Pedro and Juan Luis Salcedo, owners of Juanito Restaurant in Baeza, Spain, have operated the fine-dining institution begun by their parents in 1953 well enough to earn a listing in the guidebook of Jeunes Restaurateurs d’Europe, which translates to “young restaurateurs of Europe.” But they’re hardly newcomers to the restaurant industry. From the time he and Pedro were children, Juan Luis Salcedo says, the brothers were groomed to take over the family business.
In fact, the whole Salcedo clan still is involved in the operation. Pedro Salcedo is the restaurant’s executive chef, while his 16-year-old son, named Juanito after his grandfather, the restaurant’s namesake, will join the staff this year as a cook and waiter. Family matriarch Luisa Martínez has officially retired but still cooks each morning for her sons and the staff.
Keeping it all in the family has allowed Juanito Restaurant to keep its focus on the customary cuisine of the region, Juan Luis Salcedo says. The culinary tradition of Baeza and its province, Jaén, part of Spain’s Andalucía region, is steeped in one of the area’s chief exports: extra-virgin olive oil.
At a recent dinner for foreign journalists, a tasting menu and a cooking demonstration were prepared to showcase the many ways that the Salcedo family uses Spanish olive oil in appetizers, entrées and desserts.
Martínez and Juan Luis Salcedo began the demonstration by preparing the restaurant’s signature dessert, “postre de Luisa,” which is a version of a traditional confection, gachas. Working with pots and pans that she said dated back to the restaurant’s inception, Martínez showed the reporters gathered in the kitchen how to make the dessert from the most common ingredients in her kitchen.
“My son, Pedro, measures everything, but I just cook by experience,” she said through an interpreter. “A little bread, a little milk, a little sugar, and you have dessert.”
Making gachas starts, however, with olive oil. Martínez first fried day-old bread in olive oil and then added flour and anise. She added milk and stirred the mixture until she got a smooth paste, and then added sugar. The dessert then was plated and served with cinnamon and sugar on top.
Though all the items from the cooking demonstration used olive oil and other staples of Jaén’s cuisine, Salcedo remarked through the interpreter that he is “not obsessive” about sourcing only local product.
“As proud as I am about our olive oil,” he said, “if I want the best ingredient, I’ll get it from wherever. But what we do have is very good.”
Salcedo and Martinez ended the demonstration by making a fried-artichoke dish, “alcachofas Luisa,” as well as the appetizer: salmorejo, a cold soup similar to gazpacho that gets added thickness from day-old bread, which gives it a smooth, creamy texture. To make salmorejo, the mother-and-son cooking team first liquefied tomatoes and garlic in a blender with sherry vinegar, then added the bread until the soup reached its desired consistency. The dish was then chilled and garnished with hard-boiled egg, Serrano ham and pan frito, or fried bread.
During the press dinner, after the salmorejo and the fried artichokes were cleared away, Salcedo next brought out another traditional Spanish dish: “patatas a lo pobre,” or “poor man’s potatoes” with marinated pork loin. The item is prepared simply by frying thinly sliced potatoes in olive oil with a little egg, which is scrambled as the potatoes finish browning.
AT A GLANCE Cuisine: traditional SpanishWebsite:
Two final courses combined Spanish olive oil with the more gamey proteins popular in Jaén: a partridge pâté and roasted baby goat.
As he brought out the gachas for the dessert course, Salcedo responded to a compliment about his service with a quip about how he needs to oversee everything else while his brother runs the kitchen.
“I’m the owner with Pedro, who’s usually in the kitchen, but in reality I’m nothing,” he said. “I can be the maître d’, or I can be peeling potatoes in the kitchen.”
SPECIAL TASTING MENU Salmorejo Chilled tomato soup with garlic, olive oil, bread and sherry vinegar, topped with hard-boiled egg and Serrano ham Pâté de perdiz Partridge pâté Alcachofas Luisa Breaded artichokes fried in olive oil Patatas a lo pobre con lomo de orza “Poor man’s potatoes” fried with egg and served with marinated pork loin Cabrito al horno Roasted baby goat Postre de Luisa Gachas—mixture of fried bread, anise, flour, milk and sugar, topped with cinnamon and sugar
He added that since he began working at the restaurant as a teenager he’s done everything from washing dishes to serving customers.
“I still remember my first customer,” Salcedo said. “Growing up, I learned how to interact with customers, which can’t be learned in any school.”
