Last Saturday (October 23rd), I spent the evening with the well-known British chef Rick Stein and the production team who are filming a series with him which will be called Hidden Spain. The series will be shown on the BBC sometime during the spring next year.
I organised for them to film at a bar where locals perform flamenco. The place was absolutely packed making it a little difficult for the cameraman and sound guy to move around. Rick was sat among the performers and it seemed he had a fantastic time. From there we went on to El Rinconcillo, probably the oldest bar in Seville, being founded in 1670. They filmed me talking to Rick about different aspects of southern Spain with a lot of emphasis on the food, especially the Iberian ham. Between the two of us we finished off three plates of ham during the filming! Each plate was of course accompanied by a glass of fino, the perfect match. Below is a photo of myself with Rick and the production team after even more eating!
I organised for them to film at a bar where locals perform flamenco. The place was absolutely packed making it a little difficult for the cameraman and sound guy to move around. Rick was sat among the performers and it seemed he had a fantastic time. From there we went on to El Rinconcillo, probably the oldest bar in Seville, being founded in 1670. They filmed me talking to Rick about different aspects of southern Spain with a lot of emphasis on the food, especially the Iberian ham. Between the two of us we finished off three plates of ham during the filming! Each plate was of course accompanied by a glass of fino, the perfect match. Below is a photo of myself with Rick and the production team after even more eating!
For those of you who are not familiar with him, Rick Stein is the first person on the left of the photograph. I am next to him and next to me is David Pritchard, the head of the production company and producer of the series that is being filmed.
Well, on Monday (October 25th) I was up in Iberian ham country running a tour which included a visits to an Iberian pig farm and a ham factory in the town of Jabugo as well as a gourmet lunch in Aracena.
The acorns from the holm oaks and cork oaks are now starting to fall off the trees. On the farm we visited, those pigs that will make the supreme sacrifice of providing us with so many fine Iberian pork products are now rummaging around for them. Below is a short video of the pigs in action.