

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I will have to disagree with my good friend Anya......................Spanish restaurant in Amercia or the lack of them is because is not Spanish chefs here..............................Another thing is about the ingredients........What happen we can not make a Gazpacho with tomatoes from Good Morning FArm in PEnn?

Yes, we only need good Spanish Sherry vinegar and good Spanish olive oil!...But if we take out vinegar and oil from spain and we used from lets say California, Is not Spanish anymore?...............I will argue that the dish is still Spanish at heart...................

[docsconz]

Chef-

In the US we have relatively few authentic Spanish restaurants as opposed to say Italian restaurants or French ones. It is true that Spain and it's food (besides tapas) is gaining popularity and I am very happy about that becuase it is a remarkable cuisine, but still in a city as big as Houston, you will find maybe one or two Spanish restaurants, and even those they mainly emphasize tapas.

In her book, The New Spanish Table, Anya Von Bremzen attributes that to the extreme regionality and ingredient specific dishes that can be only found in Spain. Meaning that many Spanish dishes cannot be made properly outside of their hometown.

Do you agree? If not what is your take on the subject?

I'll reserve my opinion of her statement till you post yours 

Many thanks for taking the time to join us Chef!

←

I will have to disagree with my good friend Anya......................Spanish restaurant in Amercia or the lack of them is because is not Spanish chefs here..............................Another thing is about the ingredients........What happen we can not make a Gazpacho with tomatoes from Good Morning FArm in PEnn?

Yes, we only need good Spanish Sherry vinegar and good Spanish olive oil!...But if we take out vinegar and oil from spain and we used from lets say California, Is not Spanish anymore?...............I will argue that the dish is still Spanish at heart...................

←

Jose, while I agree with you that even though certain dishes might not be quite the same as they are in their Spanish hometowns, they still remain Spanish at heart assuming good quality ingredients can be substituted. The dish will most likely remain delicious even if it is slightly or somewaht different. Despite that general sense, are there any Spanish ingredients that you absolutely miss using professionally that you simply can not obtain in the U.S. other than by bringing them back yourself? I am talking about ingredients readily available at least on a regional basis.

[FoodMan]

Exactly, I agree with you as well Chef. I think Italian food is also very regional as Chef Batali likes to remind us often, but restaurants serving it (good or bad versions) are everywhere ion the US. However, my thought is we have much more Italian than Spanish due to the existense of a much bigger immigrant population from Italy in the early 20th century compared to Spanish.

This in turn supports your reasoning that we simply do not have as much Spanish chefs as we do others.