Original subtitles

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♪ I took a walk through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good in this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain getting colder ♪

♪ La, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la

♪

The Basque country is an autonomous region,

a place, a culture,

where the Basque language is spoken.

Strictly speaking, it's an area straddling Spain and France

at the western end of the Pyrenees.

They've been speaking Basque here

long before the first Roman arrived in 65 B.C.

It is a very old language.

How old, like the question of

how far back their history goes and where it begins,

is not known.

The best answer anyone can give you

is "long, long ago."

What did this area... What did this coastline

look like back in, uh, 17th century?

So different, right?

So different.

There's more landscape now.

The sea went farther into the land.

Maybe some houses like three or four there,

but the other one wasn't there.

The church there wasn't there.

There was a small church, maybe.

If that mountain houses watching to the sea,

was impossible.

All the traditional houses were pointed inland.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Before the industrial revolution,

with no heating systems,

Right, the wind would come in and...

You couldn't afford watching into the sea

because the wind and the humidity

make it impossible to maintain that kind of living.

So every house has windows to the sea,

it means it's not so old.

♪

Edorta Jimenez and his daughter Arathi

are both acclaimed authors and proud Basque.

And they know as much about their history as can be known.

Sea barnacles, or percebes, are much loved here.

Steamed briefly with a little salt,

simple, like much of Basque cooking.

That's delicious.

It's very, very good.

I love these.

And thank you for coming.

How long do you think the Basque people

lived in this community?

Or does anybody know?

- 25,000 years. - 25,000 years.

Yeah, we are living here.

So you're talking, like, Cro-Magnon.

Yes.

- All the way back. - All the way back.

And the language?

From here?

We really don't know.

It is the only language in Europe that we know of

that doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the languages,

that doesn't come from the same place.

And the Basque genetic signature

is also seemingly unique.

I mean, nobody's finding any relatives in anywhere.

They did this research with people's DNA from this area...

Yeah.

And the conclusion was,

it's the same people that was living here, uh...

25,000 years ago.

♪

So do you believe that:

the Basque have always been here,

that the language has been influenced by nobody else?

And the mystery, Anthony, is that we are in the way.

Yep.

On the Iberian Peninsula,

you have two natural ways, two natural pass.

One is in the Mediterranean side,

and the other one is on the Atlantic side.

And we are in the way from the north to the south.

Well, good negotiators.

Good fighters, good negotiators.

Yeah, who knows?

♪

♪

You could make the argument

that there is no better place to eat in Europe

than the city of San Sebastián.

There are more Michelin starred restaurants per capita here

than anywhere on Earth.

But even the everyday joints are superb.

The love of food,

the insistence on the very best ingredients,

is fundamental to the culture and to life here.

And it's beautiful.

Did I say that?

It's a beautiful city.

You know exactly where to go, no?

If I'm lost, I'm only lost for two minutes.

I always find my way. You'll find it.

- Oh, here he is. - Eh?

¿Qué tal?

Juan Mari Arzak has been, since I first met him

and his amazing, accomplished daughter Elena,

my mentor and friend,

steadfast and loyal in every way a person can be.

Father and daughter

are two of the greatest chefs in the world.

Bueno.

¿Qué tal? Bien.

You are happy.

Very. Très content.

I love it here.

♪

These are what you call pinchos around here,

not tapas.

These incredible batteries

of delicious, delicious things

generally located near one another

so you can easily and very pleasurably go out

for what's called a poteo, a bar crawl,

grazing through the specialties of each place.

I would like to start with a little bit of beer.

What do you think? Yeah.

Not too much, because we are going to other place, huh?

Welcome. Chin chin.

- Thank you. Chin chin. - Eh? Gabriella?

Gabriella Ranelli has worked closely

with both Arzaks for years

and is considered a leading authority

on the Basque culinary scene.

Have to move from place to place.

'Cause the important thing is,

you have different atmospheres;

you have different flavor profiles.

People here really like the classics.

You know, people go after

exactly what they're looking for.

Fried quail egg, blood sausage, and peppers.

This is like a whole breakfast on a piece of bread.

Wait a minute. What's that?

Uh, sea urchin. You want to try some?

Sea urchin with onion and cava.

You are good at eating pinchos, eh?

It's so difficult to stop, no? Yeah.

