CENTRAL MARKET & CATHEDRAL
We’re on a gastronomic tour of Valencia, Spain, and the surrounding region. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain and, as many know, famous for Valencia oranges. It’s also a center for some very innovative cuisine, bringing influences from Italy and the Arab world together with the richness of the local ingredients. Our group of 23 people consists of seven Americans, seven Brits, three Canadians, two Aussies, two from Hong Kong, along with our Dutch-born lecturer and the British tour manager. Diverse geographically and all very congenial.
We flew together from London and spent the first full day with noted chef Ricard Camarena. First off was a trip to market with the chef to buy the ingredients for the lunch he was going to prepare for us. The central market in Valencia dates from the beginning of the 20th century and has a somewhat colorful facade; inside it was sparkling clean. 
I love markets of this type and just seeing all the produce, dried goods, meats and fish, for me is fun. 
But it was even more enjoyable to go with Ricard and follow him around as he carefully selected aubergines, mushrooms, mandarins, tomatoes, and the like and negotiated with the venders. 
He believes in only using products from the market in his various restaurants. While in the market, we stopped for a coffee (or freshly squeezed orange juice) at his coffee bar. Everyone in the market knows him.
Before going to Senor Camarena’s lab, we had a brief tour of the Valencia cathedral which combines Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque elements. Our lecturer doesn’t really lecture (fortunately), but provides informed comment with occasional bits of humor about specific aspects or highlights of a building or a work of art. Just the right dose of facts to make us appreciate what we are seeing.
LAB & LUNCH
At the Ricard Camarena Lab we were treated to a cooking demonstration as Ricard made mini versions of the four dishes on our lunch menu. Seated classroom style, we watched as he explained each ingredient and the steps involved. His English was quite good, but Gijs, our lecturer, translated as needed and added in extra commentary. We got to sniff and taste various bits along the way which made the whole process more interesting.
After an hour and a half or so, we decamped from the lab for wine and hors d’oeuvres while the lab was set up with a long table for lunch. Lunch was both a taste adventure and an intellectual one as we ate the completed renditions of dishes we had followed every step of the way. Shown here are two of the dishes we had: smoked aubergine (eggplant) covered with a strip of tuna belly sitting on a bed of tuna rillette with capers and topped with three bits of tuna “bacon” and the dessert, a pumpkin waffle with pumpkin cream, pumpkin seeds and an oval of ginger ice cream. Truly a treat and a very special experience, not available to us as individuals. 
After this three hour extravaganza we returned to our hotel and later made a brief after hours visit to the museum of modern art for an exhibit entitled, “Lost in the City.” If anyone needed it, dinner was on your own! We had a few tapas in the hotel.
All photos copyright JWFarrington
Header photo: Soup lined up for serving
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Next, long beans, garlic and saffron are added, then some snails, and eventually the rice and small branches of rosemary. Once the rice is in, there is minimal stirring.
It is traditionally a man’s project (like barbecuing in the U.S.) and managing the fire to have it hot enough and then near the end cooling it down, requires adding sticks at the appropriate time and then knowing when to move them off to the side. 
While the cooking was happening, we enjoyed meats and cheeses and other tidbits served with pitchers of sangria. When the paella was ready, we sat down to a tasty lunch!
