70 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {food coloring} shrimp mousseline-stuffed morels with lobster-brandy sauce. Highlights this spring include gazpacho malagueño, a chilled soup made from almonds, bread, olive oil and vinegar; a tuna confit and bean salad; Portuguese hunter’s rice made with wild boar and antelope; and rice with clams. “It’s called ‘musical rice’ because when you discard the clamshells into a bowl, they make a ‘clack, clack, clack’ sound that’s like music to your ears,” Jose Luis says. There’s a story behind every dish served at Iberia Restaurant, even the sangria. The recipe dates back to the summer of 1974, Jose Luis’ last one in Spain before he came to California. He and his friends made a batch of sangria during an impromptu party at the apartment he was renting near the beach. “We didn’t have anything to put the sangria in, so we made it in the bathtub,” he laughs. “Of course, I lost the security deposit. That bathtub was never white again!” Back in those days, Jose Luis had no idea he would one day become a successful restaurant owner. The son of a policeman and a seamstress in Barcelona, Jose Luis was working on a master’s degree in physics at a local university before the allure of a new life in California beckoned. He arrived in the Bay Area in the fall of 1974 at 20 years old with a single suitcase, speaking no English, and with nowhere in particular to go. Thankfully, Jose Luis has a knack for making friends—a skill that has served him well throughout his career. While still at the airport, he met some Santa Clara University students who introduced him to the manager of a pizza restaurant on the Peninsula. Jose Luis started work immediately and quickly rose through the ranks, later landing jobs at more prestigious establishments, including the French restaurant Liaison in Palo Alto and an Italian seafood restaurant in Cupertino, where he was the manager. Almost 10 years after arriving in California, Jose Luis opened Iberia Restaurant in 1984 at the Ladera Country Shopper near Portola Valley. At the time, there were few authentic Spanish restaurants in the area, and he wanted to open “a casual place to meet friends and have some tapas and a glass of wine,” much like the bars and restaurants he frequented back
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