“This was a jam session that gave us a lot of pleasure and was only possible because we shared the same attitude, with humility to listen to each other and moved by the pleasure of creating new things, not thinking too much, improvising, letting it flow and seeing what works” says @alexatala standing alongside with @ricardcamarena at his restaurant in Valencia, for a unique culinary jam session - instead of the usual four hands dinner where each chefs presents his own dishes in turns - under the theme “From Amazonia to the Mediterranean”.
“The first day, things weren’t working” adds Ricard, “we weren't getting any ideas. And the tendency is for each of us to take refuge in the dishes and the techniques that you know well and that you feel secure in.
And so I said to Alex: this is like Tarzan, you have to let go of one branch so you can grab the next.
And we began to create whatever came to us, the most spontaneous, the most intuitive, with no strings attached, just for the pleasure of creating together.
We would look at the ingredients from the garden or the market and think: what would we like to do with this?”
Some very interesting things I would say.
Such as the “Sea urchin and cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum) jelly” or the “Orange Niguiri, Pez Limón (Greater amberjack/ Seriola dumerili) and spicy cabbage” pictured here Less