A luxurious Made in Spain dinner with the masterful touch of Chef José Andrés.

You are cordially invited to dine with two Decathletes from our team on the 9th and 12th of October, and to participate in the Home Entertainment portion of the Solar Decathlon 2009 competition. TeamSPAIN will be serving a very special, “finger-licking good” dinner in the Black&White House. From day one, we have wanted to organize something unique and surprising for this particular evening. This year, we are honoured to have chef José Andrés as our official patron and culinary advisor working with TeamSpain..

José is a world-renowned chef who is known as the “unofficial Spanish ambassador” to the United States. His business, the THINKfoodGROUP, operates some of the most popular restaurants in Washington, D.C.; the Jaleo restaurant was the first to introduce “tapas”-style dining to the U.S. José Andrés also supervises the specialties at Café Atlántico, which serves Latin American inspired cuisine, Zaytinya, which serves a fusion of Greek and Turkish food, Oyamel, serving traditional Mexican foods, and the minibar by josé andrés, which serves the chef’s specialties in an intimate setting.

Here in Spain, he is known as the host of the TVE program Let’s Cook. In the U.S., he is the host and producer of José Made in Spain, a 26-episode PBS television series that focuses on the food and culture of Spain. Throughout his expansive career, he has received numerous awards and has appeared in various media outlets.

What’s more, we’ve got the invaluable support of Rubén García, José Andrés’ right-hand man. Rubén provides menu suggestions, quality control, and works with promotions and events.

The menu that José has created for us will combine traditional Spanish culinary art with the innovation of the nouvelle cuisine. It will hint at typical American cuisine and also the unique tastes of chef Ferrán Adriá, who was José’s mentor. We are certain that the food will please even the most discerning of palates, and that you will find the evening most enjoyable. We’ve designed this special menu for you, our future dinner party guests, so that you may get a sneak peek at the evening’s offerings and learn about the nutritional information and ingredients of the dishes you will soon enjoy.

And what of the recipes? For now, we’re keeping those a secret, but we can assure you it's going to be something unforgettable for every one!

Comic Strip

Who said Decathletes don't have a sense of humor! Check out this week's comic strip:

If you want to see all of our comic strips and find more information related to the TeamSPAIN B&W House project, subscribe to our Newsletter at: http://www.solardecathlon.upm.es/

Latest TeamSPAIN meeting

Hello there!

We've just had a really important meeting concerning safety procedures and contest strategies. The conclusions that were reached at this meeting are totally confidential, so we've had to modify the image to preserve the confidentiality of the meeting.

By the way: these meetings are now taking place twice a week! We've pumped up security in case you were thinking of sending in your spies :)

TeamSPAIN Goes for the Oscar

Hi Everyone,

We have just finished the storyboard for our "House Tour Video." Some of us will be acting, others directing and producing, so this will be a fun experience for us. It'll also give us a bit of a break from the measurements, deliveries, and finishing touches that we've been putting on The B&W House.

We've got very refined cinematographic tastes, so we're very picky about who we will allow to direct our video, though here's two candidates who may be up for the job:



Yeah, we wish...

More from us soon!

TeamSPAIN

TeamSPAIN Speaks English

Today we implemented a new rule at TeamSPAIN. Everyone is speaking English from July 1st. Coincidentally, today is the first of July and we Spaniards are warming up for our participation at the competition in Washington by forgetting our mother tongue.



I'm sure you're aware of how much fun we're having with this initiative :-) And no, we are not uploading any MP3's of the experience, though we might be persuaded to prepare a video...

TeamSPAIN

We've got a new video!

Hello everyone!

We are already preparing for Washington. Decathletes have been revising documents to keep our organisers happy, and to get money for the work we’ve done ;-)

Also, as many of you know, we presented at SIMA (Madrid’s Real Estate Fair), and were also present at Rivas Vaciamadrid, a fair that focused on sustainability. We also organized a farewell party to say goodbye to The Black&White House. We’ve prepared a great video of the SIMA event, and we will soon post one from Rivas.



In the meantime, we are putting some finishing touches on the House, and are gathering our artistic resources to film a demo video for the public exhibit, where two decathletes will play a couple who lives at The Black&White House. Steven Spielberg's schedule was a little booked, so we’ve decided to direct it ourselves and we hope to surprise you with the results!

Also, the fourth edition of our newsletter will be out soon, so we will let you know when it’s ready. Stay tuned!

TeamSPAIN

The Final Countdown

Hello Everyone!

How is everything? Here at TeamSPAIN we have been quite busy. It's Thursday now and it feels like a weird combination of Monday and Friday to us. Last Tuesday we delivered the final plans and, for most of us, that has meant working Saturdays, Sundays, and exploring hours of the day we didn't know existed. Family and friends were worried about us, but fortunately we have all recovered from the final push, and we are ready for the next step... Washington.

For all of you new readers, TeamSPAIN is a group of Spanish students and professionals that are going to compete in Washington in October with a prototype of a solar-powered house we call The Black&White House. The competition is the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon 2009, and it is quite an event. For us it means a lot of fun, work, and learning all at once.

We are going to update this blog at least once a week, building up to the competition. We would like to make you part of our project and keep you informed. We want you to live this trip with us, get to know us, and celebrate with us when we get to Washingtong and... well... win :-)

So stay tuned, subscribe to the newsletter on the website, get your rss feed, and get ready for the solar event of the year.

TeamSPAIN