Born in Valencia in 1975, Jorge de Angel Moliner learned from a chef father who never explained his recipes, turned professional after his first cookbook came out and now cooks at Crudo Bar.
My name is Jorge de Angel Moliner. I was born in 1975 in Valencia, Spain.
Since childhood, I’ve loved the kitchen and food. My father worked as a chef for a long time, and that’s why he always told me not to go into this profession, but I never listened to my parents. I remember pestering my father in the kitchen.
He showed me how to cook, but he never explained anything. It’s one thing to be a good cook and quite another to be a teacher. With my mother it’s the opposite: she can only cook very simple dishes from my grandmother’s recipes, but she’s good at teaching.
My father never gave me a chance to practice, while my mother patiently cooked with me. I remember them praising my juicy, perfect omelet. I made it the way my father did, although all I ever got from him was the finished dish, never the recipe for making it properly.
Sometimes, when my father was away, they let me make omelets, and I was very happy. I still believe that if you want to know how good a chef’s hands are, you should taste his omelet.
When we were teenagers, we threw a party one weekend while our parents were out in the country. I was in charge of the cooking, which back then meant slicing jamón properly and grilling meat over the coals.
For several years I spent my vacations at camps in Germany, where children came from all over Europe. Our group shared out all the duties, including the kitchen. I remember how the boys from England made everyone go hungry, while an Italian girl and I tried to make something authentic that had everyone licking their fingers. Her name was Flafiya, and she taught me a few tricks for cooking pasta.
When I arrived in Moscow, I went to the kitchen where Adrian Ketglas worked, a remarkable cook and a great man. I wanted to understand how the kitchen of 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 own experience running a restaurant kitchen, I never worked as a professional chef until my first cookbook was published, which is why I got fired from my job. I thanked God for that push (a kick in the ass is also a reason to step forward). Now I can do what I truly love professionally.
I’m always open to new taste sensations, and I’m willing to try anything, including snakes, insects and other strange products. My native cuisine is Mediterranean, sunny and rich in seafood.
I have been to different countries around the world, and I always found one or two very tasty dishes, even in countries where the food is considered bad. For example, I love English lamb in mint sauce and Yorkshire pudding.
My main hobby is definitely cooking. Besides that, I love doing pottery, going to bars and sleeping in the afternoon.
I took up pottery after my child was born, and I realized that direct contact with the earth is very important to me. Clay calms me down. Also, just as in cooking, you can see the result of your work right away.
I don’t like doing things that don’t make the world better. When vegetables appeared, people invented soup; when clay appeared, they invented the vase.
As for bars and afternoon naps, I can say nothing in my defense, except that I’m 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 in the photo is “Arroz a banda”, a kind of seafood paella. The rice is tasty but modest; it isn’t the same as the colorful paella they make for tourists. But unlike the tourist paella, this recipe is authentic and is made from the freshest fish.
This is the rice they eat in Valencia, my hometown. In it, taste prevails over appearance, and that is the basis of cooking for me.
