Asador Etxebarri
Where wine is a happy aide
Farm-to-table is hardly a new concept, though as a catchphrase it’s in its heyday. Even if the term has grown a little tired from being overmarketed, it remains the unshakeable moniker for fresh food prepared with ingredients from nearby farms. Nonetheless, it does seem to be a way of eating that has once again become more commonplace. Nowadays, it’s not so hard to come across a fast-casual or casual dine-in farm-to-table restaurant, which has made the food more scalable and thus accessible (a good thing, despite the overuse of #farmtotable).
And fine dining has long championed a seasonal, farm-driven menu. The practice of letting nature dictate what is ready to be put on a menu spans generations of chefs who used this approach to create thoughtful and delicious meals that have a sense of place and time. Whether in an eco-friendly take-out box or on hand-pottered dishes atop a white tablecloth, farm-to-table food truly serves the greater purpose of connecting consumer to producer. But in a fine dining setting, the venue is set to also push the bounds of flavour.
In many farm-driven fine dining restaurants, the goal of a dish is to let the flavour of an ingredient tell its story. And this makes perfect sense. Growing flavourful produce is the sum of hundreds of decisions on how and when to care for the seeds you have sown. And all these decisions are only as good as your knowledge and intuition of when to harvest produce for peak flavour. And further yet, the final dish rests in the ability of the chef to show enough understanding of the product and enough restraint to make sure the months of decisions made prior to the ingredient’s arrival in the kitchen are not undermined by an overzealous cook. For me, this kind of thought and preparation translates into a delicious and memorable meal.
But these kinds of meals do leave me a little conflicted when the wine list lands on the table. If the goal of such dishes is to spotlight an ingredient and present it at its peak of flavour, can a whole new world of flavours (courtesy of your wine glass) add to the story?
During lunch at Asador Etxebarri, farm-driven food was on full display. The restaurant does not brand itself as farm-to-table, but each dish allowed a single ingredient-whether it be produce or protein-to shoulder the responsibility for its success. And different levels of flame, smoke, salt and acid were used to help coach each starring ingredient to its full potential of flavour.
With lunch I had the wine pairing. And a few dishes in, I realized that the wine had little chance to add to what was on the plate. And by no means is that a knock against the wine program at Asador Etxebarri. Before ordering the wine pairing, I looked first to the wine list for a bottle or two. Despite some of the fuss lately about how restaurant wine lists are too hard to navigate, at Asador Etxebarri, the list was concise and focused, with an impressive offering of interesting wines to suit any price point. The service staff were friendly and easy to speak to and seemed to be the biggest fans of the food than anyone else. Sensing that is when I decided to give up control over wine making decisions.
The wines were paired one per course, and nearly all were fruit-forward. None of the wines poured over lunch featured a large oak influence, nor, save the Champagne, were there any blends (this may be a fluke of my pairing or a choice to have wines that spotlight just one grape, much as how each dish kept focus one ingredient). I enjoyed each wine in its own right, and I enjoyed the pairing as it let me hold on to a glass in anticipation between dishes. But the food is what still haunts my taste memories.
Even so, I would order the wine pairing again. At Asador Etxebarri, you’re in a dining room that is separate from the kitchen. Cooks do not come out to present a dish. And kitchen tours are not part of the experience. And all of this is perfectly okay. I think it’s fitting for a restaurant where your focus is meant to be kept on the plate. But having some more regular contact with the friendly wine staff, and having them speak to you about their favourite dishes at Asador Etxebarri and how Chef Victor (Bittor) Arguinzoniz still picks produce and stokes fires daily brings you that much closer to the food and the people behind it. It warms an already homely meal.
Sometimes, food alone has such as story to tell that it is the starring and supporting cast at the same time. But the cast always needs a crew. And at times that’s the role wine can fill.
Originally published at https://www.drinktwelve.com on August 10, 2020.
