The New Spanish Table
Anya Von Bremzen, Workman Publishing, 2005
Anya Von Bremzen was born in Soviet Russia in 1963. I read her first book about Russia and Soviet food, Please to the Table, in 1990, and then her ironically titled Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking, A Memoir of Food and Longing in 2013. This book is both a culinary autobiography and a compact history of the Soviet Union all in one volume.
Von Bremzen doesn’t just write about Russian food. She is a passionate eater and inveterate traveler who uses food as the lodestar for her journeys. She’s also written about Cuban, Southeast Asian, and Turkish cuisine. In the early ‘80s, she began traveling throughout Spain, spending the next 20 years returning to explore foods from every region. She was drawn to the rigor of tradition in Spain, which coalesced with a new spirit of creativity as the country emerged from the deprivation of the Franco years.
I tend to favor books on a specific cuisine that are written by someone from the region. However, Von Bremzen’s recipes come from an extraordinary wealth of sources, extensive travel, and conversations with local people and chefs from all over Spain. She shares where she learned to prepare a particular recipe, the region from which it originates, and how it fits into the context of Spanish food. The recipes encompass both the traditional and the trendy. Out of many books in my collection on Spanish food, The New Spanish Table is my favorite.
Several Cook’s Gazette recipes have already been informed by her. Here I present one of her simple tapas, made with pantry staples.
Recipe
Pimentos de Piquillo Rellenos de Queso de Cabra: Goat Cheese stuffed Piquillo Peppers