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Kitchen Pro Files: Chef Edgard Sanuy Barahona on Paella and Authentic Spanish Cuisine

His culinary work include Michelin starred restaurants and working with Sergi Arola, and now he is eager to cook for Manila through a buffet and a degustacion. Read on as he shares his food stories and paella tips in this article.

Diamond Hotel's guest Spanish chef for La Fiesta Española Spanish Food Festival is a Catalan currently based in Hong Kong, where he was awarded 'Chef of the Year 2013' by Foodie magazine. Chef Edgard Sanuy Barahona's culinary work include Michelin starred restaurants, opening BCN, a well-lauded Spanish restaurant in Hong Kong, working with Sergi Arola. Chef Edgar hails from a family of chefs and gourmands, his uncle (Josep Barahona) being the first Spanish chef awarded with a Michelin star in Asia, yet he shares that it was more words of discouragement rather than approval when he first shared with them his intentions of pursuing culinary, not until his love for cooking brought him to different parts of the world, proving that a right mix of passion and luck was on his side. "Sometimes it doesn't depend in your aptitude," he tells me, "sometimes it's being lucky at the right time, at the right moment, and someone saying 'I need a chef. You. Come.'"

Chef Edgard Sanuy Barahona

Now, Chef Edgar is eager to cook for Manila through a buffet and a degustacion.

At the buffet in Corniche, guests will see little flags of Spain alongside the featured dish prepared by Chef Edgar. "In the buffet, you'll find real Spanish food, traditional," he explains. We enjoyed a combination of unlimited helpings of favorites like Callos, Seafood Paella, assorted tapas,cold cuts and cheeses, Tortilla de Patata, and Churros with Chocolate –Spanish food, done the Spanish way, by none other than a Spanish chef. You also get unlimited refills of sangria, and get to have a taste of more Spanish food that aren't usual staples in Spanish restaurants — there was Arroz con Leche, Albondigas with cuttle fish, Pulpoa la Gallega (grilled octopus) and the classic gazpacho. The simple dessert of Pan Con Chocolate with salt and extra virgin olive oil was a standout, and the station with all the cheeses and fresh salads to pair with cold cuts and bread were enough to bring your tastbuds to a trip to Spain.

 
 
 

Chef Edgar conducted a paella demonstration after our Spanish lunch buffet, and shared some helpful tips in how he cooks his paella, which he hopes everyone can use so you can make paella right at your very own home. "Spanish food is a very regional food, so in Spain, every region has their own paella," he shares. He adds that even they themselves cannot fully agree on what is the best paella, as each region will claim they cook the best. The paella he cooked that day is the Catalan version, naturally, as he is Catalan. "It's the one I know how to do best," he says. Valencia paella has the stock with seafood, meat and vegetables on boil, and this is when rice is added. The Catalan version, the chef explains, is putting the rice first to fry, then later on adding the stock.

Tips on cooking a good Catalan style Paella:

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1. Use the freshest ingredients possible – squid, scallops, mussel, prawns.

2. Make a Sofrito to include in the paella. The sofito is a kind of compote that acts as base of most Spanish dishes, made from onion, red and green peppers, garlic, paprika, olive oil, and herbs; it's very aromatic and will give flavor to your paella.

3. The better stock you use, the less saffron you use, so you can let the flavors of the stock shine.

4. The rice-stock ratio varies and will depend on what kind of rice grain you are using. For example, Bomba or Arborio is normally 1 part of rice is to 3 to 3 1/2 parts of stock. For Japanese rice, it would be about 2 parts stock, one part rice. Experiment and play around with the ratio until you achieve the texture you like, there is no perfect formula.

5. A rice cooking time tip the chef uses is '5-5-5-5': Cook first 5 minutes strong and high on the pan as the rice seeps in the stock and some stock evaporates, next 5 minutes cooked in a low setting, then the next 5 minutes, transfer in an oven for an equally distributed heat (in Spain, the oven is replaced by a paellera gas especially made for cooking paella for even cooking). Afterward, let it rest 5 minutes before serving.

Read on as he shares his food stories in this exclusive interview.

How young were you when you knew you wanted to become a chef?

