Elite Traveler September-October 2015

INSPIRE SAN SEBASTIÁN

Try the foie mousse inside a sherry gelée with an Idiazabal cheese crisp

Pick up a bottle of Vega Sicilia at San Sebastián Food's chic wine store

Head to the Dry Bar at Hotel Maria Cristina for the best martini in town

Man on a mission: Jon Warren, founder of San Sebastián Food

BASQUING IN GLORY Foodies from around the worldmake thepilgrimage

to San Sebastián for its famed Basque cuisine. But an English entrepreneur is shaking up Spain's culinary capital and taking its gastronomy to even greater heights. Meet the man behind the food revolution

he second I step into the Hotel Maria Cristina, I can tell that this is a place that takes food seriously. First, there’s the welcome snack I find in my room – a picture-perfect arrangement of contemporary petit fours, both sweet and savory, all to be nibbled with a fine Rioja (a far cry from the usual plate of fruit and bottle of bubbly found in hotel rooms). Then there’s the

denda (Basque for fine food shop) on the first floor, worlds away from the jewelry and fashion stores typical of most five-star hotel lobbies. It is run by San Sebastián Food, whose founder and chief executive, Englishman Jon Warren, has latterly become the city’s leading gastronomic entrepreneur. It is Warren himself who shows me around his shop, pointing out delicacies including top-of-the-range anchovies, Basque sweetmeats and whole Spanish hams that cost roughly $500 apiece. At the register, a Chinese woman has just bought 36 packets of pre-sliced acorn-fed ibérico. By the door is a case of Vega

Words Paul Richardson