Hi everyone, welcome to Potluck Food Talks.
Today I'm here with Adriano Mejia, someone I've worked with, we've lived together, we've
cooked, eaten together, so we've done a few things.
Welcome Adriano, nice to have you here.
Eric, what's up?
How are you?
Good, good, good, good.
So you've been quite around in the culinary world, especially in the Basque Country, and
especially in the last years, I would say you've been in, I don't know, four or five
restaurants in the last few years, so you've been moving around a lot.
But let's start with the beginning.
You were Ecuadorian originally, but you started cooking here in the Basque Country.
How did that begin?
How did you end up here?
When did you start cooking for the first time and when professionally for the first time?
Yeah, I think you explained it very well.
I've been fooling around in many restaurants in the last years, but it goes all the way
back when I was a small kid.
I used to work a lot with my grandmother in her kitchen.
I took her recipe books and I just started wiggling around trying to figure out some
recipes she made.
And I started since I was maybe five years old until I decided to study professionally,
become a cook ten years ago, where I arrived to San Sebastian, specifically in the Basque
Country, to Basque Culinary Center to start a four-year degree on cooking, well, gastronomy.
And then years in the Basque Culinary, I had to travel to different places to make some
stash.
And the best memories I have are from Sweden, Fabiqen in Ore.
I don't know if you know about it.
Yes, of course.
It's a legendary restaurant, Magnus Nilsson.
Phil, the co-host of the show, has also worked there.
And I remember he and I, we discovered that restaurant at the same time.
It was on an Apicius magazine many years ago.
And we were like, what is this?
Who is this guy?
What is he doing?
Yeah, it's crazy.
Actually, just before I moved to San Sebastian in 2015, I believe, summer 2015, I saw on
Chef's Table Fabiqen episode.
It's amazing.
And I fell in love with that restaurant.
And at third year at the university, I had to choose one place to stash.
And all my memories went back when I decided to start cooking professionally.
And I was there for four months.
A great place during summer.
I was capable of doing all the fermentation processes because I was in summer.
So they had a full menu prepared for all the year.
Everything they gather in summer, they pickled and some type of preservation so they can
keep doing the menu in winter.
And of course, all the produce we used there was top of the notch.
Great people.
I made some great friends there who I still in touch with them nowadays.
One of them works at EMP, for example, at the Arranca.
It was a great passing my E.
So I want to know a few things about this place.
I know that there is a lot of foraging if you work there.
I know that there are like this specific shoes that they also use them in the residence of
Christian Puglisi, that are these shoes that are both for garden and kitchen.
And I know also that there is something very specific about the service, that all service
are the same.
So you have a choreography like a theater.
What can you share about that?
Yeah.
So first talking about foraging, I remember I was the person in charge of doing all the
foraging.
I was the apprentice of the vegetable section.
So we have several different projects that we had to do during the week and during the
day.
And of course, during the year, because for example, in summer I had to collect moss.
We dehydrate some so we can be used for the winter and the fresh one we used during summer.
So I remember they gave me the keys to a caddy, a Volkswagen caddy.
And I just was going all the roads around town, trying to find some flowers, pine for
some desserts.
Also I don't know if you know silage?
No, no idea.
Silage is like the fermented hay.
Fermented hay.
Yeah.
Okay.
So it's like you go around these streets and there are like these big black packs of
silage and one with a red cross.
So I had to go there, pick some silage that the head chef usually go before, smell it
when it was perfect.
I pick it and then we made the ice cream from it.
I've tried that fermented hay ice cream.
That stuff is amazing for me.
It's great.
It has like this nutty flavors.
Super nice.
It's very complex because it's, I don't know, maybe a whole season it's there just sitting
in the sun and rainy nights and it just get this very complex aroma.
And I don't know, before I was in Farik and I would never think about eating silage in
my life.
There are these Australian brand called Bluntstone.
And I remember when Talik and I accept my stash with them, I received like an email
with all the rules going there and they explain everything.
And in uniform it just said black pants and bloodstone boots.
That was the only requirement, then they give you the whole uniform.
So you have to buy them yourself?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They don't give you.
I mean they're quite expensive for a student, but it was worth it.
I still have them nowadays.
I still use them.
The same ones you bought for that occasion?