♪

Walking anywhere in San Sebastián

with Juan Mari Arzak

is like walking through Chicago with Michael Jordan

or Washington, D.C. with George Washington.

He's the godfather,

universally beloved and respected.

You're like Elvis.

He's like Elvis Presley, huh? Si.

♪

Why do the Basque, unique among their neighbors,

obsessively insist on

such high-quality ingredients for everything?

People have a passion for food.

- Why here? - Por qué?

I don't know.

Always been this way.

Until about 80 years ago,

there wasn't a lot of this stuff written down.

♪

Right in here. Oh, okay.

Yeah, I figured how... We're not walking by here.

Ganbara: my favorite place.

I come here every time like a heat-seeking missile.

This is where you'll find Juan Mari every Sunday.

This is the first place

anyone ever brought me in San Sebastián.

- Really? - Yes.

Ibérico ham with mushrooms are amazing.

Crab tartlets: extraordinary.

Mmm!

Oh, man.

But this, the house specialty,

what they're most famous for,

is the be-all and end-all for me.

Seared wild mushrooms and foie gras

with a raw egg yolk gently draped over the top

to sizzle and commingle with the hot fungi.

This plate, what can you do to make it better?

- No, it's impossible. - Leave like that.

It's perfect. There's no improving this dish.

No.

Now nobody talks. Only we eat.

Right. It's a code of silence.

♪

♪

♪

♪

We are in the Basque country.

In a place called Pasaia

near San Sebastián.

This was the main Basque port in the Middle Age.

Come on!

The Basque ships, in different times,

they were the top of the maritime technology.

And because of that,

they could face the big challenge of the ocean.

This is a very old tradition.

See, we have a real language, we have a very old culture.

And that culture has been always looking at the sea.

♪

According to my Basque friends,

the Basque discovered America...

and didn't tell anyone. That's right.

And who would they tell anyway?

Well, they didn't want to attract

the attention of other fishermen.

That's the reason.

So you see, the maritime official history

has been written by kings that wanted to claim something,

you know, like, "This is mine."

This is mine. I want everybody to know that."

Fishermen, they did the opposite thing.

So that's why now these archaeologists

are finding evidences of our past,

and that's very important for us.

Xavier Ogote is a shipwright and founder

of the Basque Maritime Heritage Museum,

where he works to preserve and promote

the proud history of Basque exploration of the sea.

When I was a kid, I used to go to San Sebastián port

and start fishing there.

I remember the fishing boats come in,

in and out every day, wooden boats, fantastic.

When I grew older, I witnessed how

all the traditional wooden boats that I loved so much

were being replaced by fiberglass boats.

So when I was 18, I decided to become a boat builder.

So for me, it was one of the most

enriching experiences of my life.

♪

We created Albaola, like, 20 years ago

because nobody knew about the Basque

and their relationship with the sea.

And at the moment, we are building

a dream of my life coming true,

which is a 16th-century Basque whaling galleon.

My hope is that through this project,

the Basque people will know more

about our maritime history,

they will be proud of their ancestors.

We decided to build this ship.

I mean, it's... nobody ask us.

♪

This used to be the center of the world for boat building.

Bad times for the Spanish navy was good times for the Basque

because if a lot of ships are sinking,

that means more work here.

The Basque were the first whalers...

Industrial whalers...

In a time in which the Basque were

the only people hunting whales industrially.

How many guys?

In a classic rowing boat, there's seven people.

Okay, seven people.

Guy out on front, the strongest guy with a harpoon.

That's right.

Whole lot of rope.

200 meters rope.

How big is the boat?

8 meters.

8 meters.

If the ropes get too wet, you sink.

If you fall overboard, you die.

You die.

- If the boat capsizes... - Everybody dies.

You die. Right.

You have to pull that whale to the land,

rowing.

A 60-ton whale.

- 60 tons. - 60 tons.

Metric. You know, that's, like, big.

So what happens if everything goes well?

Well, you become very rich.

♪

This place is the famous Elkano

in the seaside village of Getaria,

a place known and loved by chefs all over the world

for what they call their Paleolithic cooking,

the straight-up application of fire

and a very few ingredients to make, well, magic of a kind.

♪

Rock prawn, the head and body are cooked separately.

The body is served nearly raw, what they call semi-ceviche,

while the heads are grilled.

Oh!

