Customer Reviews

Made In Spain

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This series is excellent! Jose Andres has a passion for the traditional foods of Spain and for sharing everything from cooking techniques to the various traditional foods of Spain. He covers every region with excitement, it like taking a virtual vacation and learning to cook a few dishes along the way. Jose Andres educates you about the different regions and introduces you to the locals while learning about the beautiful dishes they cultivate. Wonderful series for anyone interested in cooking or in travel to Spain.

This is probably the most entertaining and interesting food show I have ever seen. Washington DC restauranteur Jose travels to a different region in Spain in every episode exploring the fresh ingredients and then is transported back to his home kitchen to show how to prepare incredible dishes. The best combination of travel show and food show , Made In Spain is beautifully filmed in some fabulous locations and Jose's interactions with the locals are incredibly entertaining. He is so excited about the various foods and recipes that it is impossible to watch this without dreaming of a trip to Spain.

"Made In Spain" is an attractive, well produced, colorful, upbeat, wide ranging tour of Spain and the cuisine of Spain, presented by chef Jose Andrés. Potential buyers of "Made In Spain" should understand however that this DVD is also an example of recent public relations efforts to make Spain into the next Italy. That seems unlikely to happen. However, having milked, squeezed and boiled every last drop of profit from the brand name and lore of Italian food there is a burning need to find new food business possibilities for chefs, cookbook authors and travel writers.

A viewer's rating of "Made In Spain" may come down to how they react to certain key elements.

First, how much cooking do you expect to see or have in a "cooking" video? Buyers should be aware that the content of "Made In Spain" breaks down to roughly 5% actual cooking, about 10% useful food info, and 85% travelogue and tourism. These are not really cooking videos, in the sense that Jacques Pépin's videos are. With Jacques, you get about 95% cooking and food info and maybe a small dash of filler. The reverse is true for "Made In Spain".

Second, are you already an aficionado and converted member of the choir singing the praises of Spanish cooking? If the answer is "yes" then this video and its enthusiastic treatment of all things Spanish will be like a jolt of your favorite drug, and still probably not be enough. If you are new to the subject, and looking for a lot of hard info, and have other favorite cuisines to balance your opinion against, the video may prove colorfully tiresome and rather content light.

Third, how do you feel about Jose Andrés? If you love always on, completely upbeat, in your face with high spirits, totally positive and amazed at the wonder of it all infomercial salesmen, then this is the guy for you. If you prefer a somewhat more sedate, even handed and content rich approach, then maybe not so much. Chef Andrés is, it seems, working to be the Emeril Lagasse of Spanish cooking. You can easily imagine Chef Andrés on The Home Shopping Channel, beaming and exulting into the camera to let you know that there's still ten minutes left to order his Super Spanish Saute Pan for only three payments of $19.99.

Is he a great chef? He certainly is hard at work promoting the idea that he is. It's hard to tell from this video, there isn't all that much actual cooking after the travelogue and tourism segments are over. This is somewhat like the formula being followed by Eric Ripert, another well known chef with an ongoing aggressive promotional effort. There's nothing wrong with the formula, it certainly may be good business. But Chef Ripert's videos tend to have more real cooking on balance, however, and his technique and recipe videos, on his web site and in his books, tend to be more substantive. But it is a matter of taste as to whether you wish to put your time into watching what is, in effect, a personality brand promo for the chef. In the case of "Made In Spain" there is a whole lot of scenery, backgrounds, touring around and, of course, a whole lot of Jose Andrés.

Spanish cuisine is one of Europe's great regional types. Many people are invested both emotionally and through their own travels and experiences in both understanding and enjoying what they fervently believe to be distinct and special about it. Devotees and aficionados of Spanish cuisine will immediately leap to its defense, saying that it's not about "technique", like the French, who are, evidently, thought by many people to be the font of all things overbearing and pretentious in cooking, but is instead about the joy of the "very finest ingredients". But the Italians will say exactly the same thing about Italian food and, last time I checked, the French aggressively extoll and promote the quality of their foods, crops, farmers and products also.

