There’s a new cookbook in town.
Executive Director Hank Hine says the Dali Museum Café Gala Cookbook — the museum's first cookbook — was created with the inspiration of the foods of Salvador Dali’s homeland and by the artist himself.
“So when we were designing this building, we knew that food was an important part of not only the visitor experience, but an important part of the artist's view of the world and his experience," Hine said. "So we designed a kitchen to offer a cafe to our guests. So the cafe is the start."
Hine wrote the cookbook with Café Gala Chef Chuck Bandel. It includes recipes from consulting chefs from Spain, such as Jose Andres.
In the early days of working with the Dali Museum, Hine said Bandel studied with chefs in Dali’s native Spain along the Northern Mediterranean Sea.
“Well, the restaurants that he trained in were on the Costa Brava, this rocky coast of Northeastern Spain on the Mediterranean Sea," Hine said. "And it's a sometimes wind-blown place where the wind comes over the Pyrenees and reshapes the rock.
"So it's very dramatic coastline, but it's also abundant of fish, and fish is an important part of the whole Catalan diet, as are olives, as are breads, as are soups and things made with tomatoes, and are all very important to this impulse.”
Hine said fresh ingredients are essential to the recipes.
“Ham made from pigs that are raised on black oak acorns and eat only that — the Bellota, that's called, these things are strong, pure tastes, and they are one aspect of the Catalan cooking. The other aspect, I think, really comes from Dali himself. Dali showed that the world is not fixed, that it's in constant change,” Hine said.
Dali showed this with his signature melting clocks and the rocks that double as faces.
The cookbook is filled with beautiful pictures and watercolor paintings of ingredients carrots and fresh tomatoes. All made by Chef Chuck Bandel.
And Hine wrote an ode to the Tarta de Santiago, but attributed it to another.
“Yes, although in the book, I credit the poem with Calderon de la Barca, who wrote a book called 'La vida es Sueno.' Life is a dream. I didn't want to be too present in the book, but I did want that poem to be there," Hine said. "It's an ode to this beautiful tart."
Hine said all of the ingredients the cookbook calls for are easy to find. And signature recipes from Café Gala are included, such as: La Tortilla, Gazpacho, Roasted Carrot Hummus, and Spanish Almond Cake.
Dali himself wrote a cookbook in the early 1970s. It's called "Les dîners de Gala," which some have called an erotic cookbook.
