Live the last night of the year with a special emotion. She assures that with euphoria and happiness, something implicit in the Corral de la Morería. Because if every day there is magic in this flamenco tablao, which spends a Michelin star for its cuisine, the New Year's Eve elf is something that breaks Blanca Ávila Molina (Córdoba, 1946) inside. She arrived at this place, in the Plaza de Las Vistillas, as a dancer when she was 14 years old. Five years later she married the owner and founder, Manuel del Rey, from whom she took the surname for her stage name. She studied Art History and continues to delve into her passion for flamenco. After the death of her husband, she asked her two sons, Juan Manuel and Armando del Rey, to leave their respective jobs and help her manage the store. According to The New York Times is one of the places to visit before you die.
Ask. It's Thursday and you get excited three days before the end of the year.
Answer. It is time to give thanks for many things. Because I know that the atmosphere that is breathed is wonderful: cooks, waiters, we all have the same predisposition to make the night unique. There is a good show, a gastronomic menu and excellent wines. But the best thing is that we have clients who always repeat. I remember that Omar Sharif often came with his family to say goodbye to the year.
Q. Have you always had that cosmopolitan vibe?
R. When I arrived at the Corral I couldn't believe it. Here came from the Duchess of Alba to the Marchioness of Llanzol, dressed in Balenciaga. I came from Córdoba, from living in the post-war period, and I was impressed by the number of people who passed by this house. Here we have even fed Che Guevara. I told my husband who he was, and that I had seen him in a photo my brother had brought from Germany. When he came out he put on his cap and left. Everyone passes through here. The Rolling Stones always come, they like to see the show and the food.
Q. El Corral has gone around the world with the photographs of Genoveva Casanova and the crown prince of the Danish Crown
R. I wasn't there and I found out it was him when it was published. Many people come here who go unnoticed. Love stories have been forged here. Once, a Savoy princess asked my husband to witness her wedding to an actor. She wanted to get married that same night and my husband had to go wake up a priest to officiate the wedding. We have lived very strong stories.
Q. Count.
R. One night the Shah of Persia was having dinner here with his then wife, Soraya. At another table, there was an Iranian girl, who was celebrating that she had finished her degree in Architecture. She asked my husband to introduce her to the Shah. The following year, that girl married him. She was Farah Diba. Then we found out that the singer who was performing that night, Fosforito, had been invited to the event. It's incredible what happens here, like John Lennon.
Q. What happened to the Beatle?
R. We had already closed, when the journalist Antonio D. Olano who came with John Lennon knocked on the door. And he asked us that the only thing he wanted was to see how he played the Spanish guitar. He left at seven in the morning.
Q. But the success of the Corral cannot be understood without gastronomy.
R. They have always gone together, flamenco and cooking. When it opened in 1956, it served caviar, Thermidor lobster, sole meniersirloin brooch, bouillabaisse, an exquisite Norwegian salmon. Everything was delicacies, it was French-inspired cuisine.
Q. Now they serve another type of cuisine.
R. Now you have to offer creativity. Our chef, David García, and his team make unique dishes from the delicious base of Spanish cuisine and products. They have achieved a wonderful alchemy. The cook is like a sculptor who sculpts a bust, which must have good stone, which gives it category. We have been pioneers opening a different tablao model, giving stability to artists, promoting flamenco. My husband was a visionary.
Q. All the artists have also passed through here.
R. Here, at the age of 16, he presented his first single Paco de Lucía, who also chose the tablao to present Between two waters. Camarón came to see the great singers. Today people are not so fond of this art.
They have offered us to open in Argentina, in Mexico, in London, in Paris. Jack of all trades, master of none. And it is also complex for others to replicate it. Can you paint another Guernica? You can paint another work of art, but not the same one.
BLANCA DEL REY
Q. What did it mean for the tablao to be the first in its category to obtain a Michelin star?
R. Break all the walls. It was something that had not happened. It has been a good thing for everyone. The gastronomic experience combined with the artistic one, as another path. Chefs come from all over the world and tell us that what we do can be replicated.
Q. Could there be another Corral de la Morería?
R. They have offered us to open in Argentina, in Mexico, in London, in Paris. However, he who covers a lot does little. And it is also complex for others to replicate it. Can you paint another Guernica? You can paint another work of art, but not the same one, because it is not the same time or the same circumstances, nor is Picasso there. But there is a huge way to go. Gastronomy linked to art.
Q. The path you have taken to get here has been long, is success now sought in a more immediate term?
R. Everest is climbed step by step. And nothing is achieved quickly. Art and gastronomy have been part of our DNA for 70 years. It is not an artificial experience, it is something natural, and that is perceived. We have opened a path and it can be explored in different ways. We have created an avant-garde laboratory within the art world. Our artists receive the necessary support to freely develop their shows. We give them the tools to create and open new creative paths.
Q. They have also given the cook his space, the kitchen is as big as the living room.
R. There are two kitchens, one of 150 square meters and the other, intended for production, of 40 meters. The hall is about 200 meters, and the stage, 16 meters. We have not skimped on anything people need. There are 27 people in the kitchen, in total we are 70.
Q. They also have an important winery, with a Sherry wine list that is one of the most important in the world.
R. In total we will have more than 2,000 references, with 1,200 of Sherry wines. We are ambassadors of Spanish wine. Even winemakers from Jerez come to drink bottles from their homes, which they themselves do not keep. Recently, Beltrán Domecq, who was president of the regulatory council, came and threw his hands up when he gave him a Decano Napoleón from the 1730 vintage, by Pedro Domecq. Clients trust us, they put themselves in our hands to live an experience and we always put ourselves in their shoes. We work hard not to disappoint.
Q. And they get it.
R. We are left with what the director of an art school in London told his students here, with whom he travels to discover European art: 'If we had to teach beings from another planet the essence of the human being, we would have to bring them to the Corral'. We are special.
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