Who invented San Sebastian cheesecake?
San Sebastian cheesecake originated from La Viña restaurant in the city with the same name. The restaurant, opened by the parents and relatives of Santiago Rivera, the creator of the recipe, was opened in 1959.
The dessert is also known as Donostia cheesecake. Donostia is the Basque name for the city of San Sebastian in the Basque Country, where the dessert originated.
Chef Rivera stated that he started experimenting with the dessert recipe in 1987 and added it to the menu three years later. "Our customers have made the dessert famous over time," said the 64-year-old chef.
Santiago Rivera, the chef of the bar-restaurant
I was born on August 3rd, 1960, at the 31 de Agosto street in Donostia-San Sebastian, next to Bar Restaurante La Viña. I was trained as a bartender and a cook, but my parents taught me to run a restaurant. I have studied at the Basque Culinary Centre and here I have also given lessons for cooking enthusiasts, to whom I have taught some of my techniques on cooking pintxos and about cooking in general.
https://lavinarestaurante.com/en/santiago-rivera-chef/
Rivera explained that he was surprised that his recipe gained international fame:
"We did nothing to support the cake's success. He became famous in his own right. Because people loved it."
Rivera said that, in addition to social media, the fact that the New York Times, one of the famous US newspapers, included the dessert in 2021 may also have contributed to the fame, and said, "La Viña's cheesecake created a new style. Since then, new variants of this style have appeared around the world."
"The dessert has become a social phenomenon in Turkey," Rivera said, adding that the cake is also known in Japan and the USA, and its name has started to be heard in Australia and France.
However, the chef explained that he has not tried any other version of the dessert other than his own recipe:
"I believe they don't taste the same as this one. Because while they're all about 85 percent the same, 15 percent depends on minor details."
Where is San Sebastian cheesecake from?
Caramelized on top, jiggly in the center, served with no garnish, tossed across the bar with nothing more than a fork — the five-ingredient cheesecake from La Viña in San Sebastián, Spain, has managed to captivate chefs and diners across the world, under the name Basque burnt cheesecake.