Lady in Spain: Gastronomy Class #1-- Reaching Heaven in High Calories

Paco Carretero is world-renowned chef who lives right here in Logroño. He represents Spain in the many cooking competitions across the world and is a key figure in developing modern and traditional Spanish cuisine. You’d think that doing all of this would keep him busy, right? Wrong. Paco also works as the head cook for REAL Madrid and volunteers a lot of his time teaching kids with Downs Syndrome. He is really an amazing guy, and I’m super lucky that I get to hang out with him for a few hours every week in my Spanish cooking class.

Paco explaining the schedule for the evening

In Spain, dinner usually consists of three courses: a salad, main course and postre (dessert). For our first class, we learned how to make ensalada de melón, lomos de mediana en rustidera, and peras de rincón de soto gratinadas con almendras y crema. Sounds foreign enough, right?

Paco allowed all of us to help out in the preparation of the food. He usually began by explaining a little bit of the history of the food or the products we were using and then proceeded to show us the proper way to cut, marinate, peel, slice, and so forth.

Paco teaching me a new way to chop potatoes

While we waited for the food to cook Paco showed us the cooling room where the staff hangs out. We also sneaked a little time in the fridge room to cool off a bit. Time flew though, and before we knew it, it was time to set the two tables in the large ballroom next to the kitchen.

All of us chilling in the cooling room while we wait for our food to cook

We hurry and set our places and then began to eat. The food was incredibly rich, and I probably gained 5 pounds in just a half hour of eating. Without a doubt, my favorite course was the dessert. The cooked pears in a sauce of whipping cream, butter and peanuts were divine.