About Navarra Gastronomic Week
The Navarra region in Spain visits New York and Boston 2009 to present its unique food and wine. Restaurants feature special menus and events are scheduled highlighting the unique Navarra gastronomy. Chefs, enologists and wine experts will be conducting wine tastings and culinary exhibitions to demonstrate Navarra’s rich history that spans centuries producing a cuisine of complex flavors and mixed textures.
Climate and topography make Navarra an extraordinarily fertile region…an historic distinctive cuisine with multi-national influences. Navarrese cooking incorporates local products of the highest quality, with a great variety of mushrooms and other fungi; superb meats, game, and fowl; Cantabrian fish; regional cheeses like Roncal, Aezcoa-Valcarlos and Idiazabal; and locally produced olive oil.
Navarra in the North of Spain, bordered by France, Castilla, Aragon and the Basque Country is a vital part of the Route of Saint James (Camino de Santiago). Its rich history is celebrated today with many festivities that attract visitors world-wide. The best known is perhaps the Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, celebrated each July with eight animated days of bull running and immortalized by Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises.
Expert chefs and wine experts from Navarra are available for cooking demos and wine tastings.
Featured wine experts:
ANA LAGUNA – Navarra School OF Tasting
Ana Laguna has been a wine-taster for 15 years; she is a wine specialist with experience in wine export and marketing. Ana, working in collaboration with the Navarra School of Tasting, organizes tastings and other wine and culinary events internationally as well as in Spain itself.
The Navarra School of Tasting was founded and is directed by Pilar García-Granero. This graduate of the University of Burgos, is an wine expert of various wine cellars, as well as a member and ex-president of the Navarra Association of Wine. She is also a professor of a “Wine & Gastronomy” course at the Navarra Tourism & Business School. A renowned wine connoisseur, she has trained many professionals and lovers of wine in the delights of Spanish wines, especially the wonderful vintages of Navarra.
For the past ten years, The Navarra School of Tasting has organized tastings of local Spanish wines and global vintages, also tasting courses for professionals and aficionados. It directs and oversees the training of staff for restaurants and hotel chains, specializing in elegant wine presentations of various Spanish vineyards. The school advises vintners about presentations of wine and gastronomy.
Spanish wine in general and Navarran in particular have become world renowned and this is why Ana Laguna has been collaborating with Pilar García-Granero. Together they prepare the wine and food presentations that the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade and the Chambers of Commerce of Spain are introducing internationally.
Pilar and Ana are founders of the Tasting Club “El Enervo” in Pamplona, which helps in the familiarization and awareness of the rich Navarra Gastronomy. They collaborate with celebrated chefs and Navarra producers, developing products and recipes destined to accompany the Navarra wines. Both are founding members of the Navarra Gastronomical Academy. This institution selects and classifies the Navarra restaurants which will be included in the well-known “Campsa” Guide.
Pilar García-Granero Márquez
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
- TECHNICAL AGRICULTURAL ENGINEER at Escuela Universitaria de Ingeniería Técnica Agrícola de Villava, Navarra. Graduated in 1984.
- DIPLÔME NATIONAL D’ŒNOLOGUE from the Institute of Oenology of the University of Bordeaux II. Graduated in June 1986.
- TRAINING COURSES FOR ENTREPRENEURS. Given in Navarra by the Business Organisation School of Madrid, 1990-1991.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- 1986 and 1987 campaigns: OENOLOGIST at Bodega Cooperativa Nuestra Sra. Del Romero de Cascante, Navarra.
- 1987-1990: LECTURER in Fermentative Industries, 3rd year of the speciality in Foodstuff Industries at University School of Technical Agricultural Engineering of Villava, Navarra.
- 1992 - 2000: OENOLOGIST at various wineries in Navarra: B. Coop. de Tafalla, Sada and Eslava.
CURRENT SITUATION
- OENOLOGIST at Bodegas Uncastel.lum de Uncastillo (Zaragoza).
- Director of the NAVARRA SCHOOL OF WINE TASTING, oenological consultancy which has carried out the following activities since 1996:
- Directed wine tasting and presentations for various wineries.
- Teaching: regular wine tasting courses given at different levels, aimed at hotel industry professionals (training and recycling), persons connected with the sector (distributors, representatives) and private enthusiasts wanting to learn more about wine.
- The courses look at wines from the various Spanish Designations of Origin, as well as the leading international winegrowing areas.
- Since June 2007, President of the Regulatimg Council for the Designation of Origin Navarra
OTHER ACTIVITIES
- Founding member of the Wine Association of Navarra.
- Founding member of the Navarre Academy of Gastronomy.
- From 1997 to 2002, weekly participation in the programme on the Regional Channel of the Basque Country (ETB-2) The World of Wine, as part of the programme La Cocina de Pedro Subijana.
