Original subtitles

This is the magnificent Seville Cathedral,

which is the Catholic heart of the city,

and the bell tower was a minaret of a beautiful mosque

when this land was ruled by Muslims.

That's when Andalusia was called Al-Andalus.

There's been so many civilizations

that have passed through this land,

and it's become this cultural melting pot

of traditions and religions,

and I cannot wait to discover

the hidden treasures in the food.

I'm Eva Longoria, and I'm a proud Mexican American.

11 generations ago,

one of my ancestors left Spain

for the New World and a new life.

400 years later, I'm back.

I'm so excited! - Salud.

And I'm exploring Spain and its 17 regions

to see how the land and its people

have created one of the world's most exciting cuisines.

I think you know what you're doing.

Andalusia is where the raging bulls roam

and the olive trees bake in the blazing sun.

This southern powerhouse is, for many, the soul of Spain,

the birthplace of flamenco...

...bullfighting...

...tapas...

and jamón.

But so much of the food

that is celebrated as distinctly Andalusian

can be traced to a wave after wave of invaders,

from the Phoenicians...

to the golden age of the Arabs.

I love how much history is hidden in something

as simple as tapas.

The people here speak of a magical quality called "duende"

that gives them passion and soul.

And this generation of chefs

used their rich history as another ingredient.

What?

So I can't wait for the feeding frenzy to begin.

Oh, my God! Aaah!

Andalusia's beautiful capital city, Seville,

is on the Guadalquivir,

the only navigable river in Spain.

And for 3,000 years, invaders arrived here,

bringing different cultures and foods.

Seville native and podcaster Aldana Arias Saavedra

has promised to show me the city's foodie history.

The river is the reason why Seville exists.

We could even say that the globalization of food

started in Seville, thanks to being the link

between Europe, Asia, Africa, of course,

and then America.

My ancestor Lorenzo departed from here, I believe.

Yeah? 'Cause this was the port going to the Americas.

Yeah. When was that, then?

- 1603. - Then for sure.

- You're sure? - He was-- Yeah.

He must have sailed from here. - Oh, my God! He was here!

- Wow, look at that! - Wow!

So, what's the best way to experience this cuisine?

- Well, tapas. - Tapas!

Tapas are the answer. Yes.

So, I'm taking you to one of the institutions of Seville--

this old bar that's been opened from the 19th century.

- Wow. - Yeah.

It's, uh, very lively here.

Yes.

Tapas are now everywhere you go in Spain.

But their birthplace is right here in the south.

These small sharing dishes are super sociable,

just like the Andalusians

who love to eat together and drink wine.

I think we're gonna get along just fine.

- Gracias. - Oh, my God. Muchas gracias.

Muchas gracias.

This is a very special wine. - Yeah?

Okay? This has been re-created,

through an archaeological research,

the way Romans did their wines here.

- Vino Romano. - Exactly, exactly.

- Oh, my God. Fortuna! - Fortuna!

- Oh, that's nice! - Yeah.

Earthy. Wow. That is refreshing.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I am never drinking another white wine again in my life.

So, where did tapas come from?

My theory is that, at the beginning of the 20th century,

in these grocery stores and taverns in Seville,

they had their wines,

but they wanted also to promote their food.

And they would put just a slice of any of these nice delicacies

on top of your glass.

Tapas, the lid or the cover... - Oh, my God!

...was because it was on top. Now it makes sense.

Why did I never make that connection?!

- Yes. - What? Wait.

So this would be like this?

Exactly. Yes.

Oh, God. I just got olive oil in my wine.

That is genius.

It also is usually from a salty food,

so you drink more because it keeps you thirsty.

And this is a perfect example of a salty bite

because it's cured tuna.

Mmm!

Is that fantastic red wild tuna?

That is fish in the Strait of Gibraltar.

That is really good.

It is an ancient recipe coming back from the Phoenician times,

and we still do it using the same method.

The tuna-loving Phoenicians,

maritime traders from the eastern Mediterranean,

first made this salty snack here 3,000 years ago.

