New Spanish cuisine was conceived in the belle époque Basque resort of San Sebastián in the late 1970s. Impressed by the vibrant delicacy of revolutionary nouvelle cuisine across the border in France, a group of Basque chefs that included Juan Mari Arzak and Pedro Subijana decided to stage their own revolution. The result was nueva cocina vasca, or new Basque cuisine—a lighter, fresher, prettier, unapologetically modern style, both cutting edge and solidly grounded in Basque ingredients and traditions. It wasn’t a coincidence that these first innovations took place in the Basque province of Guipuzcua, the most food-centric corner of Europe, that today boasts an improbably high concentration of Michelin stars. Nueva cocina soon spread across Spain, giving rise to new modern regional styles.
