Masters Champions Dinner: Jon Rahm gave fellow winners a taste of Spain's Basque region

The Masters golf tournament holds a Champions Dinner every year in which previous champions are invited and share a meal. What's unique is that the previous year's winner chooses the menu.

As defending champ, Spain's Jon Rahm selected the menu for Tuesday evening, with his spread giving homage to his country's Basque region.

Starters included six options of tapas and pintxos (Spanish-style starters), which included Iberian ham, chorizo, truffles, croquettes, Spanish omelets and a classic lentil stew from his grandmother's recipe. Then came a Basque crab salad. The main entree was a choice of chuleton a la parrilla, a grilled ribeye steak with piquillo peppers, or rodaballo al pil-pil, a Cod dish with a sauce made from garlic, dried chilli and olive oil, with white asparagus.

Dessert included milhojas de crema y nata — a puff pastry cake with Chantilly cream and custard, which was similar to Rahm's wedding cake.

Also according to the New York Times, the Spanish-born celebrity chef José Andrés helped develop the menu.

Andrés was in the news last week when seven aid workers for his World Central Kitchen were inadvertently killed by Israeli military while helping in Gaza. The Palm Beach Post also reported in February that the chef was bringing a restaurant to the planned Olara condominium in West Palm Beach.

During Tuesday's Champions Dinner, some fellow golfers, like fellow Spaniard José María Olazábal, chose the fish. Others, such as Craig Stadler, ordered the meat.

Charles Coody, a proud Texan who won the Masters in 1971, picked fish.

“I didn’t want to venture too far into no-man’s land,” Coody said.

Controversy from Champion Dinners past

In 1997, Tiger Woods was finishing up his historic and first of five Masters titles when fellow golfer Fuzzy Zoeller made racist remarks about what Woods might serve at the following year's Champions Dinner.

Zoeller later said he was joking when he made these comments:

“Pretty impressive,” Zoeller told CNN. “That little boy is driving well and he’s putting well. He’s doing everything it takes to win. So you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year … or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.”

Woods, who lives in Jupiter Island, was the first Black man to win The Masters and the first of Asian descent. Woods' mother is Thai and his father, who passed away in 2006, was Black.

Woods a week later said he thought that "no personal animosity toward me was intended," but when Woods and Zoeller ended up in a threesome at the 1998 Masters, there was some tension.

Zoeller's former caddy said it was Woods who broke the ice, according to Reuters.

"On the (par-three) sixth tee, everybody stuffed it in there (close to the hole)," Kerr told Reuters. "As the three pros were walking off the tee, Tiger said: 'Let's all walk off the greens with twos.'

"Here was the young statesman taking the lead to make everyone feel at ease.

"It broke the ice, eased the tension 100 percent. It wasn't just class, it was world class. And guess what, everyone walked off with a birdie and had a little chuckle."

What were some interesting meals at Champions Dinner?

Two years ago, at the 2022 Champions Dinner, Hideki Matsuyama, from Japan, offered assorted sushi and sashimi for appetizers and the choice of Miso-glazed black cod or Wagyu beef ribeye with ponzu sauce. Desert was Japanese strawberry shortcake.

As a side note, Matsuyama, who didn't speak English, stunned the table of former champions by reciting an emotional speech in English, prompting what was reported to be the first standing ovation in the history of the dinners.

In 2021, Dustin Johnson, who lives in Jupiter, offered pigs-in-a-blanket and lobster and corn fritters for appetizers and peach cobbler for dessert.

In 2020, Woods offered up an "Augusta roll" made of tempura shrimp, spicy tuna, avocado and eel sauce. His dessert choices were classic flan, churros with chocolate sauce and sopapillas (a kind of fried pasty).

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Masters champion Jon Rahm's champions dinner straight from Spain