Day after day, Spanish chef Jesus Lopez serves up treats like a steaming stew of red beans with spicy chorizo sausage and bacon chunks. And that’s just the first course. Next comes hake au gratin on a bed of spinach, and cream-stuffed puff pastry for dessert.
Lopez owns a small, upscale place catering to business people who eat the old-fashioned Spanish way and often come to negotiate or celebrate deals. They punctuate work with a break of two hours or more for a hearty meal-the rest of the work day be damned. But many now wonder if struggling Spain can continue to afford a tradition that-for some-borders on sacred.
