Pepe Solla and the lamprey inaugurate the Cannibal Meals
“The oldest animal we eat and one of the greatest products we have in Galicia,” emphasized Pepe Solla, whose restaurant Solla (Poio, Pontevedra) boasts a Michelin star and three Repsol Suns.
With a very specific season—from mid-January to April—lamprey is for the brave, both in the kitchen and at the table. In fact, Solla noted, this fish, which lives for about seven years and is caught during its migratory return to rivers after crossing the Atlantic and inhabiting the Sargasso Sea, is being cooked less and less.
Increasingly scarce, the Galician chef considers it "an accessible luxury" because even though it's currently selling for 125 euros a piece, "you're not going to eat the whole thing." For his debut at the Cannibal Meals, he opted to lighten recipes and improve textures, both in his version of Bordelaise (his favorite recipe), which he revamped with a white sauce emulsified with collagen from smoked fish, and in the creamy rice; he also served some memorable black puddings made with the animal's blood.
The meal began with artisanal empanadas from Ternura, which are sold throughout the country via their online store, and concluded with a selection of beef ribs, all accompanied by Galician wines. For dessert, there were apple pastries from Pan da Moa (Santiago de Compostela), which supplies Solla with bread.
So the "cannibal Galicia" sung about by Os Resentidos was present in Madrid with attendees such as chefs Nino Redruello (Grupo La Ancha), Álex Marugán (Tres por cuatro), Javier Brichetto (Piantao), Sacha Hormaechea (Sacha), Enrique Valentí (Adobo y Hermanos Vinagre), gastronomic historian Rosa Tovar, the president of the Madrid Academy of Gastronomy, Rogelio Enríquez, or the gastronome Eric Vernacci, among others.
