Oryx

The lunch experience at Azurmendi begins with a picnic in the garden, a verdant indoor oasis in the restaurant’s sun-flooded reception. Served in a tiny, blue gingham-lined wicker basket is a selection of amuses-bouche almost too pretty to eat – a pair of perfectly formed “peanuts”, which are actually foie gras coated in peanut dust; tiny glass flasks containing a mouth-puckeringly sweet hibiscus flower juice; and two dainty brioche burgers with anchovy and smoked eel. It’s unlike any picnic I’ve ever experienced – reflecting the haiku etched on the wall: “Our prix-fixe menu/What appear to be entrées/Turn out to be dreams” – but why would I expect anything less? Azurmendi is chef Eneko Atxa’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant in the hills outside Bilbao, in Spain’s Basque Country – one of the world’s most celebrated gastronomic regions.

From the garden, guests are escorted into the kitchen, where they are greeted with a hearty “Hola” by the 30-odd staff. One of them removes part of a raw egg yolk using a syringe and replaces it with an injection of hot truffle broth, which cooks the yolk from the inside out – a play on a traditional Basque dish, and one of Atxa’s most famous creations. Then, the journey continues to the greenhouse, which contains a series of four miniature landscapes, each one hiding more bite-size delicacies. After being guided through the greenhouse, guests are finally escorted to their table for a tasting menu that is a cornucopia of gastronomic delights.

“This journey is part of the soul of the restaurant,” says Atxa. “When we opened the new restaurant in 2012, we were one of the first to create an experience like this. There have to be calm moments, funny moments, exciting moments, dramatic moments… it’s like a movie. In this way, people can better understand our philosophy, our traditions, and our landscape. It is also a way to break the seriousness of fine dining.”

Just as impressive as this journey is Atxa’s dedication to sustainability – which has recently been recognised by prestigious panel The World’s 50 Best Restaurants with the Sustainable Restaurant Award 2018. Winning the award – which Azurmendi also won in 2014 – was, says Atxa, “A nice thing, but not so surprising.” And, after listening to him talk about what sustainability means to him, it’s not surprising to me either.

“Sustainability is about the landscape and nature – but it is also about people,” he says. So, not only does the restaurant employ an impressive variety of more conventional eco-friendly practices, it also engages in an ambitious array of social and community initiatives.

“When we received our second Michelin star in 2010, I thought that we had to change our philosophy,” says Atxa. “We wanted to create a new restaurant with the tools to respect the environment.”

The glass building, which was designed by local architect Naia Eguino in 2012, makes use of geothermal energy, solar panels, rainwater recycling, rooftop gardens, and free electric-car charging stations. The building, with its soaring glass façades, also allowed Atxa to immerse diners in the vastness of the surrounding hills, while the different areas – greenhouse, garden, rooftop terrace – give insights into the minutiae of the Basque landscape, much of which can also be found in the precisely plated dishes.

The rooftop is home to a sustainability centre containing a seed bank for local vegetable varieties that Atxa hopes to reintroduce to local farmers. And, rather than using the rooftop garden as the only source for ingredients – creating a “kilometre-zero” restaurant, which many chefs aspire to – Atxa is more interested in supporting local farmers and using his garden as a showcase. “Guests can touch and feel the produce here,” he says. “But if I receive 100 per cent of my produce from the restaurant gardens, I don’t need to continue to work with local producers, and that is not sustainable for me.” This ethos is shared through an illustrated book celebrating the producers, which is gifted to diners at the end of the meal.

Unsurprisingly, Atxa finds inspiration in the seasons and the local landscape. “I never decide what ingredients I will put in my dishes – nature decides for me,” he says. “My farmers and fishermen understand nature; they share with me the natural message, and I put the natural order on the plate.”

It’s a philosophy rooted in his traditional Basque upbringing. “Basque people understand that food is a universal language to understand and learn about your culture, your history, and your family,” he says. “Food is also a tool we can use to cook a better future.”

Take Jaki(n), an initiative dedicated to sustainable health and social programmes based in the former Azurmendi building located on the same hillside site as the new restaurant. The small team works with local farmers and residents to recycle and compost organic waste, has created a recipe book in collaboration with medical professionals to address health issues ranging from heart disease to childhood obesity, and is even working on a menu with the local hospital. “We want to offer young chefs the opportunity to come work on these projects and in doing so show the new generation that our work can be important in different ways,” says Atxa. “As chefs, we can take our knowledge in different directions – and we have a responsibility to look after society.”

And it’s not only the wider community that Atxa is concerned about. In restaurants around the world, it’s expected that work comes before all other aspects of a chef’s life – an approach Atxa believes is unsustainable. “Everyone needs balance in their world,” he says. “If we want to take care of the people who come here, we have to learn to take care of ourselves.” So, the restaurant is closed for dinner every night except Saturday, giving staff the opportunity to eat dinner with family or friends, and it’s compulsory to take at least one day off over the weekend.

“There have been many revolutions in gastronomy – nouvelle cuisine, Basque cuisine, molecular cooking, Nordic food… Now, everyone is waiting for the next revolution,” Atxa says. “For me, it is to use all the knowledge that we have as chefs to cook a better future for society.” azurmendi.restaurant, enekoatxa.com