One of the great moments of the Masters of Augusta week takes place less than 48 hours before the competition officially kicks off. On Tuesday night, at the Club House of the Augusta National, a dinner is served in honour of the previous edition’s champion, to which all players who have ever won the famous Green Jacket in their career are invited. A very familiar and close encounter in which the current champion is in charge of preparing the menu that the rest of the Masters winners will enjoy.
In this upcoming edition of the famous major, this role will be assumed by the Spaniard Jon Rahm, as the champion of the Masters of 2023. And as expected, the one from Barrika has not disappointed, revealing the dishes that, prepared by the famous Spanish chef José Andrés, will have the opportunity to taste many of the best players in history, who will share table and tablecloth and will undoubtedly enjoy a pleasant evening, full of memories and experiences, before the action begins.
The tournament organisation, through its social networks, has shared the menu chosen by Jon for the Champions Dinner. But the Spanish golfer, in a press conference in which Ten-Golf has participated, has given some more specific details. Of course, Rahm has made it clear that his idea since he lifted the trophy and donned the Green Jacket in April of last year was “to pay tribute to Basque cuisine” at this meeting with the rest of the tournament winners.
As starters for the Dinner, the one from Barrika has chosen green pepper from Guernica, gildas (although he has revealed that he doesn’t particularly like them much, but they cannot be missing in a Basque cuisine menu), lentils from the ‘amá’ (or what is the same, lentils in the style of those cooked by his mother), Iberian ham, Iberian loin, chistorra, Idiazábal cheese with truffle, chicken croquettes and a scrambled rebozuelos (famous mushrooms that are cooked in his land).
Then a txangurro salad will be served, another famous dish of Basque cuisine. And as a main course, to choose, a grilled T-bone steak or a turbot pil-pil. For dessert, cream and cream millefeuille, a delight that according to Jon, “whoever has not tried it, will have to do it”. And all this watered with txakoli as a white wine option and a Imperial Gran Reserva from 2017 as a red wine, a Rioja that has a very special value for the champion of Barrila.
“It was my grandfather’s favourite wine and it’s my father’s favourite. In fact, they gave me a special edition from 1994 that the Athletic Club launched, which coincides with the year of my birth, and I have it stored at home in a special place. For me that bottle is as if I had my grandfather’s ashes, whenever I see it I remember him”, he confessed. Of course, this Imperial, like the Txakoli, will have a special label in honour of Rahm, which Ten-Golf has had access to.
The Champions Dinner also has another peak moment, when the champion in whose honour the feast is served gives a speech to the rest of the legends with whom he shares table and tablecloth. For some players it is an intimidating moment and they spend several days thinking about what they are going to say or building their speech. In the case of Jon, he has decided to improvise: “I’m not going to prepare it, I know it’s not going to be easy, that it will cost me, but I prefer to say what comes out of me at that moment, what comes from my heart, and it will surely be the best. I have never prepared a speech in my life and I will not do it now”.
Rahm, as we say, has been advised when choosing the menu for his Champions Dinner of the Masters of Augusta by the famous Spanish chef José Andrés, famous worldwide, but especially in the United States, where he is a celebrity. He has been the one who has advised the Spaniard when shaping his menu with a single phrase that the one from Barrika has taken as a base: “Make the dinner as if it were the one you would make one night for yourself at home”.