That's nice. This is gonna be good.

That was very nice.

Squid served the Pelayo way,

grilled with an onion green pepper sauce.

Wow, look at this.

Excellent. Ah.

Look at that. He puts the tentacles...

- Oh, yeah. - Inside. Nice.

♪

And kokotxas...

About as bone-deep, old-school,

fundamentally Basque an ingredient

or a passion as there is...

The jowls or chins of hake,

cooked pil pil style in olive oil

and swirled constantly to emulsify the oil

with the fish's natural gelatin.

What we like is the quality of the product.

We like to have everything alive in our mouth.

Oh, these are the...

Yeah.

- Beautiful. - But this is good food.

- Look at that. - Yeah.

So this is a good time to talk about cod.

Because the Basque are not getting to America

or Newfoundland without salt fish, right?

If you didn't have protein that lasted,

you could not project, you could not explore,

and you could not project military power.

Absolutely.

In the early times, something we know

is that the Basque were the only ones drying the cod.

Sea salt, we lack of it.

And so we were forced to dry it.

And dry... dry cod, you could preserve it for years.

♪

But it's this dish that brings passionate eaters to Elkano

from all across the world:

the turbot, grilled...

Look at that.

That is beautiful. Yeah.

Perfectly over coals,

and then portioned out expertly by owner Aitor Arregui

so as to highlight each and every unique bit

and its special characteristics.

- All the white points? - Yeah.

This is the protein of the fish.

And it is good to eat.

We can make it like emulsion.

The light gelatinous skin...

Beautiful.

Its soft and slightly caramelized flesh.

Mmm.

Wow.

The fat, unctuous belly.

He's finding every single secret of the fish.

Mm-hmm.

The bones, tiny scraps of the sweetest meat

clinging to them.

Thank you.

Mmm.

One dish, a mosaic

of many distinct flavors and textures,

all them epically delicious.

♪

It was like an anatomy lesson.

Yeah, absolutely.

♪

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How old is the restaurant?

It is 1897.

1897.

Starting with great-grand... Great-grandparents?

I feel at home at this table.

It is not my first time here by a long shot.

I am among friends,

friends who feel now like family.

So how many years in the restaurant business?

In 1976, 12 Basque chefs

under the influence of the recently emerged

nouvelle cuisine movement in France,

formed what later became known as the gang of 12,

committing themselves to both modernizing

and protecting the culinary traditions

of their culture.

Juan Mari Arzak was at the forefront of that effort.

His daughter Elena continues to honor

both that commitment and that responsibility.

♪

The food is innovative, wildly creative,

forward thinking, but always, always Basque.

Marinated prawns on lemongrass and mint

with beetroot and crunchy krill.

For us, it's the essence of the sea.

Mmm! Oh, man.

Roast pigeon with mastic and potato.

And this pigeon is really very tender.

You will see. I love it.

Grilled hake jowls with teff seeds and fresh almonds

served in a bamboo leaf.

Grilled monkfish with a pecan paste

and hieroglyphics of pumpkin and sweet pea.

Was it always like this?

I mean, his mother, his grandmother.

Was it always a menu that changed every day?

What did you have to have on the menu?

White tuna with green melon and a jackfruit sauce.

♪

♪

Squid with walnut ginger paste,

psyllium sauce, and black tomato.

Is he ever gonna take off the chef jacket?

What is his plan?

Ah!

I knew he was gonna say this.

I would like to die at this table.

I like.

Not tonight.

Not tonight.

- Pronto, no. - No.

Bueno.

♪

I first came here in, I think, 2001.

15 years ago.

You know, my father died very young.

But, look, I'd like him to know that

since the first time I came here, he's...

I feel like he's looked after me like a father.

He's been a loyal and good friend and supporter,

and I want him to know I appreciate it.

I mean, he's only 14 years older than me, but

Not too much, eh?

No.

Could be my older brother.

Yes, yes, yes.

It better.

I am the big brother.

Yes, big brother.

No, I'm the father, basically.

But thank you...

Thank you.

For everything.

♪

♪

It seems sometimes, maybe even all the time,

like you can wander into just anywhere in San Sebastián

and find fantastic things to eat.

Casa Urola in the Old Town does not outwardly look

like a place where you go to find this:

seared mushrooms with egg yolk and pine nuts.

Potato sauce?