It continued with the Romans, with the Arabs,

and still goes all the way to nowadays.

Also from Roman times,

we had a recipe that has been transformed throughout history

with the addition of different ingredients...

- Yeah. - ...ending up

in this fantastic dish that is called "salmorejo."

This one has just bread, tomato, extra virgin olive oil,

a bit of garlic,

and you can add these toppings.

It can be ham, boiled eggs,

or whatever you can think of, right?

- But it's still cold. - It's a cold soup,

and it evolved,

and the Muslims had their own versions of these

with the ingredients that were available.

The Roman version was a simple porridge

of bread, vinegar, and garlic.

Arab conquerors later slipped in almonds and olive oil.

And, finally, tomatoes arrived from Mexico.

Salmorejo is a condensed symbol

of our Andalusian identity on a dish.

Mmm! I like this better than gazpacho.

- Are you ready for more? - Ready.

Let's go.

Casa Román is deep in the old city.

This area was once home

to a thriving community of Sephardic Jews,

established here in the 6th century.

Wow. There's a lot of jamón hanging.

Yeah. This is typical from here,

and it's said to be a tradition that started

when the Inquisition was around,

so if you had hams hanging, you were safe

because it means you were Catholic.

By the late 15th century,

the Catholic Reconquest

ended centuries of freedom of religion.

Jews and Muslims suspected of practicing their old faiths

were now tortured and executed

at the infamous Spanish Inquisition's religious trials.

Muslims and Jews don't eat pork,

so ham would be definitely a test

to know if you were Catholic.

Mmm! Oh, my God.

That is so good. - Yes.

And it's crazy that something so historic and delicious

has such a dark past.

- What is this? - This chickpeas and spinach dish

is from our Sephardic Jews' heritage

because they could prepare it on a Friday before the Sabbath.

But it was very important afterwards

that none of your neighbors would see you cooking that,

or they would know you were still a Jew at heart.

I love the chickpeas and the spinach.

It has paprika spice also in it,

so we also have to thank America for that.

You're welcome. Paprika.

- Yes. - So, did you grow up knowing

all of this history about the food?

Sadly not.

During Franco's dictatorship,

all the different cultures and religions

that had left us all this influence

were sort of erased or whitewashed.

So it's now, thanks to our generation,

that we are really celebrating the richness of our culture.

I love how much history is hidden

in something as simple as tapas.

Yeah, yeah. It's time to recognize that.

- Salud. - Thank you for coming.

Thank you. Gracias.

One of Andalusia's most iconic and controversial customs

is, of course, bullfighting,

and even though it's banned in some parts of Spain,

it remains deeply rooted here

in the culture and the history and, of course, the food.

When you face a bull, you need duende,

the dark passion or spirit

to keep you alive.

From the Romans to the Arabs, men have fought bulls,

but the pageantry and dance of the matador

only evolved here in Andalusia

in the 18th century.

This extreme test of virility

became an enduring symbol of Spanish national identity.

The local delicacy that comes from this culture

is the iconic bull tail stew.

Clara Ruiz de Alda

is related to the most famous bullfighters

of the 20th century,

and she's a professional cook.

We are going to my favorite butcher

to buy the the bull's tail.

Oh, my God. I didn't know it looked like that.

It's very difficult to find the real one...

- Why? - ...because you have to wait

for a bullfight. - Ohh.

They don't kill the bulls for the meat, you know?

Only during the bullfight?

So, when did people start eating the tail?

In the 16th century, around the bullrings,

you know, when the bullfight finished...

- Okay. - ...because it was really cheap.

They just threw it away.

Historically, those working Andalusia's tough, arid land

were some of the poorest in Spain.

From the 15th century onwards,

this was often Roma people.

But some were able to change their fortunes

by becoming bullfighters.

Ah, less fat. Less fat.

Muchas gracias, Antonio, eh?

Let's go and cook.

This is exactly what I pictured a house in Seville to look like.

This is your family house? You grew up here?

Yeah, it's my family house from-- from four generations.

Wow.

