Thank you to everyone who this year decided to make Spain their holiday destination. It’s a fantastic place, which is why we spend so much time here. The food is really good and current in both magazines and on TV, and it’s where the sunshine lasts for more than a day at a time. The restaurants fill to overflowing and the blue flag beaches are packed – or so I’m told.

You see those who live here love it because we’re not here at the same time as the holidaymakers. We head for the hills.

Summer trips in the past have taken us to some very remote areas of Spain as well as areas that are popular with the Spanish and French. These places remain hidden from others.

This time we headed out with some friends to Morella inland from Peniscola leaving our house empty at the same time we were expecting some serious foodie guests in our flat below for a few days – sorry guys, but our trip was already booked and paid for.

Now if the sight of Morella doesn’t grab you once it comes into view, then the food will, especially for likeminded chefs using our tried and tested method of finding really good food. I almost always head for the kitchen and have done for many years, especially in places where despite shouting louder, foreign menus remain indecipherable, such as Thailand and Malaysia and even in some parts of Spain.

These visits have also included some of the finest restaurant kitchens in the world. I still prefer to hear the chef explain his dishes or special purchases than any waiter and, let’s face it, we all like the opportunity to show off a bit as well. Obviously timing is critical and certainly not during a busy service or even after unless invited, but I admit I’ve never ever had a poor meal where I’ve visited the kitchen beforehand.

Morella is an outstanding example of a medieval fortress, perched on a hilltop, crowned by a castle and enclosed by a wall more than 2km long. It claims to be one of Spain’s oldest continually inhabited towns and is steeped in history and tradition. No one readily speaks English and there is no evidence of anything branded such as burgers and pizzas, or Chinese restaurants. We didn’t even see a supermarket – bliss.

Having briefly scanned the town’s main streets, we were tired and hungry and a little wary about eating in the hotel restaurant. This was the normal apprehension we feel when eating in any hotel, especially when the word hotel comes before the word restaurant – even if this time it was included in the price of the room for the first night.

Typically Spanish, empty at 8.30-9pm, we ventured into the dark and soulless hotel restaurant where even the waiter looked fed up – no smile, no welcome. On the basis that I’ve never had a bad meal when I’ve visited a kitchen, I asked if I could see it before looking at the menu as I was a chef too. Much to my surprise the waiter beamed with delight and said the chef was his wife and come on through to meet her.

It doesn’t take but a nanosecond to see if any kitchen is any good or not in any language to ascertain if the person in charge is interested in their job and can cook or not. The sights and smells that greeted me on this occasion were definitely the first positive and encouraging steps towards what turned out to be a most memorable meal.

The first course alone of sopa de Morella would warrant another visit. A truly spectacular homemade chicken consommé – I saw it on the stove, completely covered with tiny individual choux buns about the same size as glass marbles.

This kept the consommé hot, soaked up any errant fat that was on the top, while amazingly keeping the rest of the choux still slightly crisp to the taste.

The next few days were spent visiting as many recommended restaurant kitchens as possible. Word it seems had got out that an inquisitive English chef who could speak a little Spanish was on the look out, as I was warmly welcomed into the kitchens of even fully booked restaurants. The food I was offered to taste would have made the best in our industry sit up and take note.

Settling on a restaurant in the back streets of Morella late at night and of course having seen the chef and the kitchen, we had a Mezcla [a selection] of local appetisers before I cheekily asked that the chef should decide what I should eat next.

Not a bad decision as it turned out as I got a medium rare Solomillo con foie y trufa – fillet of local beef, stuffed with local foie, topped with finely sliced local truffle. When I thanked the chef and his staff later for the food and attention they had given us, I had to mention that honoured as I was to feel worthy of the finest of ingredients he possessed in his kitchen I would have been just as honoured to have tasted the most meagre of dishes had it been prepared by his own hands.

Now I’m used to weird and wonderful sights, some of which are really bizarre, but once you have visited the commercial food markets in Malaysia or South Africa then there is not much left to surprise me – until this trip.

In a shop window on the high street in the middle of town, hung a whole fat covered leg of cured beef. It wasn’t exactly taking up part of the window display as much as taking up all of it. Well if it’s that good, why not make a meal of it, which of course is exactly what we did.

Cecina as its called represents three main types of air dried, cured and slightly smoked meat including wild boar, local deer and beef. I always maintain that my next tasting could be the best thing ever, so it was with some excitement that we prepared for our tasting beginning with the beef.

Sliced very thinly the first surprise is that unlike mass produced Spanish jamons whose flavour is somewhat masked by the over saltiness, this beef is not at all too salty.

It has a good mature flavour with only an after taste of wood smoke, which at present we are only too familiar with; good flavour also in the little fat that was available in our piece. Other professionals who tried it said that compared with say an Italian bresaola, it had a lighter taste and if it were a wine it’s more a Cote de Rhône than claret although which way round it was meant is for you to discover. Ask a reputable UK meat supplier to try and source some.

The only ingredients listed are salt and then cured using “humo de roble”, which is oak smoke although whether this means holm oak or not remains to be investigated. Holm oak refers to trees that produce acorns for consumption by Iberican pigs for the production of traditional jamon Iberico de Bellota.

Having met a lot of the local chefs and even the local baker trying to find out if she made the tiny choux buns locally and of course what was the exact recipe, we walked down the main street early on Sunday morning past a few bars which were traditionally busy, to be once again greeted warmly at almost every bar by the very staff of the restaurants I had been chatting to over the past couple of days. Not for the first time did I personally feel right at home.

• Edwin and Trudy Cheeseman run the Thieves Kitchen Consultancy in the UK and in Spain. For further details, contact [email protected]

Words: Edwin Cheeseman