Catalonian chef Rafael Peña on his time at El Bulli and how the French are ‘square’ in the kitchen
The owner of the bistronomic restaurant Gresca, in Barcelona, Spain, quit university to become a chef, and honed his skills in some of the world’s best kitchens
Where does your love of cooking come from? “When I started studying mathematics in university, I had to work during the weekends and the easiest option was to become a cook. I started working for a chef in a bistro that served easy Catalan food and he explained to me who the good chefs are, and what dishes I should eat in their restaurants.
“In the beginning I didn’t have any knowledge and I wanted to know what the big chefs do. The more I learned, the more excited I became. Jean-Louis Neichel taught me the basics when I worked at his [now-closed] restaurant, Neichel, in Barcelona. He is an Alsatian chef who cooks Mediterranean food.”
[El Bulli] made a big impression on me. I learned there are no rules, that anything is possible. But I was so young that I needed to learn the basics first
What happened to your studies? “Mathematics was exciting in a completely different way. But I knew I wasn’t going to be a mathematician all my life. My parents asked, are you sure you want to be a chef? I admitted I didn’t know, but they never stopped me. I never finished that mathematics degree.”
Why didn’t you go to culinary school? “I travelled a lot and learned in the kitchen. I felt I could learn faster by following chefs. In 1999, I went to El Bulli [Ferran Adrià’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Catalonia that closed in 2011] for one season, which was about eight months long. It made a big impression on me. I learned there are no rules, that anything is possible. But I was so young that I needed to learn the basics first.
“Afterwards I went to work for Martín Berasategui [at Lasarte, in Barcelona]. Seventeen years ago he was cooking more traditional dishes in the kitchen, more rustic. I learned a lot being with him for a year.”
What was it like to work in Paris? “I went to Pierre Au Palais Royale [also now closed], a one-Michelin-star restaurant that served classic French dishes. The mentality in that kitchen was very different from a Spanish one. The French were very square.