{"id":38852,"date":"2023-01-25T09:48:29","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T08:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basquemagazine.com\/gastronomy\/la-basque-cheesecake-junto-a-las-piramides-de-egipto\/"},"modified":"2023-01-25T10:20:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T09:20:49","slug":"the-basque-cheesecake-next-to-the-pyramids-of-egypt","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/basquemagazine.com\/en\/gastronomy\/the-basque-cheesecake-next-to-the-pyramids-of-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"The Basque Cheesecake, next to the pyramids of Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\tPLANES\n\t<\/h3>\n\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\n

\n\t\tM\u00e1s sobre:\n\t<\/h4>\n\n\t

The famous Mena House Hotel in Cairo<\/strong> has just included in its restaurant menu one of the most internationally renowned Basque desserts, the Basque Cheesecake<\/strong> or, to put it another way, the cheesecake from the Donostia restaurant “La Vi\u00f1a”<\/strong>. We have been able to see it for ourselves.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\""La\n\t\t“La Vi\u00f1a” cheesecake.\n\t

F.E. Smith, Winston Churchill’s<\/strong> closest friend, explained his insistence on staying at the UK Prime Minister’s Mena House Hotel in these words: “Churchill is a man of simple tastes<\/strong> … very easily satisfied with the best of everything<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n

If Churchill had stayed at the Mena House in Cairo<\/strong> these days and decided to eat in its restaurant facing the pyramids<\/strong>, among the fountains, gardens and palm trees, it is likely that he would have chosen our most famous cake<\/strong> in the world for dessert.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"Desserts\n\t\tDesserts from the Mena House menu.\n

\n\t\tCairo’s Mena House\n\t<\/h2>\n\t

Set in the shadow of Cairo’s pyramids (the Cheops<\/strong> pyramid rises seven hundred metres from the hotel) and amidst 16 hectares<\/strong> of lush jasmine-scented gardens, this stunning 520-room<\/strong> hotel, one of the most beautiful in Africa, constantly evokes its palatial origins and legendary history.<\/p>\n

It has been home to leading 20th century personalities such as several Princes of Wales and Dukes of Windsor, General Montgomery<\/strong>, Winston Churchill, Roosevelt, Nixon, Sadat, Rezah Pahlavi, the Aga Khan and artists of the stature of Cecil B. DeMille<\/strong>, Frank Sinatra and Agatha Christie; famous actors and actresses, from Jane Fonda to Roger Moore, Charlton Heston<\/strong>, Chaplin and Omar Sharif. So, more than a hotel, when we speak of the Mena House, we speak of a legend.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"Portad\n

\n\t\tThe cheesecake of “La Vi\u00f1a”\n\t<\/h2>\n\t

“I worked on my days off, reading cookbooks and doing a lot of tests. And that’s how, after two years, I managed to come up with our cheesecake”, explains Santiago Rivera<\/strong>, owner of La Vi\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

The cake started to become known when national and international chefs began to make their own versions<\/strong> with the base of this recipe and to call them La Vi\u00f1a-style cheesecake. “I make pintxos, txuleta<\/em>, monkfish… my gastronomic offer is different, but the cheesecake has triumphed,” says Rivera. Chefs from all over Singapore, Japan and San Francisco<\/strong>, to give just a few examples, have taken this sweet, which has been a trend for some time now, as a reference.<\/p>\n\t

Don’t lose:<\/p>\n\t\n\t\"Loiu<\/a>\n\t\t