For a living? Late. I was 22. That was the first time to think for sure, I wanted to do it for a living. I think I never put it in my mind, never thought it was an option. My grandmother's a chef, my uncle is a chef. My mom knows how to cook very well. In my home, always everything was about the product. I remember my mom–and still she does–she takes the car, she drives 45 minutes, she goes somewhere to buy tomatoes, when we have tomatoes in the supermarket at home. But that ones are better. Then she takes the car, goes to another town to buy the sausages, then another town to buy the fish. I always thought, my mom is crazy. [laughs] She always goes everywhere…but now I undestand. And now I have tried one hundred sausages then I saw that the best one was the one in my home, that's why my mom drives. And so I learn that, then I realized that all the cuisine was getting inside me, but I didn't realize it then. So I started studying international trades, I finished and started working in a British software company…

Wow, very different!

Yeah, very different. Everyone was so nice there, but it was so boring. Then the financial crisis arrived to Spain, and then everyone started to look unstable. For me, I was young — I was 21. I wasn't worried, but in that moment, my uncle was already in Tokyo fifteen years ago in that time, and then I say to him, "I think I want to cook." And then his first reaction was, "You know, you don't" [laughs] But I say, no no no, I want to cook. Then my mom says, "Are you crazy?" and my grandmother tells me, "You don't know what that means!" I have been very lucky in the end, I could reach a position where I'm in another country, having fun, learning a lot, traveling, with income that allows me to travel back to Spain, and now I am still enjoying but I work so hard in Hong Kong. But, when you start with this career, you never know–if you're going to arrive at that point, or if you stay ten years a chef de partie in a hotel. Sometimes it doesn't depend in your aptitude, sometimes it's being lucky at the right time, at the right moment, and someone saying "I need a chef. You. Come." Then someone gives you the opportunity. This opportunity sometimes comes very fast, sometimes it takes time. That's why my family didn't want. It's a restaurant family, and they weren't so excited about me –now all of them react so proud. [laughs] But at that moment, they didn't like it, they didn't think it was a good idea.

But before that, when you were younger, were you already cooking?

Yeah. I was the one who cooks in my friends' group. "Oh we have a gathering, a party," okay, I cook. Thanks to my friends, because they ate a lot of very bad food during many years, and I was the only one who cooks and no one would complain–I remember some of the dishes were very terrible. [laughs] But they eat it. So I started when I was cooknig for my friends, a long time ago.

Do you still remember one of the first things that you cooked for them that you were proud of?

I remember the first time I invited my friends. I'm from the countryside, I'm not from Barcelona — it's like one hour an a half by car, it's a very nice town and very nice people. We're quite traditional there, so the restaurants there serve very big steaks with vegetables, some soups. Now it's changing a little bit but before El Bulli and this stuff, no one likes that. I saw my mom one time making olives–green olives–breading the olives then deep frying the olives, and making a spicy mayonnaise. Something very unusual then — who's gonna deep-fry olives with bread? It was actually super good, crispy outside and then the olive inside. And then I made it for my friends one night. So they came expecting pizza as normal, and then I make them deep fried olives, and then they went like, "This is an olive?" [laughs] It's still funny because my very good friends and I we have a WhatsApp group, and then I told them, "Guys, I'm going to cook in Manila!" and they were like, "Are you going to do the deep fried olives?" [laughs]

They still remember!

They still remember! They go "don't forget to make the deep fried olives," it's still pretty funny.

If you had to cook something quick for yourself, what would you prepare?

A potato omelette.

What's the one dish you won't get tired of eating?

Potato omelette. [laughs]

How about your favorite cuisine to eat, and to cook?

I like cooking Spanish, I love Japanese.

Back then when you were starting, who were your influences?

My family. But more than influence, they were my reference. Also because I started cooking not around my home, two hours or three hours away. Then some of my family came twice, three times per year to that famous restaurant where I was to eat. Then, many times I thought, if my grandmother drives two hours by car for the fish at home, if I serve her a wrong fish in the restaurant, she's gonna kill me! [laughs] No! I was so scared about the product. They're not gonna say "Oh Edgar this fish is so good," they're gonna say, "this fish…is fishy." My family helped me become very demanding with the products. Then I started to move around in famous restaurants in Spain, they show you new techniques. But I always think, I can twist this. So I would say, I'm going to twist this, but I'm going to keep it that my grandmother would like it. So, if I make a mussel and prawn for dinner and with beetroot bubbles, maybe some caviars — but the mussel is gonna be there, the prawn is gonna be there. I always keep that. My way of keeping together with the tradition is my grandmother. She's a great chef. So it's, will she like it? And if she wouldn't like it, I probably wouldn't cook it.

