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Companies that French toast are the most traditional dessert of Lent and the Semana Santa in all Spain. Its origin dates back many centuries. In fact, the first written recipes are found in seventeenth-century books such as the well-known cookbook. Francisco Martínez Montiño. Even so, it is not only a Spanish dessert since the French have another very similar one that they call “French toast” (lost bread) and that in others places of the world it is known as “French bread”.
Torrijas are also present in the high kitchen from the hand of prominent chefs who have made them an emblematic dessert at any time of the year and not just in Lent. The pioneer was Martin Berasategui, who began offering them years ago on the menu of his Gipuzkoan restaurant. He was then followed by a good part of the Basque chefs and others from the rest of Spain such as Dani Garcia o Ricard Camarena.
Among the high-level restaurants where you can find them, we have made this small selection.
Lasarte
¿Donde?
Lasarte
Calle Mallorca, 259
Barcelona
Price: Average of 200
Martin Berasategui He was the pioneer in bringing torrijas to haute cuisine. We can find them in almost all the restaurants he runs, including this three stars of Barcelona.
In the kitchen, Paolo Casagrande, one of Martín’s favorite disciples, always a great master chef. Although the Italian seeks to mark his line, all the dishes bear the imprint of the mother house, the one located in the town that gives it its name. The stamp of the Basque chef It is in all the elaborations, but always with a wink that differentiates them and with a greater presence of the Mediterranean product. One of the great establishments of Barcelona.
Echaurren
¿Donde?
Echaurren
Calle Padre José García, 19
Ezcaray (La Rioja)
Price: Average of 100
Un luxury hotel, a haute cuisine restaurant with two Michelin stars and the traditional dining room form the emporium of the Paniego family in Ezcaray. A gastronomic pilgrimage point where you can choose between two styles, modern and traditional.
In their menus there is never a lack of torrijas, which Marisa Sánchez, the mother, already embroidered. For the memory remains the one that Francis Paniego made on tigernut soup with fresh cheese ice cream. This season we find an excellent toasted brioche on the menu.
Soule
¿Donde?
Soule
Bekosoro Square, 1
Oyarzun (Guipúzcoa)
Price: Average of 110
One of the great restaurants of traditional cuisine from Spain. Hilario Arbelaizt He executes eternal, immutable, perfectly executed dishes, much lighter than the statements can make us suppose, tasty.
Academic cuisine, full of technique, which does not forget (rather the opposite) the fundamental importance of the product. In the living room, his brother Eusebio makes customers feel at home. Among the great specialties of Soule there are the desserts (that cheese cake) and among them a magnificent French toast. The cook roasts it, with apple and cinnamon ice cream.
Casa Gerardo
¿Donde?
Casa Gerardo
Ctra. AS-19, km. 8,5
Prendes (Asturias)
Price: Average of 80
A restaurant with estrella Michelin backed by more than one hundred years of history and whose owners, the Morán family, already in the fifth generation, have managed to perfectly link tradition with modernity.
From the modest dining room where some dishes of the most popular cuisine of Asturias were served to one of the most creative restaurants from Spain. But always without giving up the roots that gave reason for being to this house where Pedro Morán and his son Marcos skillfully combine traditional cuisine with a more modern one, always based on excellent Asturian produce. Although your star dessert It is the rice pudding, the torrijas of this house have always stood out. The one they prepare this season is caramelized, with caramelized macadamia and caramel ice cream.
La Finca
¿Donde?
La Finca
Perleta Match, 1
Elche (Alicante)
Price: Meda de 90
Alicante Susi Diaz is one of the few Spanish cooks with estrella Michelin. Since 1984 he has been feeding very well in this restaurant located in a cozy chalet on the outskirts of Elche. Both in its menu and in its letter we find a festival of local produce, both from the orchards of the Vega Baja and from the Santa Pola fish market, with which the cook prepares simple and uncomplicated, delicate dishes, with great respect for the raw material, elegant presentations and subtle flavors.
In the same vein are desserts, among which this season there is a excellent torrija caramelised at the moment with Greek yogurt ice cream and coconut soup.
Albora
¿Donde?
Albora
Jorge Juan Street, 33
Madrid
Price: Average of 70
With a deserved estrella Michelin, is one of the restaurants more solid of Madrid. Owned by two entrepreneurs in the food sector, José Gómez (Joselito hams) and Cayo Martínez (La Catedral preserves), it has a large bar on the ground floor. And on the upper floor, the dining room, with a range of traditional Basque-inspired cuisine with light modern nods and always based on a first-rate product.
To complete customer satisfaction, it has a very complete winery and a very professional room team. In this line of classic cuisine, torrija is a fundamental dessert of the house. They make it caramelized, accompanied with cinnamon ice cream.
Urrechu Velazquez
¿Donde?
Urrechu Velazquez
Velázquez Street, 150
Madrid
Price: Average of 70
Íñigo Pérez He is a 47-year-old Basque chef with a long professional career and a great personality in the kitchen. Following the success of your Urrechu restaurant (name of the town where he was born) in the Zoco de Pozuelo Shopping Center, a few months ago he made the leap to the capital by opening this ambitious project in which he continues to offer his solid classic cuisine with Basque roots that he learned together with his teacher Martin Berasategui.
Logically, as a disciple of Lasarte’s, when it comes to desserts, torrijas are his great specialty. Probably the best haute cuisine in Madrid. The version presented on the menu these days consists of some cubes of artisan torrija with touches of coffee with milk and its cream.