Celebrate Spain with NYC Chef Alexandra Raij

Food lovers in New York think of the city’s Spanish cuisine in terms of pre-Alex-and-Eder, and post-Alex-and-Eder. That is, husband-and-wife chefs Alexandra Raij and Eder Montero, the dynamic duo who definitively changed the face of the city’s Spanish food.

Pre Alex-and-Eder: NYC Spanish food consisted of shabby, old-school paella joints and churn-em-out tapas bars more interested in pushing pitchers of sangria than running a quality cocina. Today, the couple and their powerhouse triumvirate of the Basque Txikito, regional El Quinto Pino, and Moorish/Sephardic La Vara, have vastly raised the bar with dishes such as squid ribbons with sweet onion and pine nuts; cumin-roasted lamb breast; and a now-legendary uni panini. Their revolutionary cooking paved the way for chefs such as Seamus Mullen, while welcoming Iberian entries from the likes of Mario Batali.

The Alex-and-Eder partnership was born when the pair met in 1999 at the highly regarded Meigas, a downtown restaurant helmed by Ferran Adria disciple Luis Bollo. It was short-lived as a result of a horrible location just outside the Holland Tunnel and for simply being ahead of its time.

When the restaurant closed in 2002, Raij and Montero toiled in separate kitchens before partnering as a chef duo at Tia Pol in 2004 (which they left in 2008) and El Quinto Pino in 2007. Txikito followed in 2008 and La Vara in 2012, winning the hearts of the public and critics along the way—the couple have even been, collectively, semi-finalists for the James Beard Foundation Best Chef New York category for several years running now.

Montero, a native of Bilbao, is the more soft-spoken of the pair but it’s the cuisine of his homeland that dominates the three restaurants; Raij enjoys being the public face of the eateries. Adding Spanish cuisine to her international background was clearly second nature.

Next, what the future holds for Raij… [pagebreak]

Though she grew up in Minneapolis, Raij’s parents hail from Rosario, Argentina—her palate, from a young age was shaped by the two Americas she knew. “I grew up eating well,” she says. “All of my indelible memories about food really link to Argentina and to midwestern stuff like potlucks.” She credits her mother and her grandmother with being her cooking mentors. “They were super capable, super natural, unforced and cooked without a lot of recipes. When it came to Argentine cuisine, there was one book and it was THE book: Doña Petrona.” She points out, however, that her idea of the cuisine didn’t really come to light until she was older.

“As I got older, it occurred to me that the food I thought of as Argentinean was actually Italian food, Jewish food, and German food. I was eating a collection of food from the population of Argentina, as opposed to indigenous foods, like locro [the national stew].” Another Latin influence, and very fond food memory—winter vacations with her family in Boqueron, Puerto Rico. “I remember the fried foods most of all—like amazing empanadas de chapin (trunkfish) and sorullitos, sweet corn and cheese fritters that taste like the best hush puppies ever,” she recalls. “And arroz con pollo and oysters and clams on the half shell in town. That food really resonated with me.”

She brings that international sensibility to her home kitchen, where she fosters a similar appreciation of worldly flavors with her two young children. Her upcoming cookbook, however, written with Montero, will focus on Spanish cuisine. And there is another restaurant afoot. Eater.com reported that the duo recently won unanimous approval for a liquor license on a space in the Lower East Side.

As official details remain unreleased, the dining community is abuzz: Will it focus on Spanish cuisine? Or this time delve into Raij’s Argentine heritage? Or reflect the couple’s international tastes? We don’t know. What we do know is that New York City can certainly use another Alex-and-Eder pair up, no matter what’s on the plate.