Meet the Chef Albert Adria dinner with Ataula

I know it’s been pretty quiet on the blog front – I had a lot of travel both for work and personal that happened in November, and shortly after I got back I got sick with two different colds back to back. Fortunately, just before the cold symptoms of cold #1 fully hit me (and before I had picked up cold #2), I was able to attend an incredible Meet the Chef Albert Adria dinner with Ataula. This was a special reservations only dinner in which Ataula hosted Chef Albert Adria with an all inclusive tasting menu with wine pairings.

Honestly, even if Chef Albert Adria was not present at the dinner, the fact that the incredible Chef Jose Chesa was going to create this unique dinner was enough to have me rush to sign up. I have never ever been disappointed at any of the one-off dishes Chef Jose Chesa has made for special events whether they are seated or one of the walk around events, and this was a whole seated dinner for one of the most famous chefs in the world, natch also from Spain, that I was 100% sure would impress.

Chef Albert Adria, along with his brother Ferran, is known for leading the now closed el Bulli to push molecular gastronomy and could be rightfully named as one of the founders of molecular cuisine as a method to open up food flavors and textures. Chef Albert Adria now leads his own venture of restaurants in Barcelona that includes Tickets (regarded by many as one of the best restaurants in the world), Bodega 1900, Pakta, Hoja Santa, Niño Viejo, and Enigma in Spain and the recently opened Cakes and Bubbles in London.

I did not interact with him much directly, but although he seemed a bit tired – perhaps jetlagged or because of his intense schedule while traveling – also keep in mind he is a very thoughtful, passionate, introvert – he was incredibly gracious and fully committed to sharing his time with the many admirers who came up to him. I also like to think it’s the bond of loving food that brings us all together and energizes us foodies, no matter how tired or what language barrier there may be.

Chef Albert Adria was visiting Portland and Seattle for the first time as part of the event MeetTheChef which included some private talks at a few companies like Nike and Google and an Opening Exhibition which took place right before this dinner at Ataula with a demo by Chef Albert Adria, live painting by artist Pepe Carretero, live music, and a walk-around tasting by some local restaurants (Chef Jose Chesa contributed a dish to that earlier event too). The timing of the Opening Exhibition was too close to my work hours for me to attend, but thankfully I at least had this dinner.

The restaurant was beautifully decorated with simple pine branches on the table and candles to set off the simple and elegant greys of the tablecloths and napkins, which placecards already placed at seats.

Xupa Xup

Each guest started out the Meet the Chef Albert Adria dinner with Ataula with a “welcome drink” – in this case a prepared batch cocktail made into something like an otter pop. This Xupa Xup course is concocted of gin, oregon cranberries, and spanish son of man cider.

It was just unfortunate it was so cold – so coming in from the windy weather this evening to an frozen treat like this was fun but not fully enjoyed as much as it should because everyone was trying to warm up from the outside.

Bienvenida

The next welcome was in snack form of these pretty pink bites with a pretty pink sip. Along with a pour of pink bubbly in the form of Barone Pizzini, Franciacorta Brut Rose, Lombardy Italy 2012, we enjoyed a Beet merengue with foie, spicy quicos, and sherry.

I loved how this looked, and I could have eaten a few spoonfuls of that creamy foie mousse inside that merengue. I was also pretty pleased with the size of these instead of being macaroon side of being more generous ladyfinger sized haha, which let me enjoy more bites of it and contrast the texture of the fragile merengue that started out hard and melted in your mouth blending with that mousse and the crispy quicos with little hint of spice finishing the end.

Consomme

Next, we were warmed up with a bowl of consomme with canadian red lobster, soy-cabbage, egg yolk, caviar, and fennel pollen paired with Bechtold, Engelberg Grand Cru Pinot Gris from Alsace France 2015.

You may start noticing as we did as well the wonderful plateware that is being shown throughout the dinner – all of these are made locally by Bonnie Celeste of Bullseye Glass.

Kanpachi

Our tongues were next lit by the spicy and colorful kanpachi dish of hawaiian amberjack, avocado, lime-asian pear, black sesame, and piquillo aguachile. It was so smart to have the avocado and lime-asian pear in there to help balance the dish. This dish was also paired with great wine that had a hint of sweetness but also strong mineral backbone to provide the acidity to help cool us off from the chiles in the dish, Stein, St. Aldegunder Palmberg-Terrassen ,Riesling Kabinett from Masel Germany 2017.

Lima

Fortunately, next was a palate cleanser with a lime sorbet with lime air and szechuan-cardamom.

Salmon

In what has been one of the most beautiful salmon filets I have ever seen, this plate of citrus cured salmon belly, broccoli-basil, yuzu, and piparra was one of my top 3 of the night. It seems simple, but the daring of pairing salmon with broccoli and basil can’t be underappreciated. In a totally unexpected pairing, the pour this time was Amabuki Shuzu, Ginno Kurenai Junmai from Saga Japan. It was hard to tell this wasn’t wine at first because of the slight pink color of the liquid, but yes, it was definitely sake.

I really want these plates also.

And I’m still thinking about this beautiful salmon.

Foie

Unbelievably, it still gets better! I have a high tolerance for richness, and so this plate of hudson valley foie-gras escabeche, matsutake mushrooms, and granola was a luxury I took lots of teeny tiny bites of, savoring with the pairing of Domaine de Sainte Pierre, Savagnin Autrement of Jura France 2015 this course as long as I could.

On my end of the table, that littlest carrot also got a lot of attention for its small but perfect mini form.

Pichon

Next was a dish of squab, purple mustard-red miso, dates, yuca paired with Chateau le Puy, Emilien, Bordeaux France 2015. We were starting to wonder how we were going to last as our stomachs were getting quite full, but thankfully this dish brought just the best parts, not a whole little bird.

What I particularly admired about this dish was how each part was perfectly executed in terms of cooking each part so the meat was still juicy but the skin was rendered just enough and the yuca was crispy on the outside… here’s a closer look so you can see it. This is no easy feat when you have a whole dining room of these dishes to fire.

Cochinillo

Oh, that crackling… the course I was looking forward to the most did not disappoint. Here is iberico fermin suckling pig, green apple, pickled beet, garlic-prune, pork jus. Paired with Harper Voit, Antiquum, Willamette Valley Oregno 2015.

That crackling was perfection.

Tarta

Flourless date cake, brown butter ice cream, chocolate crumble, olive oil, pine nut. Paired with the cocktail El Tipo – the dude abides – with Cardenal Mendoza, Tora Albala Don PX 1987, Lady Lane Milk.

Somehow I found room to nibble quite a bit of the dessert – it was not too sweet or heavy, and had a nice balance of some chocolate but lightened up by the brown butter ice cream and date cake. Since it has lots of different elements I was able to mix onto my spoon the flavors that I wanted. The cocktail was good but strong and for a weekday night (also approaching midnight) I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I might have otherwise done on a weekend night or if I didn’t have work the next day at least.

If you for some reason have not been to Ataula lately, I cannot recommend it enough for its fun tapas and paellas. I was really sad to see the other restaurants, modernist Chesa and 180 Xurros close. I believe 180 Xurros at least is likely to reappear since the messaging has been since August this year that it is moving, not closed for like Chesa. I am still mad that Chesa didn’t get more appreciation, but you can find some of what he tried there sometimes at Ataula in how he has refined the paellas on the menu.