- Preparation of wine menus for various restaurants.
- Occasional articles in a variety of newspapers and magazines: Diario de Navarra, Revista de la Asociación de Empresarios de Hostelería de Navarra, Revista de la Cámara de Comercio de Navarra, “Sopacana”, etc.
- Occasional participant in radio programmes (Radio Nacional, COPE, ONDA CERO), chat shows and round tables.
- Wine waiter training, courses given by the Association of Hotel Industry Entrepreneurs of Navarra.
- Collaboration with ICEX and many Chambers of Commerce on the promotion of Spanish wines.
- Collaboration with various departments in the Government of Navarra (mainly, Tourism and Education) on both recycling courses for teaching personnel and conferences and presentations about Navarra and its wines.
- From 1996 to 2000, regular collaborator on general training programmes for the NH chain of hotels, in its NH UNIVERSITY department in Barcelona and Madrid. These programmes involve recycling days, which are given to all the chain’s personnel on a yearly basis.
ROBIN KELLEY O'CONNOR
Robin Kelley O’Connor has been passionately involved in every sector of the wine and spirits trade: marketing, sales, educating, and tasting wines and spirits from throughout the world. His experience spans all aspects of the business: sommelier, importer, marketer, wine writer, international wine judge, and spokesman.
For the last seventeen years, Mr. O’Connor has traveled the United States, Canada, and Mexico as the tireless ambassador and spokesperson for the Bordeaux Wine Bureau, representing the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (Bordeaux Wine Trade Council) and its 10,500 growers, 53 cooperative cellars, 400 shippers, and its more than 6,000 châteaux. He aims to market the diversity, quality, and accessibility of Bordeaux wines to all sectors of the wine trade including university and culinary school students, business, law and medical schools, banking professionals as well as consumers. Since 1989 Mr. O’Connor has conducted over 1800 seminars spreading the word about Bordeaux wines. In 2002 Mr. O’Connor launched the Bordeaux Wine School USA. To maximize national exposure and geographic diversity he created the concept of a Bordeaux Wine School on wheels. He achieved this by forging strategic partnerships and alliances with organizations such as The Society of Wine Educators, The Institute of Culinary Education (New York City), Disney Epcot Annual International Wine & Food Festival (Orlando, FL), The Collins School of Hospitality Management California State Polytechnic University Pomona, House of Glunz (Chicago), and Boston University School of Hospitality Administration.
In addition to his Liaison role for the Bordeaux Wine Bureau Mr. O’Connor accepted a wine emissary position from WOSA-Wines of South Africa in the spring of 2005 to create educational modules for the trade.
A Maryland native, Mr. O’Connor credits a series of wine courses at the University of Maryland for sparking his interest in the wine profession. His initial study of wine was that of the Burgundy region. Fortuitously for Mr. O’Connor, his professor, Dr. Hamilton Mowbray was a passionate scholar of Burgundy wines. In addition, the University, conveniently located on the outskirts of Washington D.C., afforded Mr. O’Connor easy access to some of the best Burgundy wine merchants in the entire country. On Mr. O’Connor’s first visit to France he went to Burgundy for an extensive study exploration of the vineyards from Dijon through the Côte d’Or , Côte Chalonnaise to the Mâconnais.
Subsequent to his university studies, he worked as a student winemaker for two years in Libourne, France at Etablissement Jean-Pierre Moueix’s various Châteaux in the Pomerol, Fronsac and Saint-Emilion regions as well as their famed Château Pétrus. He also produced Champagne with the House of Krug. Further, he spent a harvest in Côtes du Roussillon, as well as Vevey in the Lavaux on Lac Léman in Switzerland and a year making wine in the Northern Spanish province of Navarra.
Mr. O’Connor has written a weekly wine column for The Trenton Times. He sits on several wine magazine tasting panels. Mr. O’Connor holds a diploma from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (DWS) in London, has passed the Society of Wine Educators Certified Wine Educators (CWE) exam, Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) exam. In October 2003 he became President of the Society of Wine Educators. He is on the Board of Directors of The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Wine & Food. Recently he passed the Court of Master Sommeliers’ Certified Sommelier exam. For sixteen years has been a regular panelist every June at Food and Wine Magazine’s Classic in Aspen. He annually lectures on Crystal Cruise Line. In January 2005 O’Connor was invited to join the Governing Wine Sterling Committee of the Los Angeles County Fair ‘Wines of the World Competition’ (the nation’s oldest professional wine competition). In the spring of 2005 he was the sole American judge at the Vinitaly International Wine Competition in Verona.
He is an active member in many wine and food societies, including several professional sommelier associations and the Commanderie de Bordeaux. Mr. O’Connor has been inducted into the prestigious Commanderie du Bontemps de Médoc- des Graves et de Sauternes-Barsac, the Jurade de Saint-Emilion and Les Hospitaliers de Pomerol.