Yeah.
Then I bought a couple of several other models, but the same ones I started there I think
eight years ago, I still have them and use them.
The choreography service, what about that?
It's a great impact because first I was into the production kitchen, which is like this
huge barn.
We have to know that Faviken was run by Magnus Nilsson.
Actually, it closed a year after I was there.
But it was the Swedish family that has the project.
It was a huge land.
They had a lot of land that surrounded and Faviken was in the middle of there.
So besides Faviken, they had this butchery and they have a pastry and bakery as well,
like a small restaurant.
So there was our ecosystem around Faviken.
I started in the production kitchen.
They have this line, they get fresh meat, they get whole animals.
So there's the guy in the production that has to make every cut, place everything where
it belongs.
And after getting into the production kitchen, you enter the service kitchen.
And there's this big red clock, I don't know, maybe 1 meter 30 centimeters.
And there it goes exactly.
Every day you start the same hour, same time.
It's a choreography.
All the guests come at the same time.
They have a 30-minute gap between 6.30 and 7 p.m.
And at 7, the first course starts.
The head shift just starts at 6.53.
Seven minutes for the first course.
Seven answers back and then everything starts.
You begin and finish every day at the same time.
That's crazy.
So it works kind of like a banquet somehow.
Pretty much.
It was actually two floors.
In the first floor you have this huge table.
It was meant to seat eight people.
And then you had some people that can have the snacks outside or in the first floor.
And after, I don't know, maybe six passes, some of the guests went up to the second floor
where they have their own tables.
There were two tops, four tops, like that.
And eight people to stay down in their group table, which was much more fun, I can say,
because you experience with all the kind of people.
So then what happened then?
We worked together at the opening of Label Restaurant for a while.
That was also crazy, the experience of opening a new place and planning everything from scratch.
I was on the project only for the first five or six months.
And then at some point you also took over as head chef over there.
Yeah, so actually chronologically after one year of that, we both started Digital Astronomy
Lab Restaurant in San Sebastian in Tavacalera.
So I think we were working together for six months or five months in the development.
Exactly.
We were working together on the computer, not even...
Ah, okay, like before the opening, I was working at least one year before the opening, like
in the whole project management of the opening and everything.
And I remember we both put that project together.
And after you left, I stayed at head chef, not for long, but maybe eight months.
I had a problem where I had to go back to Ecuador for a visa problem.
So I was around four months in Ecuador, came back here.
Coronavirus came in that time, so it was crazy, a lot of things happening.
I know it was a pretty young restaurant, maybe six, eight months old.
Coronavirus came, so we had to become delivery guys.
Ah, I had the delivery.
I had your delivery while Corona.
And I think back then it was the best delivery I've ever had because that was before I tried
David Muñoz and Danny Garcia's delivery.
But it's my top three for sure.
It was nice because we came up with a completely different idea of what delivery was at the
time.
Send everything cold so people can heat it up and finish the dishes.
Of course, they had the time at that time because everyone was locked up.
So we made some nice recipes.
We started working with some nice producers, had a lot of relationships.
And it was Ruben who still works at Bulinari and me driving around San Sebastian doing
the deliveries.
And I was in the kitchen cooking, packing things.
It was nice.
I remember that nice moment in the conditions we were at Corona, of course.
And I got lost chronologically because then you worked at Ama's project and then at Ama.
What was the order of these things?
Well, Ama is a super nice restaurant in Tolosa, which is a village also here in Limpuzcuá,
like a half an hour train ride from San Sebastian.
And the two great places that are in Tolosa, one is Ama, the other one is Casa Julian,
which is a legendary grill place, world known for some, it has the best steak in the world.
At that point, they were starting to expand to open more operations in different places.
But again, Corona hit and all of the rules changed around.
Exactly.
So I decided to finish my relationship with Lava restaurant in October 2020, I believe.
2020.
Go straight with Ama people to Enea, which was in Hotel Senit in San Sebastian.
At that time, I started living with you actually.
And second wave of Corona came in.
It was crazy.
Those were some hard times, I believe.
Like you say, wait, we live together, but I actually forgot about it because I would
never see you at home.
You would arrive when I was already sleeping and leave before I woke up.
So you were like a ghost.
