I first met Frank Camorra years ago, as I dunked churros into a puddle of chocolate at his Melbourne restaurant MoVida. Of course, this was long before the birth of MoVida’s offshoots Next Door, Aqui and Terraza.

Today, I’m sipping sherry with him at Bodegas Sánchez Romate – one of the oldest sherry wineries in Jerez, a sherry town in the official wine region of Andalucia, Southern Spain.

I’m on the Biznaga Travel MoVida Rustica tour – named after Camorra’s book – an intimate trip that allows participants ample time to get to know the man behind MoVida. As the first few days pass, many opportunities for one-on-ones present themselves, and I relish the time spent talking, drinking and chatting about food and life. Camorra, despite moving to Australia at the age of five, retains deep ties to Spain, and passionately tells us of its culture, food and people. Meanwhile, the group gets to work, bringing the MoVida Rustica book to life. Camorra carries a tattered copy in his satchel and turns the pages to reveal characters we’ve met, places we’ve visited, and what’s to come.
 
Why a MoVida Rustica tour of Spain? “I wanted to open people’s eyes to interesting places they normally wouldn’t see; places that are usually off limits,” Camorra shares. Jerez’s 250-year-old Sánchez Romate bodega is usually closed to the public. “I think Romate have some of the best sherries in Spain,” he says, while sipping a light, dry sherry, coaxed into existence from the Palomino grape. Angel, the bodega’s formally attired Venenciador [an expert wine pourer], takes the cherished liquid from blackened wood soleras [barrels used for ageing the sherry] for us to imbibe. Dry Manzanilla or Fino varieties are lighter in colour than the more intensely sweet and nectar-like Moscatel and Pedro Ximénez at the other end of the sherry spectrum. Camorra muses, “Dad always had sherry at home while I was growing up. I enjoy drinking it with food – a slice of jamón [ham] or a piece of fried fish washed down with dry sherry is the perfect combination.”

Inside Sánchez Romate, white-washed walls are speckled with mould, helping to give the liquid its soul. In this part of Spain, life and sherry, it seems, go happily hand-in-hand.

We wile away whole days, laughing and learning, and shopping for ingredients to make Camorra’s seafood degustation in a cooking school that’s clinging to the hillside of the white-washed village of Vejer de la Frontera. We share croquettes, tortillas and petals of jamón, washed down with an Alhambra Negra lager or two, in bars without a tourist in sight. But perhaps the heart of the MoVida Rustica tour lies with Camorra’s heritage and our visit to the captivating province of Córdoba – the capital of Andalucia – of which Camorra speaks about with sentimentality and brings to life in the chapter of MoVida Rustica titled Al Andalus – The Moors’ Great Legacy.

The Moor of Córdoba

I find myself enamoured by Moorish influences in Córdoba: architecture brush-stroked with hues of saffron, turmeric and earthen spice; cooling patios adorned with intricately patterned geometric tiles; trickling fountains and lush greenery; and Córdoban cuisine’s exotic embellishments of honey, almonds, sultanas and saffron. Camorra’s heartfelt recollections of life here passed onto me a fondness for this province, its history, cuisine and exotic beauty, and the unabashed display of it on every corner.

Moorish influence can be seen in the people, Camorra included. “My appearance is Islamic, my name ‘Camorra’ means I have the background of a Moor; that’s my heritage,” he says.  As the day became long, we walked Córdoba’s streets and listened to his stories. Rounding a corner, we arrived at the vast Plaza de la Corredera. Camorra paused for a moment before turning to say, “This is where my father comes from.”

The food of Córdoba is known intimately by Camorra’s colleague and friend, Timoteo Gutierrez Rodriguez, head chef of Parador de Córdoba. Parador de Córdoba is one of 93 luxury hotels promoting the gastronomy of Spain from 16th to early 20th centuries. A parador’s kitchen aims to preserve what is authentic and traditional. Here, in Córdoba, such tradition includes battered eggplant fried and drizzled with golden syrup; Córdobés-style salmorejo [tomato-bread cream] with quail egg and jamón; lettuce hearts with garlic; and bacalao [dried salt cod] croquettes. Of the latter, Camorra says he’ll be trying them back home at MoVida, though his version will be infused with orange and involve nutty sesame seeds in the crumb. “We’ll see what people think of it,” he says.

Each of Rodriguez’s recipes have their history, such as stewed oxtail in the Córdobés style – a dish that dates back to the 16th century, showing a link between the Toros Festival and Camorra Senior’s stomping-ground around the Plaza de la Corredera. The mataderos (abattoirs) were erected in the square to butcher bulls’ carcases after their slow and untimely deaths in the ring. Locals would flock to work at the mataderos, where women workers were given the task of washing and separating secondary cuts of meat. Payment for their hard labour was in offal and bulls’ tails, and so, with resourcefulness and basic ingredients, the dish Rabo De Toro Estofado La Cordobesa came to life in the very heart of Córdoba’s domestic kitchens.

For a taste of the MoVida Rustica culinary tour, try your hand at this oxtail recipe below. The next group will head off with Frank Comorra in October 2011. If you’re interested in a foodie adventure you won’t forget, check here for more information.

For those heading to the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival this March, consider Biznaga Travel's Spanish weekend tour, which includes an intimate degustation with Frank Camorra. For details, click here.

Recipe

• Cordobés-style stewed oxtail