There are three weeks left until the start of the Augusta Masters, one of the four most prestigious golf tournaments on the planet. This year, in addition, it will have a Spanish flavor. The reason? He chef José Andrés He is in charge of designing and cooking the menu for one of the most important events of the tournament: the champions dinner. The meeting brings together all the winners of the famous green jacket and Jon Rahmthe 2023 winner, chose the Basque for his tribute.
This Tuesday, The Masters published the menu on its social networks. To start, a variety of ‘typical Spanish’ pinchos: Iberian, chistorra with potato, Idiazábal with black truffle, potato omelette, chicken croquette and the surprise, stewed lentils with Jon Rahm’s mother’s recipe: “Yes, I got the recipe from his mother. I asked her how she makes them and we are going to try to recreate the dish in the tastiest way possible so that Jon can be proud of those lentils.”José Andrés explained to Gastro SER.
The menu continues: a Txangurro salad for the first course and a choice between a grilled steak with Tudela florets or a Pil-Pil turbot with Navarra asparagus for the seconds. The dessert consists of cream and cream millefeuille. “The champions’ dinner is something intimate and the Masters has always tried to maintain that privacy”, commented José Andrés. “But in the end it is a fairly informal dinner. It is advertised as a dinner in honor of the champion, but in reality it is more of a dinner among friends to which only the players attend, no one else. That is why this menu is a tribute to his mother and what he likes to eat.
José Andrés has revealed that despite being responsible for designing the menu, the Augusta chefs will be in charge of preparing it. He will come as another guest: “They have very good professionals. But if a friend asks you for help, it is not the same to send a written menu, especially if it includes Spanish dishes with which they may not have experience.” And the chef has already helped his colleague Sergi García, in charge of the 2017 dinner, for which he made a soupy rice with lobster: “With Jon it has been exactly the same. He eats like few others and I have limited myself to pleasing the champion. It’s also not much different from hosting a banquet.”