I would never see you.
Yeah, I have had some crazy experience in my cooking career.
And maybe that moment in time was one of the craziest.
Maybe I was 25.
It was in a hotel.
I could stay there sometimes.
I live maybe four streets, but I rather stay sometimes in a bench just taking a nap than
going home.
The project started good.
It started going pretty well.
People like it a lot.
And I had to go to Tulosa because there was a guy who worked with them there that was
leaving and they asked me to go with them there.
And I was in the previous Ama because right now it's a bigger restaurant in another place
in the same town.
I have known the new one.
I've been only to the original one.
Right.
So I worked in the original and now they changed the location.
And after that, it was been at last two years, also moving a little bit.
I just had a small pass to Michelin star restaurant.
And then I end up at Nauru.
I had a great relationship with the people there.
Which Michelin star?
Amelia.
You were at Amelia.
Amelia.
How was the experience there?
It was crazy.
It was one of the other craziest experience I had.
I was there just for a couple of months, maybe four months.
And then I had to go back to air-conditioning again.
And I came back just straight to Nauru.
Nauru is one of my favorite restaurants in San Sebastian.
They cook modern basque.
Also as far as I know, they offer the best working conditions in the city.
Like chefs there work eight hours a day.
It's not like this crazy environment.
As far as I know.
What can you share about that?
Yeah.
Nauru was this place where people maybe three, four years ago were pretty excited about getting
to it.
I remember when we were at Lave, all this thing, Nauru opening the new location.
I think it's four years old or five.
Everyone was going crazy about going there.
Now there's another place.
It's not gastronomic, but I heard a lot of people looking forward for their conditions.
We did the social hub.
It is a great big hotel from Dutch people, I think.
Yeah.
It's like a franchise.
As far as I know, there are social hubs in most cities in Spain and Europe.
You cannot compare what you're cooking and how you're learning to become a chef.
And one, you're just doing sandwiches and salads.
It depends on what you pursue, right?
Yeah.
Nauru has one of my favorite dishes, which is... Is it pig's tail?
Like de-boned, slowly cooked, like pan-fried, really crispy with calabineros.
I mean, that shit is over the top.
That's one of my favorite dishes ever.
Yeah, yeah.
Super nice.
And also this... How do you call them in English?
This tear piece, the super micro piece that are super... They call it the vegetable
caviar because it's so little and you have to take it out by hand.
And then if you have like a whole spoon of it, it's really like tasting vegetables in
the highest way.
Super nice.
Yeah.
And the best dish I have of... I think some people call them as napis or something like
that.
I don't know.
Okay.
But it was at Echevarris because he makes it like... He sauteed them on the grill with
their own smoked juice.
It was like one small spoon, but I can remember till now, maybe from eight years ago.
But yeah, Nauru, I think is the best product restaurant in San Sebastian.
They deliver it perfectly.
They have the best product working on it in season as well.
I was working with Inigo in the midsection.
So the kitchen is divided in three sections.
The head chef is Inigo Pena, the owner.
And all the seasonal dishes go through the station.
So whenever we had artichoke or squid, teodrapis, also truffle dishes in winter.
So everything was in our section.
It was nice.
We never get bored.
Then you also worked... Nauru has like a little brother restaurant called Zuka, which
is like Wagyu beef burger place.
And they used to make also like super nice ice creams.
They're not doing ice cream anymore, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're doing them.
Okay.
I and Nauru, I went back to Ecuador again.
All the times I had like a small break to go back with my family.
Okay.
But let's talk about that because that's also interesting.
Your father has like a pizzeria or some pizzerias and you usually go there to help him out with
some of his operation processes or what is it exactly?
So he started with his first restaurant maybe 2017.
I was already two years studying in the Basque country.
He was an engineer for 30, 35 years and he decided to quit everything and get into the
restaurant industry.
And he opened his first place called Fatua Mano.
It was pizza and wine concept.
And throughout the years it has evolved, the idea, taking new concepts.
And now he just opened the fourth Fatua Mano.
So he's running four places.
Now also focus on pasta and more dishes, not just pizza.
And he has a bistro, a French bistro with another partner.
And they've been running it for five years as well.
When I had to go back to Ecuador because of the visa problem, I started three months the
bistro and then I came back.
