Brat, the Michelin-starred Spanish restaurant in London E1, will be welcoming Aitor Arregi and Pablo Vicari of Elkano for a one-off collaboration dinner on Tuesday 5 March.
Hailing from Getaria, San Sebastián, Michelin-starred Elkano is famed for its over-fire cooking, which has been an inspiration to Brat's Chef Patron Tomos Parry. The dinner will feature a six course menu created by Parry, Arregi and Vicari, championing their shared ethos of cooking over charcoal.
The dinner will feature a six course menu, with three courses from Parry and three from the Arregi and Vicari. In keeping with Elkano’s ethos, they will be working closely with farmers and fishermen to create a menu which will be structured around local produce at the peak of its season.
Parry said, “I had a seminal lunch at Elkano a few years ago and been visiting ever since. My meals there have changed the way I thought about quality of flavour and the expression of terroir. I am hugely inspired by their intuitive fire cooking style, which Brat owes a lot to - their slow grilling approach to the whole Turbot really drives our style. I’m truly humbled to have these pioneers join us in the kitchen.'
Elkano was founded in 1964 by the late Pedro Arregi with open air charcoal grills at the heart of the restaurant. Pedro’s passion for the grill, and the rich produce that the Basque has to offer, lives and breathes in Elkano to this day, with the restaurant now being run by Pedro’s son Aitor and Chef de Cuisine, Pablo. Aitor has kept the same philosophy whilst further enhancing the delicate and distinctive flavours of Basque classics such as turbot and spider crab.
Elkano is now a destination in its own right for those visiting the small fishing town, the main attraction being the whole turbot grilled in a cage over fire, a method created and refined by Pedro in the 1950s. Elkano’s methods paved the way for a modern style of cooking that relies on the terroir of produce with exceptional flavours.
