| Every now and again I'm lucky enough to meet someone truly inspirational. The other day a visitor to the kitchen shook my hand, smiled warmly and told me that I'd be welcome to come and work at his family business in Alicante one day. It was a massive boost to the confidence of a young pastelero, coming from one of the world's greatest pastry chefs. Maybe one day I'll feel ready to seek a secondment with this master of the trade. In the meantime, let me introduce you to Francisco 'Paco' Torreblanca. |
 | Born in Villena in Alicante in 1951, the grandson of bakers and pâtissiers, Paco started work in bakery at the age of 13. A year later, his father sent him to Paris to apprentice with Jean Millet, a friend from the Spanish Civil War who had become a Meilleur Ouvrier de France and one of France's greatest pâtissiers. Following the death of Spain's dictator Franco, Torreblanca returned to Alicante, married Chelo Coloma and moved to the city of Elda. In 1978 they opened Totel (named after the Japanese term for the first rays of daylight). A decade later, Paco was named Best Master Pastry Chef of Spain and he was awarded the European title in 1990. International recognition came with elaborate sugar sculptures made in tribute to Pablo Picasso, including Guernica and Les Demoiselles d'Avignon - causing some to call him "The Picasso of Pastry". |
| Paco has won numerous prizes for his confectionery creations - from the most delicate bonbones and financiers to the most complex cakes - including a 7ft masterpiece combining olive and pumpkin seed oil, dark Tanzanian chocolate, hazelnut mousse and Marcona almonds for the wedding of the Prince of Asturias, Felipe de Borbón y Grecia, heir to the Spanish throne. Paco's CV is nothing short of awesome. |
| My connection with Paco Torreblanca is much more than our common occupation of pastelero. My own father is almost exactly the same age as Paco and, in Joel and myself, has two sons of similar age. The Torreblanca family have Jewish roots dating back to before the C14th when they crossed the mountains from France and settled in Spain. Paco's sons Jacob and David are named in honour of this heritage, just as my brother Joel was named in honour of my grandmother who fled from Poland to escape German fascism. Jacob is a world-class pâtissier in his own right - winner of Spain's Best Desserts Chef in 2003 and World Sub-Champion Desserts Chef in 2004. Despite a history of oppression, both families look outward to the world for inspiration - in particular to the artistic contribution of Japanese cuisine to world gastronomy. Always more interested in pushing the envelope than perfecting the art of the establishment, Paco thrived in the "anarchical and liberal" culinary atmosphere of post-Franco Spain. Those who know me will recognise the maverick affinity. |  |
| Paco's refusal to accept the artificial division between cook and patissier pioneered a culinary movement represented in succeeding generations by Albert Adrià of El Bulli and Jordi Butrón of Espai Sucre. "One of the most important things I learned", says Paco, "is that the pastry should be in continuous development... experimenting with new products from all corners of the world... looking for pairings of fruits and products from all countries. But the really essential, without sacrificing the above, is not to forget our gastronomic roots." You just couldn't sum up my own philosophy more perfectly. |
 | Paco put that philosophy into practice when he began to substitute Spanish olive oil for French butter in his pastries and chocolates, re-introducing the baking techniques of an earlier Spanish generation. His Catalan compatriots were inspired to do the same, reconstructing the pre-war snack of chocolate, olive oil and salt and raising it to a truly gastronomic level. My own affinity for Catalunya reflects a connection between Paco and Catalunya established nearly twenty years ago when two little-known brothers from the Costa Brava came to stage with Torreblanca in his pastelería. Those two young trainees were Ferran and Albert Adrià. |
| In recent years, Paco has been recording his life work in a series of publications. His eponymous book Paco Torreblanca introduced readers to plated desserts, cakes, sugar and isomalt decorations, chocolate and chocolates, artistic compositions and traditional doughs. It also covered postres complements, including different types of tea and coffee and the pairing of wine with cakes and desserts. |
| Paco followed this up with Paco Torreblanca 2 in which he explored new techniques, adding creative value to simple ideas with sections on crunchies, dry meringues and milks, sugar candies and caviars, brioche and financier cakes, vegetable crystals and pañuelos. And he addressed both sweet and savoury pastries. Last February Paco Torreblanca announced the publication of Colección. Piezas de Azúcar (Collection. Sugarworks), which he considers to be "undoubtedly the most personal and creative book that I have ever written". In this latest work, he addresses the work that has obsessed him in recent years - the creation of elaborate, artistic sugar works falling "between architecture and sculpture". He explains the techniques of pulling, blowing, casting, spinning and bubbling sugar and includes sections on candy sugar, fondant pulled sugar, cracked glass sugar and isomalt blocks. The results, in the hands of a master, are magical reinterpretations of familiar shapes that alternate between opacity and transparency, playing on light and shadow and simply begging to be eaten. |  |
 | So, once a youthful "anarchist", now a late middle-aged man firmly entrenched in respectable, bourgeois Spanish society? Not a bit of it! Last November at the tenth Congress of Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía in the Kursaal Palace in Donostia-San Sebastián, Paco caused something of a stir by serving delegates a chocolate dessert containing dried cannabis leaves, explaining to the bemused attendees that marijuana offers aromatic and aesthetic qualities that are ideal for postres. Mind you, this gains no prizes for originality. Baking with this ingredient is a well-established pastime, allegedly. |
| There's not a huge amount of publicity material for Paco Torreblanca on the web, but the video clip on the right shows him demonstrating just a few of his amazing skills. These desserts are all perfectly legal and the voiceover is in Spanish, but I'm sure you'll enjoy watching the clip all the same. Watch Paco demonstrating some sugar techniques that he makes look so easy. Believe me, it's much more difficult than it looks in this masterclass demonstration. I'm still working on perfecting my own skillset. Thanks to fran_noche for the video link. |
2007 and moved to Spain, where I trained in Barcelona at Carles Abellan's Comerç 24 (which won its first Michelin star) and Martín Beresategui's Lasarte (which won its second Michelin star) and was chef de partie and later Pastry Chef to Paco Morales at the amazing hotel restaurant Ferrero in the Valèncian mountains. This Spring I returned to London as part of the team of celebrated Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes, opening East End restaurant Viajante. I'm still working with food, but taking a break from fine dining. Passionately pursuing my life-long ambition to become a top-class chef and, one day, a world-famous restaurateur.
