From Octopus Salad to Candied Egg Yolks: Dinner with Inaki Aizpitarte and Delphine Zampetti
When Chef Inaki Aizpitarte and his partner Delphine Zampetti want to cook dinner for you, you say yes. Bon Appétit was lucky enough to have dinner, Inaki and Zampetti style, in our test kitchen. From a Spanish-style tortilla to perfectly cooked octopus and a candied cured egg yolk (really!), we ate well—really well. The menu was designed by Zampetti, but the couple cooks together in a seamless sort of ballet, executing delicately beautiful—but completely approachable—dishes that, without fail, elicit a shudder of pleasure and an enormous grin. Here're some of our favorite parts of the evening.
Alison Roman1/17Anchovies, olives, peppers, all swimming in a pool of grassy, herbaceous olive oil: No one does tapas like this duo.
Elizabeth Jaime2/17Five varieties of perfectly-cooked beans (soft, but pleasantly toothsome), a well-balanced vinaigrette, and dill: simple, light, and lovely.
Elizabeth Jaime3/17Within an hour, this salad was done for: We liked it. We liked it a lot. Crunchy fennel was tossed in with tender bites of octopus, and an herbed-white balsamic vinaigrette tied everything together.
Elizabeth Jaime5/17Delphine Zampetti takes a break to clown around with a discerning young diner.
Elizabeth Jaime6/17Inaki makes hard work look effortless—and everyone present feel like the guest of honor.
7/17Try and stop yourself from eating the whole bowl of these pickled peppers—just try. Brightly acidic with a satisfying crunch, this is finger food at its best.
Alison Roman8/17Tender squid braised in its own rich ink was one of the night's biggest hits: We would eat this every day if we could. We ate bites between sips of a perfectly clear, faintly sweet and very vegetal jerusalem artichoke consommé.
Alison Roman9/17A tabbouleh-style salad carried all the flavors of the traditional dish, minus the wheat. Precision-cut celery root and a flurry of parsley make for a fine stand-in for bulgur.
Elizabeth Jaime10/17A Spanish-style tortilla, made with egg and potato made an appearance, wowing guests with its silky-smooth, custard-like interior and golden-brown crust.
Alison Roman11/17Floral arrangements created and donated by Simone Shubuck brightened the room. From cherry blossoms to poppies, it was suddenly spring in the Bon Appétit test kitchen thanks to her hard work.
Elizabeth Jaime12/17A Mexican 75 made with Tequila Ocho—yep, that's tequila topped with champagne, passionfruit, and beet juice, folks. Mission Chinese's Danny Bowien served as bartender, mixing up his version of the fizzy, earthy-sweet cocktail.
Elizabeth Jaime13/17Adam Rapoport, our fearless leader, looking fearless.
Elizabeth Jaime16/17We always keep some good reading material close at hand, as we snack on dishes like whelks with potato and mayonnaise, and "oeufs mimosa," a hard-boiled egg topped with a frenzy of whipped yolk and more mayonnaise, then decorated with plenty of fresh chervil.
Alison Roman17/17To finish off the evening, a brûléed cured egg yolks over a one-bite almond pastry. If you've never bitten into a candied egg yolk, let us walk you through it: Its dome is aggressively burnished, almost crackling under your teeth. The first taste you get is caramel—the kind that walks the oh-so-dangerous and delightful line of perfect and too dark—and just as you've wrapped your head around the flavor, the egg bursts, letting out a stream of warm, runny yolk (definitely do this in one bite). It reminded us of a classic pastry cream, but in the most modern of ways.
