Mallorca’s delicious rustic cuisine is undergoing a revival. We travel to the rural town of Sineu to attend a cookery course and learn some new techniques

Early morning and the seafood stalls at Mercat del’Olivar, Palma’s bustling fresh produce market, are glossy with fish and crustaceans: lobsters and crabs waving claws and antennae; langostinos in colours from baby pink to scorched orange and a dizzying selection of fish, including shark, sardines, grouper and hunks of blood-red tuna belly. Much of it has obviously just been caught – the fish are still flipping and twitching on the ice.

Tyrone is grinning with anticipation. “These couldn’t be fresher,” he says, drawn by a collection of colourful small fish for greixonada de peixe (fish casserole), but finally grabbing up half a dozen plump silver-scaled dorada (dolphin fish) and a pile of gleaming squid: “I’ll show you how to gut it and prepare it all later,” he promises.

Today is the start of a three-day Mediterranean Cuisine Course I am attending in Mallorca organised by tailor-made travel operator Balearic Discovery under the tuition of international chef Tyrone Power. Tyrone’s culinary CV includes jobs as private chef for The Rolling Stones, Andrea Bocelli and Oprah Winfrey, and he has spent recent years based largely in Mallorca catering aboard mega-yachts. The result? Balearic cuisine has become a passion.

“I adore its simplicity,” he says. “Like all Mediterranean food, it is based around olive oil, tomato and garlic, but this island has its own specialities.” We can, he says, forget heavy sauces and creams: “It is all about strong rustic flavours, based a lot on fish, pork and lamb, produced from the freshest local produce using good peasant cooking.”  

‘Peasant’ in this sense is not pejorative, but hints at the food’s origins – local and fresh. For many years, this rustic fare was lost on an island besieged by package tourists, but today the local gastronomy is enjoying a Renaissance. In turn, Mallorca is attracting a more sophisticated international visitor.

In fact, the island boasts six Michelin stars – more than Madrid  – and across the plains and pine-clad hills, traditional fincas are being transformed into 'agroturismos' and boutique hotels offering gourmet dining.

Along with my fellow course participants, Maria and Adelle, I follow Tyrone through the market crowds and help to fill bags with hard Manchego-type cheeses; fresh pork chuletas (chops); plump red tomatoes; shining peppers; juicy oranges and lemons with their leaves still attached; fresh green beans, and bunches of fragrant coriander and mint. After a break for café con leche, strong and sweet, we load it all into the car and head back to our base, Sineu, a small agricultural town at the centre of the island.

We pile into a lunch of the Mallorcan classic, pa amb oli (literally bread and oil rubbed with garlic and tomato), local cheeses, serrano ham and sobrasada (a sweet spicey pork sausage), and then head up to our rooms for a short siesta – this is Spain after all – then, in the early evening, we don aprons and get to work.

Read the full article in our February 2009 edition.

Words Sarah Monaghan
Pictures Sarah Monaghan/Anthony Quayle