This time Eneko Atxa did not go to Madrid Fusión Alimentos de España to do any cooking. He did not need a single ingredient to talk about his cooking. Well, actually he poured out his heart to all those present to explain what Azurmendi*** is, his roots and his daily poetry as his way of understanding gastronomy. An intimate, emotional talk, making it difficult not to pull up a chair at his restaurant in Larrabetzu, where the traditional recipes of Basque cooking have been updated with a process of evolution in which technique and artisan products are on an equal footing.

"Describing what Azurmendi is all about is like looking in the mirror, taking your clothes off and dissecting yourself", was how Atxa kicked off a talk laden with emotion. "We cook Basque food with a connection to the territory because the only cookery I can do is cooking that goes right back to what I've lived through and was brought up on, from my territory, my family ...", he told the congress in the emotion-filled voice of someone revealing his innermost secrets.

With a style of cuisine that makes a constant stand for creativity, Atxa took a look back in time to praise the role of the Basque women who put down the first recipes in writing years ago. "Creativity was already in the offing years ago when those women were simply feeding their families". And thence to a trip around the territory which enabled him to build his own understanding of cooking with the new Basque cuisine, the cuisine of Guipúzcoa and of Vizcaya, right up to the new generations showing "a surprising vision of their own territory".

A gaze at the poetry anthology of Eneko Atxa's territory, which he uses to 'paint' his recipes, "working with the same products and taking an introspective look at the territory, at how we feel about our territories, the way we eat, the aromas, the people ...". The Basque chef admitted that what he did at Azurmendi was intuitive and he could not explain it, but he made it clear that "the recipes have to speak for us, about the way we are".

He acknowledged that "the idea is not to reinterpret, but to use the same context and the same ingredients in an exercise to try to embellish the rudimentary, not embellishing simply for the sake of embellishing, but using our memory and adapting to new times". That is why roasted peppers appear in the snacks at his restaurant, pig-slaughtering, salting processes, the orchard, grazing, herbs, pork specialities, salted products, “talo” corncakes with flowers. The territory. That is why, when one is enjoying this cuisine, one can taste the Basque essence that can be understood by any diner in the world. 

"Although we're talking about a territory, its people and a culture, the vocation of everything we do is universalist. Bringing it home to everyone", says Atxa, before explaining that "a job is not complete if the person observing it does not enjoy it, or if only we can enjoy it. And that is taken to a higher level in gastronomy".
An intimate reflection serving as an introduction to a wish expressed by the Basque chef. "I hope this talk has generated restlessness among people, and the desire to go to Azurmendi and take away a little piece of me and of the whole family that makes up Azurmendi". There can be no doubt that Eneko Antxa left us a considerable mouthful of his cuisine on Wednesday.