with tomato carpaccio. pigeon, roasted and then flambéed swerved with a tureen or pate of the same bird. anthony: on this side of the border are the chef s as creative or more traditional? marielle: they re more influenced by the french cuisine which is more complex. on the other side we simplify, here it is a little bit more complex. anthony: why is the food so good? marielle: 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 will say that s what describes the basque cooking. it s really simple but fresh.
and it was forbidden to speak in basque. on the french side it s true that there was a little less pressure about talking basque, because a lot of people were coming from paris, from a big town for retirement, we re losing the basque language. anthony: do we drink spanish wine do we drink french wine? we drink french wine. marielle: french wine. anthony: good. anthony: we re in the town of ahetze at la ferme ostalapia. marielle gurtner was born and in spanish basque country but raised in france. marielle: we ve got a very good quality of life here. the sea, the mountain, the sun. anthony: and the food marielle: and the food. anthony: 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. ventre de thon or tuna belly
as the gang of 12. committing themselves to both modernizing and protecting the culinary traditions of their culture. juan marie arzak was at the forefront of that effort. his daughter elena continues to honor that commitment and that responsibility. anthony: the food is innovative, wildly creative forward thinking but always, always, basque. marinated prawns on lemongrass and mint with beetroot and crunchy krill. elena: for us, very good, it s the essence of the sea, you will see. anthony: mhmm oh man. anthony: roast pigeon with masstick and potato. elena: and this pigeon is really very tender you will see. anthony: i love it. arzak: there are two very important things in our kitchen. first the raw material, which are always local. and then the ingredients. anthony: grilled hake jowls with teff seeds and fresh
olatz: the basque are very obsessive with qualities for example as you know i did a thesis about the basque pelota. anthony: 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. olatz: most of male conversations in basque country are about things and about quality of things. and they pass days and days bouncing the balls for the match and they need to know which one is best for the match, and how it behaves.
of course garlic and onion all the way. because people have the idea if you add many spices and herbs to something that you are cooking here, you might be suspicious that maybe they re not so fresh. anthony: right. pablo: 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. anthony: 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. antonio: that s a good