Featured chef:
ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ
Enrique Martinez was born into the world of Navarran flavors and cuisine.
Maher Hotel and Restaurant was opened in September 1969 by his grandmother Sabina Chivite, one the best cooks at the time.
1976.
Enrique Martínez started his career at “Maher” and soon formed part of the group “Young cooks of Navarra”; who represented Navarra’s cooking at different meetings of gastronomy in Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, Barcelona and Germany. He also managed the meal offered to Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain during their official visit to Navarra at Leyre’s monastery.
1983.
He organised the first day of “Artichokes of Tudela”.
1992.
Represented Navarra’s cooking at the Seville World Universal Expo.
1995.
He begins to work as a consultant to the NH Hotel Chain and has opened gastronomic restaurants at some of the chain’s hotels:
- NH Gran Hotel in Zaragoza
- NH Iruña Park in Pamplona
- NH Palacio de la Merced in Burgos
- NH Príncipe de la Paz in Aranjuez
- NH Parla in Parla
This year he also represented the Spanish gastronomy in Vienna and received the Prize “Hospitality Initiative”.
1996.
He was named Member of Honour of Piquillo Pepper’s Brotherhood
And Member of Honour of Asparagus’s of Navarra Brotherhood.
1997.
Prize “Pil-Pil” for the most ingenious dish.
Gastronomy’s gatherings of Antena 3 Radio.
1999.
Prize for the best gastronomy work awarded by the Government of Aragón.
2000.
He represented the cooking of Spain at Lisbon’s Universal Exposition.
2001.
At the Congress “The best of Spanish Gastronomy” he presented “Locally Produced Vegetables”.
2002.
Prize “The best of Spanish gastronomy” for the best raw product.
Prize “Marquis of Desío” for the best professional work, awarded by the Royal Academy of Spanish Gastronomy.
Named Member of Honour of Navarra’s Wine Brotherhood.
At the Congress “The Best of Spanish Gastronomy” he presented “The Best Dishes of the Year”.
He organized the First Workshop of Navarra’s Cooking, sponsored by Diario de Navarra.
He organized the First Workshop of Cooking and Patisserie; organized at NH Palacio de la Merced in Burgos.
He served a meal to Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain.
2003.
Prize “Pil-Pil” for the best dish of traditional cooking.
Named Member of the “Honour of Divine Pig’s Brotherhood” of Tafalla.
Speaker at the “Forum of Catering of the Century” at “Madrid Fusión Congress”.
Juicy Bull San Fermín of “Gazteluleku”.
2004.
Prize “Aura” for his contribution to the culture of gastronomy and art of living.
Prize “Gastronomy of Navarra”.
Presentator in Amsterdan of “The Pyrenees’s cooking”.
Aperitif “Navarra’s Products with Guarantee of Origin” at “Madrid Fusión Congress”.
Jury of First Culinary Taittinger Prize in Spain.
Gastronomy Days in Stockholm.
2005.
Opening Dinner at Thyssem Museum (for thousand people) at “Madrid Fusión Congress”.
“Madrid Fusión Tokyo”. Spanish Cooking, Products and Customs Workshop.
Presentation of Navarra’s Cooking in New York and exhibition of vegetable cooking techniques for Gourmet Magazine.
Participated at protocol’s firm of First Official Act at Universal Exposition of Aichi at Spain’s Pavilion.
Cooking and Nutrition, presentation at “Hattori College” in Tokyo.
April 2005.
Prize “Pil-Pil” for the “Dish of the Decade”.
Prize “Best Businessman of Navarra”.
2006.
Samples of Navarra’s gastronomic products for 1.500 people at “Madrid Fusion Congress”.
April 2006.
Speaker at the Congress of Gastronomy and Cooking in Benidorm.
October 2006.
Participated with nine of the best Spanish cooks in New York at the “Congress of Gastronomy of Spain’s 10”.
His presentation: “Vanguard Cooking”.
November 2006.
Participated as a speaker at the Culinary Institute of America in California “Spain and it’s Cooking in the World”.
January 2007.
Organizer of the First Congress of Gastronomy “Live from Navarra”, with the participation of the best cooks of Navarra.
May 2007.
Speaker at the “World Congress about Nicotine Poisoning” at Congress Palace of Logroño.
September 2007.
He served lunch to His Majesty the King of Spain and authorities of the Navarra’s Government.
The Escaparate Magazine included him amongst the top 10 representatives of Navarra.
November 2007.
Prize for the best dish with legumes, in a Spanish level at “Tolosa’s Congress”.
2008.
He represents the Spanish Pavilion at the World Expo of Zaragoza.
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