Maria Canales
Updated Saturday, January 27, 2024-02:10
Six new restaurants to let yourself be tempted by meat
Campaspero is a small town in the province of Valladolid with only 1,000 inhabitants located about 15 km from Peñafiel. Apart from its church from the mid-18th century and the Stone Museum, it has little else as a tourist attraction. However, for decades, the town has been an important
point of gastronomic pilgrimage
where people from Madrid, Basques, Catalans, Galicians, Japanese, Chinese and many Americans come week after week. The reason? The lamb churro served by
Mannix
, a family-owned grill that has been receiving national and international awards for years for its great traditional homemade cuisine.
The latest recognition came a few months ago from the prestigious international gastronomic guide
Opinionated About Dining
(OAD), which designated Mannix as
the best
casual
restaurant in Europe
, that is, in addition to being informal and casual, it is affordable for all budgets.
The rustic establishment, with a dining room for 180 people that
only opens at lunchtime
, is sold out every weekend. To enjoy their famous lamb, the dish par excellence of the place, roasted in an adobe oven,
you must order it
and reserve it only by phone 15 days in advance. Between 60 and 70 suckling pigs are shipped per week at Mannix in normal times, at a
price of 55 euros per quarter.
Quarter of lamb in the Mannix adobe oven.
"We have been overwhelmed for so many years, especially on weekends, that the last award we received did not surprise us. Now, the waiting list is longer and we receive more phone calls, but since we have the capacity we have, we cannot do more," says Gemma García, granddaughter of the owner and creator of this family business. "During the week it is easier to find a place, but you always have to reserve," explains this chef and sommelier trained in restaurants such as Zuberoa or the terrace of the Casino de Paco Roncero who, after spending six years working in the restaurant, has been working for another year. detached from day to day life.
The one who is always at the forefront is Rosaura, the matriarch and a true
business visionary
, who at 82 years old still helps in the kitchen work of the restaurant that she insisted on founding in 1981.
The beginnings as a wedding hall
Coming from a family of bakers, ranchers and grillers, already in the 70s the neighbors went to the bakery that Rosaura ran and asked her and her husband if they could roast their suckling pigs or stew some chicken to take away. This is how they began to do what today is called
delivery
. One day, a woman asked her if, since she cooked so well, she could make it for her wedding. From there, Rosaura began giving weddings at her house, until she decided that a large, open-plan restaurant with long tables had to be set up for those big events. Although her husband Eusebio initially refused, Mannix was finally born, and he became famous in the surrounding area for his banquets, in which the star dish was lamb.
Rosaura in the Mannix kitchen.
The lamb, which Eusebio roasted, became famous in all corners of Spain and they began to receive people who went there just to eat it. Eusebio died and the witness was taken by his son Marco Antonio who, according to the family, has a special gift for doing so. In early 2000,
the wedding hall is converted into a catering restaurant
.
The secret of success
What is it about Mannix suckling lamb that so seduces the diner? "
There is no secret recipe
, just the top quality selected lamb churro, water and salt and a wood oven... and my uncle's hand, of course," says Gemma. "He does it by ear because he never learned. He doesn't know the temperature, because in the three adobe ovens we have, made with mud and straw, there are no thermometers. My uncle roasts the lamb and puts his ear in the oven to see when "He's ready. He's been doing it all his life."
But there is a
secret
to achieving success and it is excellent
raw materials.
"We buy the animal live. My uncle gets up at four in the morning and goes every two days to the corrals in the area and chooses the lambs that he likes the most, only the churros. Each trip he takes about 30 lambs, takes them to the slaughterhouse near Peñafiel and then brings half to the butcher shop that the family has in Campaspero to sell it throughout Spain under the Lechazo de Mannix brand and the other half to the restaurant. At 10 am he begins to turn on the three ovens and about 12, put the suckling pigs, 30 quarters in each one, which will be ready to serve from 2 p.m.
The lamb is the dish par excellence, the
bestseller;
"Coming to Mannix and not eating it is like going to Madrid and not seeing Sol," says Gemma. But there is more on the menu: veal chops, ribs, seasonal vegetables, mushrooms..., traditional homemade dishes cooked by Gemma's mother and sister, Mari Carmen and Alicia, in addition to the innovative desserts designed by the chef, who have also become famous.
"As lamb is immovable, I started to change the menu with the desserts, which I liked to experiment with, and they were very successful, especially the trompe l'oeil," says Gemma. Among these innovative desserts are the fried egg (lemon cream with mango ice cream, dried fruit infusion, petas zetas and freeze-dried fruits) or Eva's temptation (fresh cheese and violet mousse, heart of red fruit and currant ice cream). . "We make a flan with goose yolks, but I spent the entire confinement to make it. I took the tradition to maximum excellence," Gemma says.
Tiramisu trompe l'oeil with coffee ice cream.
Another of his contributions was the
extensive and exclusive wine list
, which includes more than 500 bottles, from cavas and champagnes to reds, whites and rosés of almost all denominations.
Mannix
(Felipe II, 26, Campaspero, Valladolid).
Reservations
only by calling 983 69 80 18.
Hours:
Tuesday to Sunday, from 2 to 4 p.m. The family also runs a
rural house
for six people
100 meters from the restaurant .
More information at
www.restaurantemannix.com
.