Back in May, I brought 14 guests to @elkano_jatetxea in Getaria, just along the coast from San Sebastián, as part of my Basque Country tour.
Elkano is world-famous for its whole grilled turbot, and rightly so. It’s one of those restaurants where the apparent simplicity of the cooking hides an extraordinary depth of knowledge. The restaurant has been in the Arregi family since 1964, and today it is run by Aitor Arregi, who is very much part of the theatre of eating here. He’s not simply serving you a fish; he’s teaching you about it.
When the turbot arrives at the table, Aitor takes it apart piece by piece. First the beautiful fillets, then the belly, collar and cheek, before he starts working his way into the head and around the spine, showing you all these tiny pockets of meat, fat and collagen that most people would never even know existed. Some of the smallest morsels are among the most intensely flavoured parts of the entire fish.
Then comes one of my favourite bits. He removes a tiny bone they call the “hueso de la virgen”, holds it over the light from an iPhone and shows you the rings running through it. Much like the rings of a tree, they give clues to the life of the fish and how well it has been feeding. It’s a brilliant little demonstration of just how obsessive the knowledge is here.
We deliberately visited at this time of year because the turbot is in superb condition, feeding heavily in the Cantabrian waters, and the fish we ate were sensational.
And it isn’t only about turbot. The Txuleta coming off the grill is seriously good too, and throughout lunch our guests could head outside and stand beside the famous grills, watching the team work over the coals as turbots, steaks and other ingredients from the day’s catch were cooked in front of them.
Add some very good bottles of wine and 16 extremely happy guests, and it was exactly the sort of lunch I love putting into these tours.
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Michelin - ⭐️
Best Chef Awards - 🔪
OAD - 4 (casual list)
W50B - 24
La Liste - 92.00
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#Elkano #Getaria #BasqueCountry #SanSebastian #Turbot
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