How-To: Host a Spanish Tapas Party with Chef Jordan Mackey

As a child growing up in an Italian family in Brooklyn, executive chef Jordan Mackey of San Antonio’s Las Ramblas restaurant in the Hotel Contessa learned to make homemade sauce with basil and tomatoes, picked fresh from the vine in his backyard garden. Years later, he’s a celebrated and accomplished chef and here to tell you how to host a  Spanish tapas party.  

Mackey’s foray into the food industry began at the age of 14 when a move to Florida with his mother led him to a job on the line in a restaurant. It felt “just natural for me, I could not imagine doing anything else,” Mackey says. Having honed his skills in kitchens in Florida and Manhattan, Mackey earned dual degrees from the New England Culinary Institute in Essex, Vermont in 2001, along with certification from Hyde Park’s Culinary Institute of America.

The road to the San Antonio Riverwalk was a winding one that took Mackey from coast to coast. After graduation, he teamed with Hawaiian chef and restaurateur Roy Yamaguchi to open Roy’s in Bonita Springs, Florida. Accolades for his seafood finesse garnered the attention of Noble House Hotels, who hired him to open the Naples La Playa Beach and Golf Resort before he became executive chef at Miami’s Grove Isle Hotel and Spa in the Biscayne Bay. He transferred to Seattle’s historic Edgewater Hotel in 2007 before moving yet again to the Napa Valley to assume dual roles as executive chef and food and beverage director at the River Terrace Inn and Restaurant Cuvee. Heading up the kitchen at the Hotel Contessa’s Las Ramblas restaurant sice 2013, Mackey’s creativity with coastal cuisine is showcased in the expansive Spanish tapas menu he has fine-tuned with dozens of small plates perfect for sharing with a group of friends.

Where they originated, tapas are often enjoyed picnic style – outdoors at the height of the harvest to indulge in the bounty of fresh foods and beauty of nature. Mackey says there are two tales that account for how and why tapas evolved from farm fare to a trendy epicurean experience with international popularity: First, Spain’s little bodegas historically served a slice of ham atop glasses of sherry to prevent fruit flies from falling inside; Second, rumor has it that King Felipe III passed a law requiring all cocktails be topped with a small portion of food in order to keep imbibing townsfolk in line, lest they become drunk and unruly on an empty stomach. 

Next, expert tips for throwing a Spanish tapas party… 

Spanish Tapas Simplified

For a traditional take on Spanish tapas, Mackey recommends the Culinaria series of cookbooks, which are filled with mouth-watering photographs and tapas recipes to guide you. That said, you can draw ideas from any Latin culture – think tiny tacos and Cuban sandwich sliders, or even other continents, like the Izakaya-style dining of Japan. Although Spain has rights to inventing tapas, this laid-back style of eating is as much about creating a scene as it is about the cuisine. No matter what country inspires your dishes, an essential element of tapas dining is weaving a social environment of laughter and conversation into several courses of bite-sized nibbles. Here are some tips for throwing a Spanish tapas party your guests won’t soon forget. 

Host a Pressure-Free Party

Dinner party downers like spending the entire night in the kitchen or delaying dinner for latecomers are all but eliminated when you serve a buffet of tapas that guests can graze on at their leisure. All the prep work is done before anyone arrives, which means you can focus on your friends, and actually savor the food.

Pair Spanish Wines with Individual Tapas for a Unique Tasting Experience

The chef says showcasing a selection of Spanish wines isn’t too costly and can add another layer of conversation to your dinner party. Tempranillo grape wines from Rioja are easy to drink and 12- to 13-year-old bottles are less than $20 each. You can create your own tasting by choosing a bottle or two from each of the four grade types, which is determined by how much oak is used in its creation: Rioja, Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva. 

Embrace Cold Dishes and Other Surprising Eats

Mackey says when entertaining a throng of friends for a tapas-style dinner party, resist the temptation to prepare an array of uninspired nibbles for the sake of serving them warm. Meatballs bobbing in sauce may hold up to hours of chafing dish heat, but they’re boring. Instead, create a spread of cold and room-temperature dishes and have a hearty soup like Caldo Gallego on hand to heat things up. Line a buffet with trays of open-faced sandwiches, charcuterie boards with cured meats and cheeses, assorted olives, a colorful variety of marinated vegetables, and a selection of breads. This way, you and your guests can enjoy one another’s company.

Get inspired with this recipe for Galician Broth. 

Galician Caldo Gallego (Galician Broth) 

• 1 pound cannellini beans soaked overnight
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 bulb fennel, diced
• 1 smoked ham hock
• 2 ounces serranno ham, diced
• 4 bay leaves
• 4 red potatoe,  sliced and boiled tender
• 3 ounces light olive oil
• 2 ounces grated manchego cheese

Get the full recipe.