Berasategui Modifies Classic Russian Salad with Deep Sea Flavor Infusion

The Spanish staple known as 'ensaladilla rusa' or 'ensaladilla Olivier' has a culinary history dating to the 1860s in Moscow, where chef Lucien Olivier first conceived the dish at the Hermitage restaurant. While the original iteration featured luxury components such as pheasant, caviar, and river crabs, the contemporary Spanish adaptation typically centers on potato, peas, carrots, hard-boiled eggs, and tuna.

Michelin-starred chef Martín Berasategui, who holds twelve Michelin stars across his establishments, including three at his Lasarte-Oria restaurant, has introduced a specific modification to intensify the dish's inherent flavor profile. Berasategui, who began his training at age 14 in his parents' restaurant, Bodegón Alejandro, focuses his technique on the preparation of the sauce base. His method involves fully integrating flaked tuna and anchovies directly into the homemade mayonnaise before the final emulsification is complete.

This pre-mixing step allows the intense marine essence from the fish to permeate the fat structure of the mayonnaise, creating a sauce uniformly rich and deeply flavored. This ensures that every component of the salad is coated with a sauce imbued with a profound sea flavor, a departure from simply folding in the ingredients after the mayonnaise is created. The chef further advises incorporating cooked ham to establish a contrast between 'land and sea' elements within the salad's texture and taste spectrum.

To balance the richness contributed by the infused mayonnaise and the ham, Berasategui recommends the addition of fresh arugula, which introduces a necessary element of peppery freshness to mitigate the mixture's density. This approach reframes the familiar potato salad into a more complex gastronomic experience, reflecting the innovative yet respectful style of a chef instrumental in elevating Basque cuisine.

The original 'Salade Olivier' was created by Olivier, a chef of Belgian origin working in Moscow, around 1860 for the elite clientele of the Hermitage. The recipe was closely guarded until his death in 1883. The dish evolved into the modern 'ensaladilla rusa' following the Russian Revolution of 1917, when Ivan Ivanov adapted the recipe using more accessible ingredients, leading to its widespread adoption across Europe and eventually Spain as a ubiquitous tapa. Berasategui's refinement emphasizes that precise execution of the binding agent can achieve significant flavor enhancement even in a dish with such a long and varied history.