BASQUE LUXURY FIRM: PANIEGO
BASQUE LUXURY FIRM: PANIEGO
BASQUE LUXURY MAGAZINE is allowing me to leave my mark on these pages, and I cannot pass up the chance to tell you about a beautiful relationship.
The Echaurren Relais & Chateaux Hotel celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2023 – our house was founded in 1898 by the great uncle and great aunt of one of our parents, Pedro and Andrea. The two created this business without even being aware of what their journey would be like. Echaurren’s story is one of effort; an epic tale of hard work to overcome the tremendous difficulties that the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have brought. But it is also a story full of family values and love, brimming with anecdotes.
The relationship between Echaurren, La Rioja, and the Basque Country has always been a very close one. My land has not only played a role as a provider of good wines. All of La Rioja –but especially the La Rioja Alta region and Ezcaray– has been a place of rest and relaxation for thousands of Basques who have made my land their second home.
San Sebastián has also been a second home for me since 1988. In San Sebastián, I spent some time at Akelaŕe –Pedro Subijana’s home– only to subsequently return in 1990 to pass some time with Juan Mari Arzak. I would travel back and forth to Akelaŕe or Intxaurrondo on my old Vespino moped, and I remember those years as some of the best of my life. Years later, I got the opportunity to manage my own restaurant at the María Cristina Hotel for two summers and today I continue to provide advising services to the kitchen at the Marqués de Riscal Hotel in Elciego, Álava, as I have done since its inauguration.
During those years in the Basque Country, I not only learned to cook but I was also able to enjoy the precious relationship that the Basques have with their food and with the producers and artisans of their land. To me, their way of life seems to be unique in all the world, exuding honesty and a good dose of intelligence.
In 2002, when we decided to open a gastronomic restaurant in Echaurren, everyone thought we were crazy; that in La Rioja the idea was not going to work. In 2004, when the first Michelin Star in the history of La Rioja arrived, we felt that we had broken a barrier that had seemed insurmountable until then. And with our second star in 2013, we were sure we had achieved a historical milestone for our land.
Today I am sure that the experience I had in the Basque Country during my years of learning laid the foundation, gave me strength, and marked my destiny towards a place that I had already discovered years before.
Mila esker Euskadi.
Francis Paniego
Chef
