What I know now: Eneko Atxa, Azurmendi
Meet Basque chef Eneko Atxa who heads up three-Michelin-star restaurant Azurmendi outside Bilbao, as well as a growing empire of Eneko restaurants from London to Tokyo
I never dreamed of becoming a chef.
But the centre of my home was always the kitchen. I was curious so I listened to the conversations around the table with my mother and grandmother. I remember that I always loved to eat. When I was 13 or 14, I decided to go to culinary school.
I learned that gastronomy is a universal language.
At cooking school you learn that being a chef isn’t just about cooking and produce, it’s about discovering different tools to transform food. I learned that with gastronomy you can express who you are, where you’re from and where you’re going.
I am who I am because of my late father and my mother,
Teresa Azurmendi (after whom Azurmendi is named) and I do this to honour them. My mother, through her love and support, gave me all I need to succeed. Sometimes when she tastes my food she says what we do is too sophisticated, but then she’ll say: “Ah, these are my recipes. I recognise that my soul lives here.”
I started by catering weddings and events.
It’s sort of the typical chef story. This work eventually gave me the opportunity to create a fine-dining area, and we opened Azurmendi in 2005.
Every night I go to bed with three (Michelin) stars,
but every morning I wake up with none. This is why I sleep well at night, but in the morning I know
I can’t take anything for granted and every day we have to earn them again.
The Basques give credit to the women in our families.
Women have always run our households. At a time during the war, the men left and the women remained. They grew and harvested the food, found ways to create amazing food using very humble ingredients such as peppers, leeks, potatoes and beans. Today, we have this wealth of Basque produce and recipes, because of women like my grandmother, who was forced to move to France for a while, who kept our traditions alive. At Azurmendi we support many women farmers.
Tear peas are like our version of caviar.
They are small green peas, a very humble product with so much flavour. It’s phenomenal.
Sustainability is necessary.
(Azurmendi won the World’s 50 Best most sustainable restaurant award for the second time last year.) We have an advanced bioclimatic building with photovoltaic solar panels, geothermic energy, ports to charge your car without electricity and a seed bank with around 400 local seeds. This is to promote and preserve genetic diversity. We have a 92.8% sustainability rating. But our biggest responsibility is taking care of the landscape for tomorrow. I have to ask what I’m leaving behind for my kids. I have the opportunity to care for the next generation.
Our latest work is with a local hospital.
With the same money as a regular caterer, we created meals for very specific needs, for example for children with cancer – meals that are nutritious but delicious and fun. We also worked with artists to design the meal trays so that they’re engaging to look at. I work with young chefs so they can see the value of working with your community. Sometimes it’s about innovation and making a difference.
We work on the principles of a circular economy.
At Azurmendi we create a great amount of organic waste. We collaborated with our town (Larrabetzu) and nearby towns to create compost. Local farmers who grow our food get to use this as fertiliser and so the circle keeps going.
We need young people with new ideas and new concepts,
not just in the kitchen but across all disciplines, because only the younger generation can help us to redefine our goals and objectives. They see the world in a very different way.
You have to understand your life is more important,
even if the kitchen means the world. You have to make time for yourself. I run to work each day, I go to the cinema and have dinner with friends. At the restaurant we only open for lunch except Friday and Saturday.
This is so all our staff can have a home life, too. I travel a lot for work, but I take holidays with my family. If you don’t, the stress will get to you.
We need young people with new ideas and new concepts”