What else inspires you when you're cooking?

It inspires me to see the reactions of the guests. When I cook for me, I cook very simple. Very very simple, I try to cook for me with very good products. But what makes me create a new dish, and cook better, is that I know I am going to serve it to someone. And I am going to see the reaction of someone. And I think this is very true to many chefs. We will never do something really special for us, [laughs] for me and myself. If you cannot share it, it's not fun.

You're in Manila right now to prepare Spanish dishes for the buffet at Corniche here at Diamond Hotel. We are very much familiar with Spanish food here in the Philippines, but what do you feel makes it authentic?

Spanish food, as many food in the world is, it's all about the product. What happens to Spanish restaurants around the world? Sometimes, they are not able to find that product. Sometimes, they are able to find the product, but that product is too expensive to be sold later. I'm going to do an example–Iberico ham. In Spain, if you go to a good restaurant, they're going to give you pure Iberico ham. In Asia, it's not that often that they give you pure Iberico. Why? Because in Spain, one good ham may cost 300 dollars. In Hong Kong, for a very good ham I pay 1,100 dollars. So it's four times. So in Spain, you go and pay 20 dollars in a restaurant and get a plate of ham. In Hong Kong if you come, I would have to charge you 60, 70 dollars, just for the ham. So that made my potential market very small, because I need for people able to pay for the ham. So what happens? Normally restaurants make Spanish food able to be paid by everyone, they want many people to come and enjoy. But then you need the Spanish product and then it has to come from Spain, and then you need to pay the flights. So this is why it's difficult. Then you go to Spanish restaurants and you go, it doesn't taste like Spain; of course, because they are not able to get the product. So the first is they cannot find it, then second is they cannot pay it, then the third is, no one is Spanish in the restaurant so they don't know what products they should use. This is also the case.

How is work right now in Hong Kong for you?

Now I'm a development chef for a very big company, and now I open restaurants for them, we brainstorm and when we open the restaurants, I stay in the kitchen three, four months. I joined Maximal Concepts when they just had two restaurants, now they have seven restaurants. Now this year we are opening in Vancouver, Dubai, Macau.

None in Manila?

Not yet, not yet. But honestly? We always have projects on hold, waiting to happen. Let's see.

So for now, Manila gets a taste of your cooking at the buffet and at the degustacion dinner. What kind of food can the people expect from both of these activities in the food festival?

In the buffet, you'll find real Spanish food, traditional, the food you will find in a traditional restaurant in Barcelona. So you go to a good restaurant in Barcelona and they make you good meatballs, callos–this is what you will find here. The real and traditional one. What you will find in the dinner is a twist of the traditional, it's my version of it. My first restaurant in Hong Kong is BCN, and for the dinner we are doing three of the most famous dishes. Raw red prawn from Spain, then we are doing a suckling pig sandwich. We cook the suckling pig, very slow cooked, and then we take out the bones, then we put skin, then all the meat, and then skin. One skin crispy, one skin crispy, and then the sandwich. The bread is the skin.

 

Oh my god. Wow.

Yes! [laughs] And then we do a gazpacho. In the buffet we have the real gazpacho, and in the dinner we will have white peach gazpacho. We put little twist to these things.

Did you ever think of an alternate career? Like if you were not cooking, what would you be doing right now?

[Smiles and shakes his head] I don't see any alternative… Well, someday I want to open a small restaurant, very close to the sea, very close to the fishermen, cooking for 20 people for lunch, 20 people for dinner.

If you can choose your last meal, what would you be eating?

Probably a rice dish. There's this dish we have, arroz a banda, which means 'on the side.' The rice is very good, and you have the sauce alioli with it.

 

The La Fiesta Española Spanish Food Festival in Diamond Hotel Philippines is in partnership with Amphora Merchants Wines, Cavas and Maset Wines & Cavas and Maximal Concepts Ltd.  Avail of the Corniche special Lunch Buffet (P1,988nett/person) or Dinner Buffet (P2,550nett/person) from April 21 to 26, 2015. The exclusive Degustación 8-course menu (P4,500nett/person) paired with fine Spanish wines happens on April 22, 2015 at the Constellation on the 27th floor.  For reservations call (632) 528-3000 ext. 1121. Connect with Diamond Hotel in Facebook (/diamondhotelphilippines), and Follow on Instagram and Twitter (@DiamondHotelPh).

 

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