Australian Food Recipes Biograph
Spanish Cuisine and Wines in Australia
Text: www.winesfromspain.com
Image: Spanish chef Pablo Tordesillas. Photo by: Ortiga restaurant.
Pablo came to cooking relatively late and almost by accident, never having thought about becoming a chef when he was younger. At 25, after having spent four years at law school and some time in London working at the one star Michelin restaurant, Fulham Road, he finally found his vocation. Starting with “what I had already learnt by helping my mother in the kitchen, cooking for my flatmates at university, and by reading cookery books”, this self-taught chef learnt the secrets of an art which would, a year and a half later, lead him to establishments such as London-based French-style restaurants Bibendum and The Square.
After marrying an Australian and living for a few years Down Under, the couple settled in Barcelona. It was there that Pablo Tordesillas immersed himself in Catalan cuisine and the new haute cuisine techniques employed at the time at restaurant Jean Luc Figueras. Ultimately, he went back to Australia with the aim of opening a Spanish restaurant which would reflect Spain’s wealth of culinary tradition and its new splendour. The dream came true thanks to Simon Hill, and together they opened the Ortiga restaurant in Brisbane in late 2009.
'Ortiga' was a street-level tapas bar with a stylish ground floor dining room currently regarded as a benchmark on the Australian city’s dining scene. Tordesillas’ cooking has one foot in tradition and the other in modern cuisine. The chef admits that the role played by technology over the last two decades has allowed to take “giant leaps, open unimaginable doors and give new orientation to haute cuisine”; but he refute the indiscriminate use of such methods. The chef stated: “At Ortiga we didn't focus on a specific region. We try to help the Australian public to become aware of other fare and regions not just the usual stereotypes. We use local seasonal produce of the utmost quality, but always bearing in mind the flavours and traditions of Spanish cuisine. And we employ, whenever possible, ingredients from Spain which are available on the Australian market”.
The task was not an easy one. The majority of Australians believe that Spanish wine and cuisine is still very rudimentary, not very sophisticated and full of stereotypes. Spanish haute cuisine is only really appreciated by people in the know, and as Tordesillas pointed out, the most popular dishes are Ibérico ham and Galicia-style octopus. As regards wine, those from Rioja and Albariños from Rías Baixas, are, in general, the best sellers by far.
However, thanks to the work carried out by Pablo Tordesillas, and a few others, attitudes are rapidly changing.
Tordesillas' time in Ortiga finished in October 2013. Ortiga's owner Simon Hill decided to close its doors: "As we roll on to the end of the year we also find ourselves at the end of the initial Ortiga lease period. Pablo and I have thought endlessly about our future plans and have after much consideration decided not to renew the lease and carry on with Ortiga."
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Australian Food Recipes Food Recipes for Dinner For Kds with Pictures In Urdu Desserts Pinoy In Hindi in Sinhala Language for Kids to Make in Sri Lanka
Australian Food Recipes Food Recipes for Dinner For Kds with Pictures In Urdu Desserts Pinoy In Hindi in Sinhala Language for Kids to Make in Sri Lanka
Australian Food Recipes Food Recipes for Dinner For Kds with Pictures In Urdu Desserts Pinoy In Hindi in Sinhala Language for Kids to Make in Sri Lanka
Australian Food Recipes Food Recipes for Dinner For Kds with Pictures In Urdu Desserts Pinoy In Hindi in Sinhala Language for Kids to Make in Sri Lanka
Australian Food Recipes Food Recipes for Dinner For Kds with Pictures In Urdu Desserts Pinoy In Hindi in Sinhala Language for Kids to Make in Sri Lanka
Australian Food Recipes Food Recipes for Dinner For Kds with Pictures In Urdu Desserts Pinoy In Hindi in Sinhala Language for Kids to Make in Sri Lanka
Australian Food Recipes Food Recipes for Dinner For Kds with Pictures In Urdu Desserts Pinoy In Hindi in Sinhala Language for Kids to Make in Sri Lanka
Australian Food Recipes Food Recipes for Dinner For Kds with Pictures In Urdu Desserts Pinoy In Hindi in Sinhala Language for Kids to Make in Sri Lanka
Australian Food Recipes Food Recipes for Dinner For Kds with Pictures In Urdu Desserts Pinoy In Hindi in Sinhala Language for Kids to Make in Sri Lanka
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