- We first have to marinate... - Marinate it?

- ...with red wine, yeah. - Oh, 'cause it's tough.

I like everything with red wine.

- The carrots... - Okay.

...tomato...

leaves. - Bay leaf.

- Two or three. - Thyme and...

More onions than everything.

- More onions? - More, yeah.

I love onions, so pile it on.

It smells so good.

And now what do we put?

And now we put the wine.

The wine that we marinated the meat in?

Oh, my God. This is gonna be so tasty!

So we're going to cover

and leave it for at least three hours and let it cook.

Let it do its thing.

Oh, wow! Who's that?

That's Joselito?

And he's one of the youngest

and most important bullfighters of the last century.

- Ohh! - He was a gypsy,

and he was my tío abuelo.

- Your great-uncle? - Hmm. Yeah.

And he was killed by a bull

when he was very young.

How old was he when he died?

I think 25.

- He was a baby! - Very young, yeah.

Wow. So, he died in the plaza?

- In the bullring. - In the bullring?

Three hours of slow cooking later,

the bull's tail is perfectly tender

and ready for Clara's family.

This is beautiful. It came out so well.

Mmm!

Oh, wow.

It's falling off the bone. It's so soft.

Oh, did anybody here want to be a bullfighter?

Well, yes. When I was small,

I-I would like to be a bullfighter.

You wanted to be a bullfighter? But what happened?

You didn't-- - My...

Oh, your mother didn't let you?

No. I didn't like it. I said, "No way."

It's a tough job, obviously.

- Quite risky. - Yeah.

The family have paid a heavy price.

This house is a shrine to their lost bullfighters.

Passion for this ancient tradition runs deep,

not only in their blood

but throughout Andalusia.

I am in Jerez,

which literally means "sherry" in Spanish.

And to honor the birthplace of this amazing wine,

I'm gonna meet a young chef who not only drinks it

but cooks with it.

Now, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to walk

by the end of the night, so wish me luck.

Michelin-starred chef Juanlu Fernández

has invited me to the sherry vineyard of Alberto Orte,

a short drive from the city of Jerez de la Frontera.

Oh, good to see you! - Welcome to Sherry Land.

Yes, I'm in Sherry Land. This is beautiful.

Come from Alberto?

Jerez has the Phoenicians to thank

for their most famous wine.

They first used this unique terroir

to cultivate grapes 3,000 years ago.

Yeah, it's wet.

Mm-hmm.

This land was once covered by a prehistoric ocean,

so the marine fossils in the soil

give the sherry a salty kick.

Okay.

Okay! To drink--

I drink the sherry, and you cook.

That's my-- That's my helping hand.

We'll see. We'll see.

Let's go.

All this talk about sherry

and you're not even giving me any!

The sherry wine of Jerez is unique to this land...

Ooooh!

You can smell it already. - Uh-huh.

...made with only white grapes,

aged gradually by mixing together different vintages,

and fortified, which raises its alcohol content.

Let's go.

Alberto has been promising me

a glass of 50-year-old amontillado

all morning,

and I've been patient long enough.

Hurry up. It shouldn't wait any longer.

It's been 50 years.

Oh, look at that color!

It is like a perfume. - Yes.

Oh, my God, so salty.

- So salty. It's super salty. - Wow! But, like, nice.

- Yeah. - Oh, that's lovely.

Yep. Mm-hmm. Very dry.

- Yes. - It comes right off the tongue.

Immediately, it's just gone.

You guys are magicians.

Juanlu, with a little help from me,

is going to whip up a Michelin-starred version

of his grandma's quail recipe.

What a place to cook!

The luxurious sherry sauce is slow-cooked

with the bones of the quail,

onions, garlic...

and a little splash of Jerez magic.

Every type of sherry is different.

Palo Cortado is good with the vegetables

to have a little sweet note in the final sauce.

Wait. Why do you like cooking with sherry?

It's part of us, you know?

It's-- I don't understand the kitchen without sherry wine.

- Really? - Yeah.

Ohh.

It's very special.

