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Andalusian chef Álvaro Salazar now boasts two Michelin stars with his Voro Restaurant in Majorca.
He was the last guest of the 2022 edition of S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino, the food and wine event commissioned by Dany Stauffacher, which for this edition had the explicit title 'España Ahora' as its leitmotif, with the most famous Spanish chefs flocking to the occasion in Italian-speaking Switzerland.
We took the opportunity to meet him and ask him about his cooking.
You have Andalusian origins. How much of this territory is present in your cuisine?
As much as Majorca, with its Mediterranean flavours, influences me, I can say that my conception of cooking originates from my homeland: Andalusia. I think it's like this for everyone, even for those who don't put themselves in the kitchen: certain flavours, certain childhood scents form who we are. They are fixed in our memory and become our parameter for defining what we consider comfort food. It's subjective and that's the beauty of it. What I assimilated in my childhood and adolescence will accompany me throughout my life.
From your homeland you left to work in various kitchens around the world, from Paris, to Stockholm, to Kuwait. What did you learn from those experiences?
Every trip, especially those in which I have had the opportunity to not only work, has enriched me a lot. Watching other professionals at work or even simply observing habits and traditions that are so different from mine is an incentive to grow, to change my way of thinking, which must never have barriers or concepts taken for granted and definitive. I'm not just talking about haute cuisine but about every aspect of this sector, starting with the great culture that lies behind the street food of every country.
You are currently the chef at Voro Restaurant in Mallorca, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant. How did you arrive in the Balearic Islands?
I worked for a large prestigious hotel group, which also owned starred restaurants. Among the various facilities was also included a luxury hotel in Majorca, where I was able to move. I was impressed by the island, I fell in love with it. Not only in terms of the landscape and lifestyles, which are truly wonderful, but also in terms of gastronomy, an aspect that you may not immediately think of when talking about the Balearics. Instead I decided to go deeper and in those places I found a historic, rich, quality food scene. It was the right place to start my restaurant.
How would you define your cuisine today?
Mine is a creative and sensitive cuisine. A term that can be defined in different meanings: sensitive to taste of course, but also to the territory. In fact, I like discovering Majorcan excellence but without ever focusing entirely on that. As I said earlier, there is also a lot of Andalusia in my dishes, and in this sense I must say that each of my recipes resembles me. It is the result of my instinct and my continuous research work. I hope this approach continues to reward me and my staff as it has up to now.
During your evening at S.Pellegrino Sapori Ticino, which dishes told of your philosophy in the kitchen?
It was a natural choice, but far from easy. The intention of bringing some of Voro Restaurant's haute cuisine and the flavours of my land to Lugano was difficult, but I think I succeeded. Of course, great help came from chef Luca Bellanca of Meta, the one-Michelin-star restaurant that hosted us. Being able to count on his professionalism and that of his brigade was fundamental. I can say that I have found a friend. The dishes that I decided to serve were a challenge, with their perhaps unexpected contrasts and combinations. The menu started from a dish with an enveloping flavour and minimal aesthetics such as almonds and caviar, up to the greedy violet, hibiscus and pink pepper, passing, among others, from the seafood salad scented with Palo Cortado and the Puchero Mar y Tierra.
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