In summary: "Made In Spain" is a handsomely produced food travel video series, with some cooking and an ebullient and enthusiastic host chef, Jose Andrés. No doubt this is a tour of great Spanish scenery, great Spanish restaurants, great shots of Spanish foods and markets, and snapshots of great Spanish cuisine. But is "Made In Spain" all that great as a cooking video? That's for each viewer to decide. For this reviewer, the answer was "not so much..."

The collection of programs in this DVD is fantastic. It makes me long to keep visiting Spain for its beauty, people, and cuisine. Bravo, Chef Jose Andres! I'm a huge fan of your restaurant, Jaleo.

It was about time to have such a wonderful program on Spain and its great gastronomic diversity.

Chef José Andrés is a great host and the perfect ambassador for everything Spanish. He is very enthusiastic and entertaining without being annoying or condescending. The recipes shown are very simple and tasty. The background music is also very good.

I am a big fan of the program and I am looking forward for the second season.

Jose Andres is a Spanish chef who owns a couple of restaurants, one outside Washington DC, the JALEO, and another (the BAZAAR) in Beverly Hills."Made in Spain" is a PBS production in which chef Andres alternates between the kitchen of his home in DC and different regions and restaurants of Spain, usually replicating at home what he sampled in Spain; for instance, after eating a magnificent dish of fried monk fish in Spain, he transports the viewer to the US and prepares a similar repast in his kitchen. The monk fish can be substituted by any other firm-fleshed fish, and the results will be excellent. I know this because Mr. Andres prepares his fried fish the way I prepare mine, which is unfailingly good, and requires only the simplest of treatments with flour, egg and hot oil.

Mr. Andres is a delightful host who knows his stuff. He is also funny, speaks with an appealing accent, and spreads good cheer all over the place. He has a deep knowledge of Spain and what is raised, or fished, or consumed there. He is from the Asturias region of Northern Spain, where he takes the viewer to partake of, among other things, the Sunday cheese market in Cangas de Onis. After his visit he returns home to create a tomato salad with Afuega'l Pitu, a cheese that is available in this country. From Galicia he shows the fishing, preparing, and eating of octopus; in Madrid he samples churros with chocolate; and from a small town in the Basque country he raves about the local black beans (alubias de Tolosa) and consumes a rare steak prepared on a grill fired by home made charcoal. The piquillo peppers are explained in the Navarre section, and from Catalunya he offers a mushroom picking expedition and a dissertation on the delights of the local, bubbly, Cava wine. In Andalucia he drinks some fresh gazpacho, eats fritters made from tiny shrimp, and explains the solera system for aging Sherry wines. There are essays on the saffron from La Mancha and on the wines of La Rioja. He ends the second volume of this 2 DVD set with a tapa of Golden Delicious apple balls in a reduced Rioja wine and brandy sauce with vanilla ice cream balls that looks absolutely scrumptious.

There is nothing phony about the stuff found in this work. The photography, menu selection, regions of Spain, and feel of these DVD's all ring true; and the charming Mr. Andres is a wonderful companion to travel with. Highly recommended for foodies, the curious, and those who are just plain travelers.

Whether or not my Spaniard husband and I ever do finally travel to see Spain and the distant cousins who still live there, we are enjoying each episode of this DVD as if we are there for the moment at least! Lovely and exciting: the food, people, places, and things all come to life with the excellent narration of our tour guide/chef, quite the character himself.

José Andrés is an amazing chef and a tremendous personality. There is nobody doing lifestyle television in America who's better qualified to talk about Spain or more fun to watch. The episodes are well thought out and beautifully shot.

But none of that matters due to the loud, mediocre, pseudo-indie music layered over 70% of the action. It's distracting to the point of being completely unbearable -- like sitting down to a beautiful meal at a 3-star restaurant and then finding that the people next to you can't stop farting.

I LOVE this video. The book that goes with it is also great but I would skip the cd of the music, it sounds more fun as the background music. I like the dvd for personal use and classroom use. It will inspire you to cook but get the book for the recipes.

I own both seasons of Made in Spain. In addition to being very informative, the series is also very entertaining. It's well worth the money.