Paco Torreblanca needs no introduction, as he is an artist on pastry. Although he claims that confectioners are like alchemists, there is no doubt that he performs art after seeing and tasting his works. His curriculum is impressive. He has already devoted more than 50 years to innovation in the desserts, through which he has been awarded the title of Best Pastry Chef in Europe and the Best Master Artisan Pastry Chef in Spain. He has had his own TV show, «Deja sitio para el postre» which was aired on Cuatro, and he owns a pastry school of international prestige.
Paco Torreblanca shines when preparing desserts, specially wedding cakes and desserts. The current Kings of Spain, Don Felipe and Doña Letizia, chose him to prepare the ones in their wedding, as he tells us in this interview.
- Cooking is fashionable, and we hopefully expect it stays that way; does baking occupy the place it deserves or does it still have some way off?
The pastry is becoming better positioned. In fact, in Madrid Fusion, we have been the main protagonists, because we have contributed a lot to the cooking industry.
30 years ago, Ferran Adrià came to meet me and see what we did. After seeing how we work, he even then understood that cooking had to use more methodical systems having everything organized and disciplined previously. I have always said that we are like alchemists; everything has to be weighed and measured. In the kitchen, you can add a little more salt or a little less or make a longer or shorter cooking. However, everything is like a work of art in pastry, you cannot change anything because if you change it, there is no balance.
This has to do with the presentation. Nonetheless, we have also brought other things to cooking, because if you walk into a restaurant with two or three Michelin stars sometimes you do not know if you are taking a sweet or salty starter and this is one of our great contributions and our great appreciation.
Another fact is that we are always the last dish, although desserts play an important role now and they are becoming more sophisticated and delicate. The dessert is an important part and cooking would not be quite understood without it, as it would be a table where one leg is missing. Current restaurants usually finish meals with a high-level dessert. This way, the meal becomes a real success.
- In fact, there is not any single celebration in which there is no room for a special dessert, what is the most special dessert by Paco Torreblanca?
Although they say I’m an innovator breaking schemes and setting precedence, I have it very clear. I would choose a strudel with Tahitian vanilla cream freshly made or a rice pudding with black truffle as the one I was doing now and thought: this is unbeatable!
We can create super-sophisticated desserts but, in the end, there is something we own. What our mothers gave us as kids. It is just like a chip we hide inside us… It is true that we do a lot of art, a lot of creativity, but flavours have always to be preserved and those desserts I mentioned are a genius, actually they have 300 years of history, and they are still a marvel.
- Focusing on weddings, what are the current trends in wedding cakes? Are they more modern or classic? Or do they include some flavour or something that particularly stands out?
The great revolution is that wedding cakes disappear, people no longer want those giant cakes that were cut; they want everything in individual portions. The dessert appears to replace the cake. Cakes will be still preserved in time but this is mainly what is changing and quite fast.
For example, the present King of Spain, Felipe VI, who was then a prince, wanted to cut the cake and I did one for the occasion, but we also prepared individual desserts, because I told him I did not want it to be badly cut and looked ugly. So we made the cake for 1,800 guests and 1,800 individual desserts.
In this regard, we have also had the idea of placing the desserts in a box as a gift, so that we start a game when serving them. Each dessert is different and a game starts due to it. You can open your box and have a chocolate dessert, but there are two more varieties and people share them to taste them. I created the boxes with the idea to store them. They are beautiful boxes that people preserve later. They are almost a case, so guests place them at home and when they see them remember that day. That is the ultimate idea.
Another advantage of desserts in front of the big traditional wedding cake is that it seems that the cake always have to be chocolate, and you may have 200 guests who like chocolate but there will be 100 who do not. This is a trend I set myself and that will become more widespread, I am sure.
«Pastry Masters are like alchemists: everything has to be weighed and measured.»
- The wedding cake attracts all the attention, how difficult is it to get the balance between aesthetics and a wonderful unforgettable taste when you prepare a cake for 100, 200 or more people?
The challenge is not only to prepare the cake. I have always said that the «stay on good terms syndrome» is the greatest danger in professional life. You have to do what you do every day and do it well. For a wedding dessert, I want to know what the couple like to move it to my mind and offer them something thrilling.
After knowing what they like, I already can start working on the ideal format for them, although I have always prevailed taste over aesthetics. I would never sacrifice taste for aesthetics. While it is clear that the sizzle sells the steak, the most important thing is that when someone eats something, he is passionate about its taste.
Personally, when I get an order in a restaurant, I try not to reveal my name and so customers do what I call «the no thinking meal.» Uncomplicated, authentic and well-cooked food where taste is not sacrificed for aesthetics and it is not necessary to think in anything else, just enjoy it.
But of course, we must try to unify the two things, and you can achieve it with a team like I have and with hard work. At Torreblanca, before presenting some meals to the audience, we test and taste them; the whole team provides their opinion, each brings his/her vision and what s/he would do. Each one reviews that product and exposes his/her idea because many ideas help us to progress. Then we discard the ones in which we are not interested, we take the useful ones and we finally work aesthetics. All of us help to reach the end. This process is very important.
«I have always preferred taste over aesthetics. I would never sacrifice taste for aesthetics.»
- What is the role of your team in everything you described?
Regarding my team, I love they are leaders and proactive, both my son Jacob and the rest of the team (Jacob, son of Paco Torreblanca is a fundamental part of his team. In 2003, he won the championship on Best Artisan Confectioner Master of Spain and the prize for the Best Chocolate Cake World Pastry Cup Lyon 2005, among others).
I do not want to remain forever here. I love sculpture and many other things and I have never had enough time, so I think my time has come to an end. Not literally, because I will give master classes and other classes, for example, but I will not be here at 70 years old, I have so much to do! I always try to enjoy life. This is why I have such a good relationship with people, with my friends, who do not generally belong to the profession. I have friends from many professions, childhood friends. With some colleagues, I meet at conferences, sure, but I try not to interact with the profession because I have always said that everything is contaminated and I do not want to be pigeonholed.
All my friends, whatever their profession it is, bring me a lot and that helps me to create, to design, and to make my desserts.
- What is Paco Torreblanca’s favourite flavour for a wedding cake? CHOCOLATE!
Data sheet
- Years working in the world of pastry: From 13 years old; now, I have 65, so more than 50.
- Most important prize or recognition: Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia together with Ferran Adrià. Although the one I value most is my son Jacob’s reward in the Spanish Championship, he was the youngest in the history. It was the prize that excited me more since being the Spanish Champion is hard to achieve. It is necessary 2 to 4 years of training and he got it.
- What do you like least about your work? Envy; errors are seen as a failure. In the Anglo world, you put them on your resume, because you are an entrepreneur, learn from mistakes and keep working.
- To whom would you like to prepare his/her wedding dessert? Although it is obviously impossible, I would have liked to prepare it to Marie Curie, and any woman who does things for science and welfare, because they have to work a hundred times more than a man to be recognized for the same.