And then we close.

Time to... - Stitch it.

Yes, like a doctor now, okay?

I've never sewn a quail before,

but, apparently, I'm good at it.

As a first-time quail seamstress,

I am full of enthusiasm.

This is so fun!

It's fun, yeah. When you make one, it's okay.

If you have to make more...

It's fun when it's-- when it's only 2.

Yeah. Yeah. - Yeah, yeah.

Now I'm gonna cook with sherry.

I've never cooked with sherry. I should.

To finish, Juanlu drenches a nest of hay

in sweet oloroso sherry.

With the steam of the wine, we cook the quail.

Oh, great.

And we seal with dough to retain the moisture.

This quail is seriously luxurious,

stuffed with liver pâté...

- Yeah. - Oh, wow!

I'm ready.

- That is beautiful. - Right.

...and finished with sherry sauce and truffle shavings.

Tastes definitely wild.

It tastes a little gamy in a good way.

Like, you can taste-- - Yes.

That sauce, you can definitely taste the sherry,

and it's a little salty.

Yeah.

For sure, you make dishes with this complexity and this flavor

because it's an intense wine. - Mm-hmm.

It's like the Spanish people. It's intense.

- Or Andalusians. - Or the Andalusians.

Well, I don't know if it's the sherry,

but there's a feeling I get in Andalusia that I can't explain.

I feel very emotional.

"Duende" is a word from the Roma language Caló,

meaning "where the spirit lives."

Olé!

Nothing embodies duende more than flamenco,

a passionate marriage of music, song, and dance.

Hola.

Sherry, no? - Yeah.

- My favorite-- Palo Cortado. - Palo Cortado.

- Salud. - Salud.

Salud.

Wow.

These songs tell the story of this land,

of both suffering and of joy,

and I can definitely feel the fierce spirit

of the Andalusians...

...a people full of duende

and determined to celebrate life.

Today I'm on my way to meet the legendary Angel León,

who is the first chef from Andalusia

to receive three Michelin stars.

And I heard he's half chef, half magician,

part scientist,

so I'm excited about what I'm gonna see

but, more importantly, what I'm gonna eat.

Angel's asked to meet me

not at his restaurant, Aponiente...

...but out in a windswept ancient salt farm.

There were once over 300 salt farms in the Bay of Cádiz

when the Phoenicians first created them 3,000 years ago.

This salt farm, which Angel has helped to restore,

is one of the last remaining.

This ancient water system traps not only salt

but also fish and tiny shrimp...

food for the local flamingos

and now Angel's diners, too.

That's-- That's full grown? Wow.

That is beautiful. Look at that!

They're so tiny!

Uh-huh.

Ooh, no, I'm not gonna eat it!

No, no, no. I'm not eating it raw.

Aah!

Oh, yeah!

Gracias, Juan. - Gracias, Juan.

Angel likes to push boundaries,

from opening his restaurant, Aponiente,

in a once derelict tidal mill

to serving only marine species,

some of which have never been used in a kitchen before.

Wow.

Nothing here is quite what it seems.

What?!

Okay.

Oh, my God.

I know. My eyes--

My-- My eyes are deceiving me right now.

Mmm! No, it tastes like chorizo.

But what is it?

Oh, wow!

My God, you're like a mad scientist.

Angel takes the less fashionable parts of fish

that are often discarded--

bellies, necks, and skin--

and uses them to create marine charcuterie.

Uh-huh.

Oh, my God.

Let's see.

Mmm.

Smoky. Mmm!

Wow.

And now it's finally time to eat those sweet tiny shrimp.

Luckily, this time they're not wiggling.

They're on a crispy tortilla made from chickpea flour...

with aioli

and an emulsion of parsley and chives.

Mmm. Mmm!

Wow!

I don't even know how to describe it.

It's like that was an explosion of flavors

because of the camarón, of the shrimp...

of the two sauces.

Get ready for plankton on your plate

and sea sausage for breakfast.

Angel León is pioneering the food of the future,

and every bite will blow your mind.

