Tuesday, October 9, 7:00 P.M.
Members $85, guests $110

OUT OF A CREATIVE TRADITION that has given us Gaudi and Dali comes Mariano Aznar, a Barcelona native whose culinary artistry can be enjoyed at Solera in midtown Manhattan. There, as Ruth Reichl wrote in The New York Times, "prepare to be seduced by the food and wine of Spain."

Aznar embarked on his culinary career at age 15 with an apprenticeship at the famous Princesa Sofía Hotel in Barcelona. A few years later, he attended the Culinary Arts School in Girona. After graduation, he worked for several years in Barcelona at the French-inflected Brasserie Flo and Regines Restaurant, then returned to Girona to be executive chef at La Gaviota, a well-known Mediterranean restaurant. Ten years ago, Aznar headed to the New World, not in search of spices but of a place in which he could share the culinary wonders of Iberia.

In New York, he took a job as executive chef at Paradis Barcelona, where he cooked the food from his native province of Catalunya. Three years later, he became sous-chef at Rufino Lopez’s Solera, and in 1997, he took charge of the kitchen. In his capable hands, Solera has been embraced by critics and paella-enchanted Manhattanites alike. "Unfortunately, New York’s not filled with top-flight Spanish restaurants," New York Press wrote, "but our feeling is that Solera would take ‘Best Spanish’ gold even if it were."

On his menu, Aznar explores Spain from top to bottom, leading diners on a mouth-watering culinary tour. He serves salmorejo and butifarra from Andalucía; cabrales from Asturias; piquillo, bacalao, and vizcaina from the Basque country; tarta de Santiago from Galicia; and montado of Serrano from Catalunya; all with hard-to-find Spanish wines.

But Aznar doesn’t limit himself to cooking by the map. "In Solera there’s also room for imagination and refinement," Juan Pablo Cardenal wrote in Arte de Vivir. Aznar dresses dishes with foams, fills sausages with ostrich and shrimp, and serves daring sweet-and-savory desserts. As Alice Feiring wrote in Wine Spectator, "At Solera there’s ample opportunity for adventure."