03-05-2025
How the Spanish do alfresco dining, by José Pizarro
A sunny bank holiday is on the cards but the Spanish chef and restaurateur José Pizarro is looking further ahead. 'I have already been thinking about what I will serve when I have friends in the garden this summer, in London but also at my house on the coast in Spain,' he says.
As the chef responsible for introducing Brits to authentic, really Spanish food, and with six restaurants in the UK, Pizarro knows how to deliver crowd-pleasers, even if the English weather means he is more often than not doing so inside. So what are his golden rules for outdoor feasting?
Don't try to show off
'It's the one thing I will never do: serve something cheffy,' Pizarro explains. 'When I am hosting a barbecue I don't want to see any stupid, fussy things. Hosting is about everyone having fun and that includes myself, so anything complicated is a no, no, no for me.'
Serve white sangria as soon as guests arrive
As he is Spanish, the answer is of course sangria — but Pizarro prefers white sangria made with cava over the traditional red sort made with wine. 'You make it exactly in the same way: fill a jug with fruits, although with white sangria I don't add lemon, I put in oranges instead, with stone fruits and strawberries,' he says. 'Add a bit of sugar and a splash of brandy to bring all the flavours together. With normal red wine sangria you'll add the wine at this point and then soda but I just leave it like this until I am ready to serve so it marinates. Then just before serving, I add a lot of ice and cava. It's absolutely delicious.'
Anchovies make the best starter
'Anchovies are king,' Pizarro says. The best kind, he adds, are the Cantabrian Reserva Catalina: 'They are huge and meaty.' During the summer months his favourite way to serve anchovies is with grated tomatoes. 'Cut a tomato in half, grate it on to a big plate and add some extra virgin olive oil, a touch of lemon juice and some grated garlic. Put the anchovies on top and you have an absolutely stunning dish. I have that all the time in summer because the tomatoes then are so nice.'
It's OK to buy some things in
Not everything needs to be made from scratch. 'I always make sure I have bowls of olives and I am Spanish so I will always make sure that I have lots of jamon. My favourite thing to do, which I recently did, is to treat myself to a bowl of caviar, which I put on ice. I then cook a big bag of French fries and dip them in. It is stunning.'
Seafood, seafood, seafood
'Prawns, mussels, grilled fish — they're always a winner for summer parties,' Pizarro says. For a simple prawn dish he makes a salad of fennel, lettuce and oranges, and serves it with a simple honey vinaigrette. 'I'll brush the prawns with a bit of oil and then barbecue them whole so that the head is still on. It goes perfectly with that salad.'
Don't forget vegetables
'Aside from a rack of Iberico pork ribs and prawns, I will make sure that I have lots of gorgeous vegetables on my grill too — courgettes, tomatoes, aubergines,' he says. 'I will make a really nice escalivada from roast tomatoes, peppers, onions and aubergine. But if you're serving vegetables the best thing to do is to make a romesco sauce the night before to make them taste delicious.'
To make a romesco sauce, heat the oven to 180C, then place three ripe peppers and three ripe tomatoes on a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. When slightly charred, leave to cool. Blend with 100g toasted almonds and 100g hazelnuts until smooth. Season with salt and sherry vinegar.
Have a dessert table
It's good to keep the mains and starters straightforward but dessert is the time to shine. 'I love my tables of dessert and I love having a lot of things there,' Pizarro admits. Alongside bowls of cherries and platters of fresh strawberries is Pizarro's go-to summer dessert: roasted stone fruit. 'Roast some stone fruit like peaches. They smell like sunshine. Peel them and blanch them just a little bit to remove the skins, and remove the stone. One per person. Then put honey on top, a lot of orange juice and lavender. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes, baste and then roast for another five. When you put that on the table, everyone gets lost. It's so beautiful you just want to stay there with your friends, eating for another hour.'
What should you ask guests to bring?
There are no tactics, Pizarro says. 'Look, people usually arrive with a bottle of wine or, better, an extra virgin olive oil but I don't ask anyone. Tell them to come hungry and thirsty and then your job is to make sure you have plenty of everything — drinks, food and hopefully, if we are lucky, sunshine.'