Córdoba was once the capital of Al-Andalus,

the Islamic kingdom that built the Mezquita,

the city's great mosque.

Hola! - Hola!

But you know I didn't come for architecture.

How are you? Nice to meet. - Nice to meet you.

Welcome to Córdoba.

Local historian Elena de Boada has promised me lunch.

What impact has the Arabic culture had

on the cuisine in Andalusia?

A lot. They brought here orange trees,

lemon trees,

but then watermelon, eggplants, spices.

This Islamic kingdom extended

over most of the Iberian Peninsula

in the 8th century,

until the Arabs were gradually forced out

by Catholic Reconquest.

Andalusia was the last region to be reclaimed

after almost 800 years of Arab rule.

The Muslim population is now tiny,

but Elena knows a Moroccan chef, Jawad Mustafa,

who's returned 500 years

after his ancestors were forced to flee.

I want to introduce to you Jawad.

He cooks incredible recipes from Morocco...

- Uh-huh. - ...but also from old times,

you know, Al-Andalus times, so he has some special recipes.

Oh, yeah.

The pear is, like, necessary.

And how do you feel being in Córdoba?

I love that Jawad is cooking his centuries-old family recipes

for the Andalusians to enjoy once again.

For dinner, I'm heading to Noor,

a 3-Michelin-star restaurant.

Yes, this job can be very tough.

Local boy Paco Morales trained

at the legendary El Bulli restaurant

before spending three years obsessively researching

the recipes of the golden age of the Arab rulers.

Oh, my God. I've been dying to come here.

At Noor, you can tuck in to fried fish with rose water...

...or olive oil soup with orange and yogurt.

The Arabs loved roast lamb,

so Paco uses dehydrated milk crusts

to imitate roast lamb skin.

Oh, you dehydrated this.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Next, for his lamb's liver pâté,

Poco flash-fries the liver with a splash of brandy.

-Al-khul.

Oh, I-I do it? Okay.

Oh, the liver? The main part, yeah.

Oh, the lactose?

To thicken the pâté,

we add bread and then blend the creamy mixture

before finishing off our masterpiece

with a little watercress.

Okay, here we go.

- Mmm! - Mmm!

Wow. - Mmm!

Oh, my God. That is just like lambskin--

crispy...

very powerful in flavor.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm!

Under the dictatorship of Franco,

this Arabic history was whitewashed.

But now chefs like Paco

are celebrating the culinary influences

of almost 800 years of Al-Andalus.

Everyone knows the greatest ambassador of Spain is jamón,

and I'm told the finest pigs roam around here in Andalusia.

So, I may have to go off road a bit,

but I hear it's worth it.

- Hola! - Ah, Eva!

Eduardo Donato owns an organic dehesa,

a type of Spanish pasture for raising pigs

north of Seville...

in Jabugo.

Originally from Catalunya,

76-year-old Eduardo took a gamble in his 40s,

leaving a career in construction

and building a new life for himself as a pig breeder

in this remote corner of Andalusia.

And he's even learned pig yodeling.

Whoa!

Whoa!

Eh!

Ehhhh!

Oh, my God. If they push me down in the mud--

Oh, my God! Aah!

Ah, ah!

Oh, my God. They're so cute!

Hi!

Most Iberian pigs only have one to two seasons

of gorging on acorns,

but Eduardo's gets three years.

Your life decisions puzzle me.

Eduardo knows what he's doing with this ham.

This is one of the most expensive in the world,

at over $4,000 a leg.

Julio!

The slices must be just 2 to 3 millimeters thick.

The moment has arrived that I have to try this.

Wow.

Wow.

Rafa produces 100 hams a year from Eduardo's pigs.

They're salted and then left to air-dry

as they age for up to seven years.

This is the best meal I've had in Andalusia.

I love Andalusia.

This is the region I know the most,

I've traveled the most,

and I've come to really understand the word "duende."

These people I have met have so much passion in their life.

There is so much pride in the history of all of the people

who have passed through this region...

...and it's probably why it's my favorite region.