Learning at home and away

A pair of Spanish chefs are as similar as they are different, Shi Yingying reports.

Thanks to the Spanish Pavilion, two of the country's top female chefs have been invited to town. With a total of five Michelin stars between them, Elena Arzak and Fina Puigdevall will be cooking up a treat in Shanghai.

Though schooled in the same country, Arzak and Puigdevall have different philosophies on cooking - the former gets inspiration from traveling around the world, while the latter draws her inspiration from her hometown. Either way, it's the diners who are the winners.

Running a 113-year-old family restaurant with three Michelin stars, Elena Arzak is the fourth generation chef at the Arzak restaurant. "My great grandpa was a cook and my father, Juan Mari Arzak, will come to Shanghai and cook for Expo in late September," said the chef. "It is very common in my hometown (Pas Vasco in northern Spain) to see a female executive chef."

Having a culinary master as a father didn't give the young Elena too much stress. She settled in her dream of becoming a chef at an early age.

And to hone her skills, Arzak studied and worked at top restaurants in London, Paris, Monaco and Switzerland.

"If there's anything I learnt from my six years' traveling and working across Europe, it is to build connections with top restaurants and know cooking requires teamwork," she said.

Arzak has always had a love affair with China, even though this is her first visit. "My father gave me a book in 1993 that told the story of Chinese culinary heritage. I fell in love with China immediately," said the chef. "My favorite Chinese ingredient is sesame oil, I didn't know there's such a smell and taste on earth before I came to China."

The dish she brought to Shanghai surprises locals with its amazing similarity to the Chinese dish, rice flour shrimp. Arzak calls her creation Red Shrimp Brunch. "I got the inspiration from farmers wrapping straw. For shrimps, I wrap them with celery before deep frying them," she said. Arzak said that unlike China, it is very difficult to find such good-quality rice flour in Spain.

The difference between rice flour shrimp and Red Shrimp Brunch, from a Chinese diners perspective, is the flavor of truffle and olive oil. Of course, the local version, mainly a sidewalk snack, would cost way too much if those ingredients were added. Plus, one needs the expertise of Arzak to cook it perfectly.

Fina Puigdevall's signature dish is another simple one: egg with tuna.

"My hometown Olot (north of Girona in the upper reaches of Catalonia) is landlocked, therefore we don't have fresh seafood. All our fish come in cans," said Puigdevall. "In this dish, I try to remind diners of the taste of sea when they enjoy an egg, without using tuna."

That's right. Even though it is called egg with tuna, no tuna is involved. Puigdevall breaks an egg into boiling water and cooks from 3 to 6 minutes. The tuna taste comes from the olive oil she uses - oil from a tin of tuna.

Puigdevall runs a hotel and the two-Michelin star restaurant, Mas Les Cols, in her hometown, complete with a 13th-century farmhouse and free-range chickens.

Lunch and dinner cooked by Elena Arzak and Fina Puigdevall will be available at the Gran Melia Hotel's Acqua Restaurant until Sept 5. Juan Mari Arzak will join other Michelin-star chefs cooking Pas Vasco Week from Sept 27 to Oct 3.