Arzak
Arzak is a restaurant in San Sebastián, in the Basque Country, that serves modernized Basque cuisine shaped by the techniques and presentation of nouvelle cuisine. For decades it has been one of the leading names in Spanish and international fine dining.
History
The building was originally a family house, erected in 1897 by the grandparents of the current owner, José María Arzak Etxabe and Escolástica Lete. They turned it into a wine inn with a tavern. At that time the district of Alza was still separate from San Sebastián.
When the next generation, Juan Ramón Arzak and Francisca Arratibel, took over, the premises became a restaurant. Today the kitchen is shared by Juan Mari Arzak and his daughter Elena Arzak.
In 2000 a test kitchen was set up in the house, where new recipes are developed over several months before they reach the menu.
Culture
Arzak is one of the key names in the so-called New Basque Cuisine, which starts from local tradition and reinterprets it with contemporary methods. Its trajectory has helped bring Gipuzkoan gastronomy to audiences abroad. The restaurant keeps a cellar of more than one hundred thousand bottles and a kitchen team that balances produce, memory and creativity. In 2008 Juan Mari Arzak received the Universal Basque award for adapting Basque gastronomic tradition to modern times.