68 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {food coloring} On any given afternoon at Iberia Restaurant in Belmont, chef and owner Jose Luis Relinque can be found bustling around, preparing for dinner service with his team amid a flurry of activity—yet every day is different. On this particular afternoon, Jose Luis is troubleshooting the crash of his point-of-sale system; a friend is waiting in the bar to retrieve a cookbook she’d loaned him; and a delivery arrives, sending Ruby, the Norfolk terrier that accompanies him everywhere, into a frenzied fit of barking. “These are the challenges that come with the business, but I enjoy it,” Jose Luis says, unrattled. “It keeps me on my toes.” Iberia Restaurant has been serving authentic Spanish cuisine on the Peninsula for more than three decades. “We’ve served more than 400,000 paellas since we opened,” Jose Luis says. Beyond the ubiquitous paella, the kitchen turns out a wide range of regional specialties—from Basque Country and Catalonia in the north to Andalusia in the south. Jose Luis plans his menus months in advance, rotating dishes with the season, and always incorporating an element of the unexpected. “I change the menu constantly so that people always have a reason to look at it,” he says. “It’s a little bit like going to Costco—a treasure hunt. You always want to look to find out what’s new.” A typical menu includes an array of hearty, rustic fare like chickpeas with chanterelle mushrooms; classics such as patatas bravas and gambas al ajillo (pan-seared blue prawns with toasted garlic, smoked paprika and fino sherry); and more elaborate dishes like
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