Andorra la VellaJust a year ago, the executive chef of the Ibaya restaurant, at the Sport Hotel Hermitage & Spa, received the Michelin star, a distinction he has renewed this year. At only 30 years of age, recognition came to him after having visited restaurants such as Tickets in Barcelona or Lio in Ibiza.
It’s been a year since they received the Michelin star for the first time at the Ibaya restaurant, what do they think of it?
— What the star itself has brought us is worldwide recognition and has its own name, it’s like talking about cars or Ferraris: a Ferrari will always be a Ferrari, and as for the star, the same . We enjoyed it, we had to endure it and we felt the responsibility for what the customer expected from us before and now even more, because they no longer come to a place where they say they do it well, but to a place that has a Michelin star , so those who know us already know what they will find there and what they won’t perhaps be more critical because we might be expected to juggle. We continued to work as before, trying to make the noise our work and not us.
Does it weigh a lot, the responsibility that I mentioned?
— In the end, in life responsibility is something that we sometimes try to avoid, but it is everywhere. When you have a friendship you have the responsibility to live up to it when someone explains something to you… When someone, as in our case, allows you to make them a meal that is a celebration, that is an important dinner , which is a birthday, whatever… then it weighs, but instead of looking at it like that I want to look at it as we turn it into our fuel and our joy to push forward and keep building things.
Already thinking about a second star?
— I would say the same as with the first, they are all things that are in the mind because we are in a type of league in which this is talked about, but we will never obsess over it or pursue it. Our goal, if I had to put words to it, is to continue doing things well, always trying to live up to what the customer expects from us. Feed our stimulus, our curiosity, our interest, to do something new. What we are doing in Ibaya, trying to get people to come and create a kitchen that has an identity, that can represent the new Andorran gastronomy, all this is the real challenge. From here, recognition, if it comes, will be more of a consequence than a goal.
How would you define Ibaya’s cuisine?
— It’s a kitchen where we try to look at our surroundings and build things that make all the sense in the world, whether based on the present or the past. As we presented at the Andorra Taste, we are doing a rather delicate job of looking back, what was consumed here, why it was consumed… Sometimes we end up looking more like historians than cooks, but we are in Andorra, which has experienced a change very important in the last 50 years, and the kitchen is exactly the same. We are trying to look at all this, interpreting it, obviously, to pass it into our language and build things with this traditional root to live up to what the customer expects when they come to Ibaya.
Francis Paniego has advised them, what else has he contributed to the restaurant?
— Many things, the role of Francis has been fundamental, he is the chef, he is many things… At some point he has been like a father. We have been able to feed on his good experiences, bad ones, advice, mistakes… His role has been very important.
I understand that it is one of your references, what others do you have?
— I have many references and maybe I am not a very traditional person in the sense that not all of them would be the Leo Messi of the kitchen. I always say one thing, and I continue to maintain it: my references are absolutely everyone I have met along my path in the world of cooking. If I have to say big names, I feel a lot of respect and a lot of admiration for Nandu (Jubany), who gastronomically is my father; by the people of Disfrutar, who came from Bulli, because there I began to see a language and a cuisine that at that time meant a before and an after; for Albert Adrià , and from here on, names that may not be that big but that doesn’t mean I feel less respect and admiration for them. At the Andorra Taste I had the pleasure of meeting many people, and among them, for example, Albert Boronat, who does a type of cooking and preparation that I have not touched much and I was totally surprised by what he did and in love, it’s a pass. The thing about my job is that it’s so diverse that absolutely no one will ever know everything.
Can the fact that they have received the Michelin star help promote Andorran cuisine?
— It can help, but not because we have, nor do we ever seek it in life, a leading role, but it is true that in some way if the restaurant has once again put the country in the red guide I think that it is not it can mean nothing negative, neither for the country nor for anyone.
Do you think there are more restaurants in Andorra that could receive this distinction right now?
— It’s quite delicate and maybe it’s not up to me to judge it, but I can say that there is a lot of desire, a lot of talent and people who are doing it very well, and why not? That would be a great thing.
What are your most immediate challenges right now?
— I not only manage the Ibaya, but all the rest of Sport Hotels’ gastronomic centers. We are talking, in the face of winter, of a gastronomic conglomerate with 14-15 open points and a kitchen staff of 130 cooks. Then the most immediate challenge is the winter season, in which we are super-concentrated, it is our strong moment, it is like when you have Christmas dinner at home and you want to do things with the necessary involvement to do it well. Despite the fact that we are open all year, now comes our time, the one to show off, the one to culminate all the work done.