Sometimes the maturity of a project materializes in unprecedented and unexpected ways. This is the case of A Tafona, where the cook LucÃa Freitas has been exploring the role of women in Galician food production for some time, something that has shaped her Amas da Terra project and, in parallel, a whole line of work in the restaurant.
The cook has managed to ensure that her interest in this theme goes beyond the plate and goes beyond, giving shape to a group -winemakers, cheese makers, cooks, ranchers, farmers- through which she vindicates the role of women in the traditional economy of Galicia and, as a consequence, as an essential link in the present and future of its cuisine.
A commitment that is not limited to putting some names next to menu items and that is transferred to Freitas’ public appearances. Or that, as in this case, the menu starts at the market hours before the diner sits down at the table.
The day before our reservation, I received a message from LucÃa: “If you agree, we’ll meet at 10 o’clock at the market.” See you there. The vegetables of the beginning of spring flood the warehouses: cabbage sprouts, radishes of different types or cabbage that in a few hours will be part of the dishes of the day. We go through the stalls while he tells me how in recent times he has been weaving a network of production companies that are already a fundamental part of his proposal.
“We bring the beef from near Vilalba, in Lugo; the butter comes from Ana, from Airas Moniz, in Chantadaâ€. We stop at a stall, before a basket of peas. “We test crops with it,” he explains while talking to the seller of green chickpeas and new types of beans, seeds brought from Japan, which he would like to try this year, to see how they do in the soils near Compostela.
Between stops and stops, he shells out projects. “We are in an initiative with the university to measure the carbon footprint of each dish, we are collaborating on another with the Technological Center for Meat… Have we already gone to Pilar’s stand?” In a few days she is going to Milan to cook with Viviana Varese. And in her head a project around the masses is taking shape. She’s hard to keep up with.
One last stop at the fishmonger, to buy oysters and turbot, and we went down to the restaurant, just over 100 meters away. Barely two hours later, this journey has taken shape in a spring menu that, without breaking with Freitas’ previous trajectory, appears new, more personal, and surely also rounder.
In 2023, the kitchen of A Tafona dispenses with sensationalism to focus on a local tour, bringing the work of those Amas da Terra to the plate. There is, perhaps, a bet for more subdued flavours, for the mild taste profile, nuanced here and there by acid and aromatic touches and that is very interesting. Nothing is excessive, the impact on the palate is not sought but, on the contrary, the common thread seems to be a taste restraint that at first surprises, since it is not a usual bet, but which soon manages to lead you to its territory.
The Coas Mans (with hands) sequence is a nod to the Galician shellfish women, but also to Japan, the country to which he frequently returns and where he met the masters, the women divers, guarantors of an ancient tradition and the where the inspiration for your project arose.
Citrus-cured Volandeira; roasted sea foie nigiri, umeboshi and furikake; mussel stuffed with its marinade. With the liquid cod empanada, a snack that in different versions has been on the restaurant menu for years, returns to the flavors of local memory, “to the empanadeiras, to the cooks of the food houses that were always the great forgotten ones. To the corn empanada at Casa Peto, in Outes, and to its cooksâ€. Leek in three textures: stewed, fried leaves and cream with a touch of coconut. Full use of the product. Truffle cream, cauliflower and mushroom tartlet.
The curly oyster from Cambados is served with a lightly smoked Airas Moniz cream and citrus herb pearls, a bite reminiscent of the Nordics. The carrots that I bought a couple of hours ago are proposed roasted, in a citrus pickle with blood orange, sea urchin gonads and sea urchin water and are accompanied with lemon verbena kombucha. Freshness, iodine and acid nuances in an early spring dish.
In Galicia we are still at that time when winter still appears from time to time. The beetroot dish is seasonal, land and a humble product, while the Caldo de Gloria, which LucÃa prepares with the simplest things from the seasonal garden -cabbages, turnips and potatoes- is a tribute through one of the iconic recipes of traditional Galician cuisine to the writer RosalÃa de Castro and the perfect transition to the starters on the menu.
Castaña de Froxán, a plate of dried chestnuts from the village of Froxán, in the hills of O Courel, where the tradition of drying them, accompanied by fiuncho, is still preserved, the wild hymn with which they are cooked in the classic Galician recipes.
Asparagus, egg yolk, fresh macadamia and a paste of toasted nuts, another spring dish, unctuous, deep and delicate at the same time. Roasted and lacquered muxo (mullet) with its pilpil, blue fish broth and mashed potato, a nod to humble inshore catches with all the power, this time, of the stews from the estuaries.
The snack of king crab and crunchy rice with seaweed, accompanied by a broth deep in its shell continues along the lines of iodized flavors, but more controlled, acting as a pause before the main dishes. Stewed onion, squid stew, touches of mustard, another direct reference to traditional cooking, although on this occasion the onion, honeyed and deep-flavoured, takes center stage. One of those dishes to remember. Turbot, A Mariña fabas, radish meunière, seaweed and green chives. Return to contained flavors with impeccably cooked fish.
Roast beef shank, tuber cream, collard greens and sweet and spicy radishes. Perhaps the dish that best represents the Amas da Terra project of the entire journey: meat from Lugo, humble vegetables from the Compostela region, classic cuisine and flavors from memory.
Kiwi, freixoa (feijoa), apple and yogurt pre-dessert. Winter fruits adapted to the Galician climate, aromatic and slightly acidic. La Vie en Rose, the iconic dessert of the house that the cook dedicated to her son when he was one year old. The cliché defends that LucÃa Freitas builds the dishes as if they were desserts. It is true that in many of them there is a more orderly construction than in many other cases, which is an asset in her favor, but it is not something that is on her current menu, at least in an obvious way. When it comes to sweets, however, you do see a certain academicism, the baggage of the cook trained, among others, at the Espai Sucre in Barcelona. Citrus macerated strawberries, raspberries, lychee ice cream, balsamic vinegar, pink pepper.
Black chromatism to finish: coffee, toasted lemon, black sesame. Roasted, lightly smoked, dried fruit, bitter, earthy nuances… It is accompanied with a cold brew coffee with the Café El Muelle formula, a Santiago de Compostela classic since 1931.
“The leadership is theirs,” explains the cook. “That is where you have to focus. There are four of us in kitchens like mine, while they are the ones that make gastronomy possible and are the ones that are never talked about. Amas da Terra is an excuse, it is a tool for them to empower themselves, to be able to record all that knowledge so that it is not lost. It is nothing more than dignifying, promoting, cooking with the mentality with which we have always cooked here, contributing all the baggage that I can contribute after these yearsâ€.
And the truth is that, when you manage to transfer that philosophy to a plate without falling into clichés, without easy resources, the results are convincing. A cuisine with roots is possible, with a discourse that is not empty, attractive by itself, but even more so because of its added burden; dishes loaded with intentionality, message as well as product and flavor.
“You have to act before the thread with the rural is definitively lost, take advantage of the media point that the kitchen now has to do something that has value. It is fair to support â€, she concludes. “It has a lot to do with the life you have led, with falling and getting up… Bonds are created in difficult times, you understand that there are people who are fighters and who help you. It’s only fair that I help too. The only thing that bothers me is that I lack means, because I have plenty of desireâ€.