And now it's running by a head chef there, Sebastián, which is actually a pretty good
place.
And now last year I went there and I just started doing my own pop-up events as well.
So I just called maybe eight people for them to answer, maybe two want to do something
with me.
So I just organized some events.
They're not cheap for the Ecuadorian prices, I guess.
But people who have been there, they enjoy it a lot.
Of course, it's only once in a year.
So I've been doing more of them in December and January.
So people can sign up.
So I take this opportunity also to remind all of our listeners that Phil and I are planning
to make a pop-up dinner here in San Sebastián.
We won't reveal date and location yet, but we can say it's going to be some sort of Japanese
profanity concept.
So we'll take traditional Japanese recipes and mix them with other cultures in a way
that will offend all of the involved cultures.
Great.
If you need hands, I'm up to.
That would be amazing.
Of course.
So then you worked in Zuka's head chef as well, like for a while, or what were you doing
there?
Right, Zuka.
So I came back there, helped them open Zuka, but it was a small amount of time as well.
Maybe just three months.
We packed it up because I had another project.
So I worked with them until maybe June.
We made these amazing Waiu burgers.
The owners of the place own the cows, so it's just a very clean process.
And they make also ice cream.
Maybe before they had much more fame.
Now it started a little bit slower, but it's pretty good.
Okay, because that used to be my favorite ice cream in town.
I didn't know they reopened the ice creams.
That's great news.
They just reopened for summer, but they're doing fewer flavors than before.
And then I just decided to open up one of my own projects I've been developing for
the last years.
It's a cheesecake place.
Like a cheesecake pastry shop, something like that, where you can get Basque cheesecakes
and coffee.
The idea was one, of course, whenever someone makes a project, it never ends as you had
the first time in mind.
I wanted to open this on San Sebastian, and I had some problems with the Ayuntamiento.
The city hall.
The city hall, exactly.
Like, permission-wise.
Exactly.
Here is very strict everything compared to Ecuador, of course.
In Ecuador you can do whatever you want.
Like all of Latin America, of course.
Exactly.
So maybe the dimensions of the oven or the kilovatios or the oven, anything.
To cut a long story short, I ended up opening in Getaria.
Getaria is a village west from San Sebastian, like half an hour.
It's a fisherman village.
And for me, it's one of the best places to go to this fish grill houses.
There is this world-known Elcano, which is one of the best restaurants in the world where
you can have incredible grilled fish.
Also Elcano Chiqui, which is a little brother of Elcano.
We were having lunch there last time with Adriano and a few friends.
And then you have other places like Choco and Calla, which are these other like, grill
houses in the city.
Like from my perspective, you go there to eat grilled fish.
That's what you do in Getaria.
And drink Chacolí.
That's the main activity.
You just described it perfectly.
So we encountered that summer, of course.
A lot of people, a lot of tourism there.
Of course, anything will work.
People really like our product, but you described it perfectly before.
You'll go to Getaria thinking about grilled fish, some Chacolí and some pinches with
Chacolí before having lunch or dinner.
So you saw an opportunity and opening like a dessert place to have like a nice dessert
in that context.
Exactly.
People really like it.
With good coffee from Old Town Roasters in San Sebastian.
I have to say before you go on that Adriano's cheesecake is for sure among the best cheesecakes
I've ever had.
I would say the cheesecake at Ama is one of my favorites.
The one that Adriano makes and the one from our friend Jose Pelaez, who has now like a
startup that only operates in Colombia, in Medellin, in Bogota, that is called Lavasca.
And that's, I would say that's my top one.
That cheesecake is fucking really good.
It's incredible.
I actually was with Jose this week.
We were talking about cheesecake and how our projects are doing.
And yeah, his thing is crazy.
Maybe we can do a collaboration with the three of the companies.
Yeah, sure.
And yeah, so I opened there, been working and I decided to shut it down last Sunday.
So ending September.
I just want to really refocus the original focus of the project.
I have some ideas in mind, some offers on the table.
So we'll be reopening a new place, new concept very soon.
I don't want to say any dates as well, but Queso will be doing some pretty cool stuff
in the near future.
Queso is the name of the cheesecake shop.
That's it for this week's episode of Potluck Food Talks.
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