Uh, yes, and that sauce.

Beautiful. Wow.

Look at that.

Grilled tuna with "marmitako" sauce,

a reference to a classic fisherman's stew.

Peas in a consommé of ibérico ham.

Oh, it's so pretty.

The food is so good in this town.

I mean, it's really outrageous. Yes.

I mean, you walk by this place, you don't expect this.

Olatz González Abrisketa

is a professor of social anthropology

and documentary filmmaker.

Whoa, look at that.

It's a squid with a white bean cream.

Wow.

I know that this is the end of squid season.

Yeah.

Everybody says... I mean, everybody knows.

The Basque obsession or insistence

on really, really good ingredients.

The fish has to be in season.

It has to be incredibly fresh.

The... it always has to be the best of everything.

I'm... The Basque are very obsessive with qualities.

For example, as you know,

I did a thesis in the Basque pelota.

♪

Pelota, if you didn't know,

is the most popular sport in Basque culture.

Its origins go back to the Middle Ages.

The Basque are as obsessive about this pastime

as they are about food.

♪

Most of male conversation in Basque country

are about things and about qualities of things.

And they pass days and days

in bouncing the balls for the match,

and they need to know which one is the best

for the match and how it behave.

♪

So the obsession and I think a male obsession with quality

is also something which happen in sports

just like with the food.

♪

♪

Basque language and culture

exists on both sides of a border...

Unsurprising, as they predate both countries.

This may be France, but it's still pays Basque.

Here we're in the French Basque country.

The Basque country is divided by a frontier,

but we're talking about the same culture

in the French Basque country and the Spanish Basque country.

Is there a difference between the French and the Spanish side?

Well, on the Spanish side, it was the dictator, Franco.

And there, it wasn't...

It was forbidden to speak in Basque.

On the French side, it's true that there was

a little less pressure about talking Basque,

but because a lot of people were coming from Paris,

from the big towns for retirement,

we were losing the Basque language.

Do we drink Spanish wine? Do we drink French wine?

We drink French wine. French wine.

Oh, okay.

♪

We're in the town of Ahetze,

at La Ferme Ostalapia.

Miray Girt was born in Spanish Basque country

but raised in France.

We've got a very good quality of life here.

The sea, the mountains.

The Sun.

- And the food. - And the food.

Things are different here.

The relationship between Basque and French cultures

has always been more graceful and less contentious,

and you can see it and feel it and taste it at the table.

Ventrèche de thon,

or tuna belly with tomato carpaccio.

Pigeon, roasted and then flambéed,

served with a terrine or pâté of the same bird.

On this side of the border,

are the chefs as creative or more traditional?

They're more influenced by the French...

The French cuisine, which is more complex.

On the other side, we simplify.

Here, we... it's a little bit more complex.

♪

Why is the food so good

Because we like eating.

That's the main point.

Why are we going to use things which are in the freezer?

You're going to try to do it always fresh,

very simple but with very good things.

I would say that would describe the Basque cook.

It's really simple but fresh.

♪

♪

♪

There is no better city for food than this one.

You know, look, it's gonna be a problem,

because you're gonna have, like, millions and millions

of tourists coming here to eat.

- Yeah. - You know? Every year, more.

I think now we are being discovered,

not only by foreigners; by Spanish people.

- Yeah. - This is what I heard.

The only people from Spain that came here

all the time were people from Barcelona,

- Catalonians, of course. - Catalonian.

Absolutely.

And some people from Madrid. Some people.

♪

So-called "bro food" in fact predates

the advent of the Kobe slider or donkey sauce

and probably even the high five.

Txokos are private

and historically all male gastronomical societies,

though that gender rule has changed with the times.

It is still strictly Basque and strictly members only.

So was everybody born here?

Are you from... From San Sebastián?

- San Sebastián. - Most everybody.

You're very lucky that we are just here surrounded

by the sea, the mountains, the green mountains.

So in just one hour distance,

you have any kind of fresh product.

We consider food as a part of our culture.

I mean, the importance it has in our daily life.

I mean... Yeah.

This is the best example right here.

There's one thing that my dad always said.

We may not have money to go on holidays

or to buy a new car or even to buy new shoes,

but food?

So important. So important.

♪

Who cooks rotates between members.

Tonight it's Pablo.

