For more than 120 years the Arzak name has been associated with good Basque cooking. But it was the family’s third generation chef, Juan Mari, who began the movement that would become New Basque cuisine, and his daughter Elena who, after training at Troisgros and elBulli, who has helped her father maintain a thirty-year grip on three Michelin Stars. More revealing about the way the two chefs work together than any previous Arzak books, Arzak + Arzak is an intricate look at the state of the restaurant’s cooking. The 64 recipes capture the technical and sensory imagination of the Arzaks, as well as a little of their whimsy. The food is also a reminder that they are famous for Basque cooking: the ingredients are resolutely local, with an abundance of seafood and only an occasional import such as chocolate. Unlike some Spanish cookbooks which are translated into English in Spain by native speakers of Spanish, this translation courtesy of the UK publisher Grub Street, is in fully idiomatic English and very readable. Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.
