Joseba Arguiñano, the only professional chef and pastry maker among the seven children of the famous Karlos Arguiñano, has revealed the tricks for ultra-creamy rice pudding - a discipline that looks simple but where everyone slips. The recipe seems straightforward, but grandma's way does it one way, the restaurant does it another, and a truly ultra-creamy result calls for a few specific rules not everyone knows.

The first rule: lemon and orange peel without the white pith. When you cut the peel, leave nothing of the white part - that's the part that brings bitterness. Second: scrape out the seeds from a real vanilla pod, not extract. Third and maybe most important: wash the rice gently, not too much - enough to remove the excess starch, but not so much that you lose the effect.

Wooden spoon - not metal. A low flame goes 40 minutes without you pushing it. Sugar is added five minutes before the end, not at the start - because sugar added too early can block the milk's absorption. And last: let it rest. That's what separates restaurant rice pudding from the home version - the time to settle after cooking.

Ingredients for the classic recipe: 1 liter of milk, 100 grams of pudding rice, 70 grams of sugar, lemon and orange peel, a cinnamon stick, vanilla, and cinnamon at the end. No miracles, no overstretched ingredients, no magical "creaminess" powders. Just technique. That's why sometimes the restaurant nails it, and at home we cook it with a certain sadness in our eyes.