Can Spanish restaurants actually deliver a memorable pudding? Something to please even the sweetest tooth? Not around my way they can’t. Andalucia has a woeful record when it comes to ‘afters.’ Too often restaurant owners see postres only as an opportunity to make profit on something that comes out of the freezer. I shall go to my grave reciting the list of ubiquitous sweets on offer as recited by a waiter. Helado? Natilla? Flan? etc etc. Call me fussy but i don’t want to end my meal with an ice cream or frozen solid pudding that has come out of a packet. Surely there is a market for home made, imaginative puddings in Spain.
As ever, chefs in the north of Spain show more imagination than their southern counterparts. A fact acknowledged by one of the best chefs in Andalucia. Kevin Richardson of Mirador Cerro Gordo at La Herradura says:- “Andalucia is simply not cuisine orientated and that applies to postres every bit as much as main meals. Spanish customers automatically ask for flan, creme caramel etc. I have to gently tell them that we don’t serve such puddings but that we do offer dishes created on site and that, perhaps, they might like to try something new. Sadly, the answer is often ‘no’; but those who do try our puddings are every bit as happy as our north European customers.”
And he’s right. If you are serving the British in Spain you don’t have to be as predictable as offering something smothered in custard or strawberries with fake cream. Likewise Spanish chefs down south should be bolder and stop thrusting an ice cream on a diner wanting to complete a meal out with a stand out postre.
My plea to restaurants all over Spain is to step outside of their comfort zone. As Kevin Richardson told me: “Many restaurant owners are resting on their laurels. They say: ‘This is the way we have always done it, and this is the way we will always do it’; “that’s what i hear so often.”
Nobody has more of a sweet tooth than the Spanish. So those who cater should realise that were they to deliver attractive puddings, some people will visit their restaurant purely because of that fact.
Create them and they will come. After all, the proof of the pudding is in just how many people want to eat it.
