Ben Pawlowski
SPANISH golf star Jon Rahm has revealed the menu for his Champions Dinner ahead of the 2024 Masters golf tournament.
After winning last year’s major championship with a score of 12 under-par, Rahm has the honour of choosing the courses for the traditional pre-tournament dinner.
Every year, all the players to have ever won the prestigious green jacket congregate together at Augusta National for a meal selected by the previous year’s winner.
Last year’s dinner, chosen by current world No.1 Scottie Scheffler, included cheeseburger sliders, a ribeye steak and a chocolate chip cookie.
This year’s mouth-watering menu pays tribute to Rahm’s Spanish roots, including traditional dishes from his native Basque Country.
To wet the appetite, Rahm will offer six tapas and pintxos: Ibericos (acorn-fed Iberian ham and cured pork loin), Idiazabal cheese with black truffle, Spanish omelette, Croqueta de pollo (creamy chicken croquettes with confit potatoes), spicy Basque chorizo with potato, and Mama Rahm’s classic lentil stew.
The homemade stew will be made to Rahm’s grandmother’s recipe by Jose Andres, the chef in charge of cooking up the Spaniard’s feast.
Rahm said: “He called my grandma for the recipe so if somebody doesn’t like it, please don’t tell me. Don’t tell anyone actually!”.
To start, Rahm will serve up Ensalada de Txangurro, a traditional Basque salad served with potato.
For main course, guests will have to choose from two options showcasing the breadth and depth of Spanish cuisine – a sumptuous Chuleton a la parrilla (a Basque ribeye served with padron peppers) or a fresh Rodaballo al pil-pil (Turbot with Navarra white asparagus).
To conclude proceedings, dessert will be Milhojas de crema y nata, a puff pastry cake accompanied with custard and chantilly cream.
In 2018, fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia wowed his guests with arroz caldoso de bogavante, a traditional Spanish lobster rice.
Rahm, 29, will be hoping to retain the prestigious green jacket in his first major championship since he joined the controversial Saudi-funded LIV Golf League in a deal worth €500 million.
The tour, bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), has caused a bitter civil war in golf, with the likes of Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson leaving the PGA Tour to join the lucrative breakaway league.
Directors from the PGA Tour, traditionally regarded as golf’s premier tour, met with officials from the PIF in the Bahamas this week in a desperate effort to reach a deal to end the sport’s acrimonious divorce.
Many golfers in the LIV Golf League are currently barred from playing in the four major championships – the Masters, the Open, the US Open and the US PGA Championship.
Ahead of the Masters, which tees off on April 11, Rahm said: “I’m definitely looking forward to joining with the rest of the best golfers in the world and teeing it up in the Masters with them”.
“I think there’s a way of co-existing and, if there’s some type of union, I don’t know what that looks like. I just want to see again the best in the world being able to compete against the best in the world, whatever that looks like. If there is some type of peace achieved I think it can actually push the game forward”.
Rahm is currently captain of Legion XIII, LIV Golf’s 13th team which includes his Ryder Cup teammate Tyrrell Hatton.
READ MORE:
- Sergio Garcia’s chickens finally come home to roost after joining LIV Golf
- Jon Rahm becomes fourth Spanish golfer to win US Masters in Augusta
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