The menu: diced raw tuna,

grilled prawns with green sauce.

You notice that we don't like herbs or spices at all.

Nothing. Nothing. We don't.

So the most we use, parsley and garlic.

Of course garlic, onion, all the way.

Because, yeah, people have the idea

if you add many spices and herbs

to something that you're cooking here,

you might be suspicious about maybe the...

It's not so fresh. Not fresh.

- Fresh. - Not fresh. Yeah.

You want to take this food and put in another country,

maybe Moscow, maybe New York.

It's impossible to cook in this way.

And people don't understand.

♪

♪

Now, someone I was talking to yesterday had a theory.

She said the men talk about the difference between things.

The difference between this bicycle and that bicycle.

The difference between this bicyclist and that bicyclist.

And that this is an innate part of the Basque culture.

I don't think it's exclusively from here.

I think this is something that from Franco years.

Where's Franco buried, by the way?

Oh, Madrid.

Valle de los Caídos.

Valle de los Caídos.

Big gravestone or they just sort of roll him into a ditch?

It's a huge place.

If you were... I'm just... I'm not suggesting you do this.

But if you were to visit Franco's grave,

unzip, and take a piss on it,

would you be arrested? Yep.

No, you will be in the news all over the world.

Would that make you popular or unpopular?

Uh, popular.

Popular, yeah.

♪

For the main, fried hake cooked with txakoli

and steamed clams.

♪

So what's the best thing about this city for you?

I mean, you've lived here your whole lives.

Having so many things so near.

I mean, I have France near.

I have all the coasts near.

I have the mountains near.

I have very, very good gastronomy.

It's the way of life.

And it's a way of life.

You are able to keep the very same

group of friends till you are old.

You can see it here. Because-Yes, that table.

And they're in 40s.

And I'm sure they know each other from

they are 10 or 5 years old.

And they keep on coming here every week

and have dinner here every week.

♪

Here?

♪

This place, deep in the Atxondo Valley

about an hour outside of San Sebastián

is Etxebarri,

one of the greatest, most iconoclastic,

and most loved by chefs restaurants in the world.

It is in every way, extraordinary.

Sometimes with chefs,

we sit around and we play this game.

If you had to die at one restaurant, you know,

what would your last meal... What restaurant

would you like your last meal at?

And they were coming up with restaurants,

and I said, "Well, what about Etxe..."

It's Etxebarri? Etxebarri.

And they all changed their answer.

They said, "Oh, no, no, you're right."

That place."

- Yeah. - It's... It's so perfect.

My lunch companion is my old friend Virginia Irizar.

With her father,

she runs the Escuela de Cocina Luis Irizar,

her father being Luis Irizar, of the original group of 12

and the man who first showed me...

Well, everything in San Sebastián.

Your dad's first job out here was at the Maria Cristina

Is that true?

He started there?

16 years old.

His first duty was to

keep the white wine ice cold for the chef.

Well...

Otherwise, they were in trouble.

That's understandable.

So what did they do that was different?

They did try to modernize Basque traditional food,

make it less heavy, less greasy, that sort of thing.

♪

And this man, Victor Arguinzoniz,

is a legend.

He is a master of what looks austere and simple

but is in fact in an almost Japanese way

fetishistically perfectionist

in his treatment of local ingredients.

Victor cooks everything himself,

from his own charcoal made from wood he cuts himself.

Chorizo, which he makes from Iberian pork loin

served over a tiny little grill still smoking

and infusing it with scent and flavor.

Mmm!

Oh, so good.

Grilled razor clams.

So good, so simple.

Beluga caviar,

however improbably it sounds, grilled

and heaped over almond paste.

Excuse me.

I'm gonna have to take a picture of this.

I'm gonna make other people feel bad

about what they're eating.

Grilled gambas:

perfectly, perfectly cooked prawns.

- It's huge! - Yeah.

- This is... - Wow.

Line caught squid

grilled and served in its own ink.

Beautiful.

It's very nice.

And the most delicious:

king hell Galician beef chop,

grilled, perfectly rested, and ready.

Ooh! Look at that.

Why are the ingredients so good?

I mean, the basic ingredients are always super high-quality...

- Mm-hmm. - Everywhere.

Where does this come from?

I think it's just that we wouldn't have it any other way.

I mean... It's as simple as that.

♪

♪

♪