Jorge de Angel Moliner

My name is Jorge de Angel Moliner. I was born in 1975 in Valencia, Spain.

Since childhood, I was fond of kitchen and food. My father worked as a chef for a long time, and therefore he always told me not to work in this profession, but I never listened to my parents. I remember how I disturbed my father in the kitchen. He showed how to cook, but he didn’t explain anything. It’s one thing to be a good cook, and quite another – to be a teacher. It is the opposite situation with my mother, she can cook only very simple dishes by grandmother’s recipes, but she is good in teaching.

My father didn’t give me an opportunity to practice, and my mother was cooking with me patiently. I remember that they praised my juicy and perfect omelet, I cooked it as my father, but I received from him only a ready dish without the recipe of its correct preparation. Sometimes, in the absence of the father, they allowed me to prepare omelets, and I was very happy. I still believe that if you want to understand how delicious are the hands zof the chef you should to taste his omelet.

Being teenagers, we organized a party at the weekend, while the parents were in the country. I was responsible for cooking, which at that time meant to cut right a jamon and to roast meat on the coals.

For several years, I was resting in Germany, in the camps, where children came from all over Europe. Our group distributed all the responsibilities, including the kitchen. I remember how the guys from England forced all people to starve, while I and the Italian tried to make something authentic that everyone was licking fingers. Her name was Flafiya. She taught me a few tricks in cooking pasta.

When I arrived in Moscow, I went to the kitchen where not only remarkable cook, but also a great man Adrian Ketglas worked. I wanted to understand how a kitchen in a modern restaurant worked. I used to go there after work and on weekends, and I got a huge high from it.

As for my personal experience in the management of restaurant kitchen, I`ve never worked as professional chef,until my first cookbook has been published. Which is why i’ve got fired from my job. I thanked God for such a push (kick in the ass is also a reason to step foward). Now i can professionaly do things that i truly love.

I’m always open to the new taste sensations and I am willing to try anything, including snakes, insects, and other strange products. My native cuisine is Mediterranean, it’s sunny and with sea foods.

I have been in different countries around the world and I always found one or two very tasty dishes, even in countries where food is considered bad. For example, I love the English lamb in mint sauce and Yorkshire Pudding.

My main hobby is, definitely, the cooking. In addition, I love to do pottery, to go to bars and to sleep in the afternoon.

I started to do pottery after the birth of a child, and I realized that direct contact with the ground is very important to me. Clay calms me down. In addition, as well as in cooking, you can immediately see the result of your work. I don’t like to do something that doesn’t make the world better. When the vegetables appeared — they invented the soup, when the clay appeared — they invented a vase.

As for bars and sleeping in the afternoon, I can say nothing in my defense, except that I am Spanish.

To all the readers I want to say: never work as a cook, just go to a restaurant and enjoy your life!

The dish on the photo «Arroz a banda» — a kind of marine paella. Rice is tasty but modest, it isn’t the same as in a colorful paella that they prepare for tourists. But unlike the tourist paella, this recipe is authentic and it is made from the freshest fish. This is the rice, which they eat in Valencia, my native town, and the taste prevails appearance, that is the basis of cooking for me.