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Tom Mullen. Artistic foreplay outside the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao includes the flower-dappled, two story high puppy guarding the forecourt, the War of The Worlds like spider—Maman—patrolling the river border, and a bouquet of giant multicolored steel tulips.

Other museum art, separate from inner exhibition halls, includes the food at Guggenheim’s Nerua, a Michelin starred restaurant named after the adjacent Nervión River. As part of a year long celebration marking the two-decade anniversary of the museum, a series of special ‘four-hands’ dinners (‘cenas a 4 manos,’ in Spanish; ‘ongietorri’ in Euskera—the Basque language) take place at Nerua this year. These feature four visiting chefs from Mexico, Argentina and Peru, as well as Nerua’s own chef—Josean Alija.

The first of these special dinners took place last week.

One year shy of a quarter century ago, Bruno Oteiza left his homeland in the Spanish Basque country to travel to Mexico City. There, a promised kitchen position suddenly vanished, leaving him with little choice but to tap on doors, seeking work and restarting his career. Eventually Oteiza’s talents were recognized. He rose to become co-owner of Biko Restaurant in the city. He and Spanish co-owners recognized that for their venture to succeed—they needed to create a unique culinary identity.

“There is a deep, rich mysterious magic to cooking in Mexico,” Oteiza said. He spoke at a 'Creativity in Gastronomy' lecture inside the Guggenheim auditorium before the celebratory dinner. Because indigenous products differ in the northern, central, and coastal regions of Mexico, several cuisines have developed independently. Finding a typical ‘Mexican’ dish can be both impractical and undesirable for chefs such as Oteiza.

“Above all we wanted freedom,” he said. “We wanted to create the richest flavors with the best quality Mexican products. We had to discover new emotions for food. We have a responsibility—always—to surprise.” To ground these abstract terms, Oteiza projected flow charts and diagrams onto the auditorium screen. These showed links between methods and meals, revealing science behind the art of forming sensory, technical and emotional kitchen combinations.

Their resulting ‘gatxupa’ cuisine shares Mexican and Basque roots...

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