Jan 2019: ‘Chef Paco Roncero in Bahrain at the Capital Club‘ says it all really. Paco is up there with the top when it comes to TV Chefs. Oddly though, when one Googles ‘Celebrity Chefs’, up comes a stream of what appears to be British TV Chefs mixed with the odd American or whatever. 85% of them we’ve never heard of, yet Paco Roncero, who is not only among the very top crème de la crème of chefs in the world, doesn’t get a look in. Odd, because Paco is a mega TV star in Spain, Colombia and well beyond. We love Wolfgang Puck, Jamie, Nigela, Gorden et al (especially Nigela), but get your damn act together Google and stop trying to snowflake us all. Paco is one of many who well deserves to be top of the list. He is a very nice bloke for a start.
Nobody doubts that these celebrity Chefs can indeed cook with incredible art in the kitchen, but many also develop or more likely deliberately nurture wild personas like Gordon Ramsey, creating strong opinions one way or the other in order to get those huge audiences. After all; ‘Oh no, not another cooking programme’, needs spice.
However, with Paco Roncero, it would be so out of character to have a love or hate opinion through a TV screen, unless he so clever to mask his true aura, since Paco clearly comes across as a very dedicated, openly approachable decent chap who is obviously passionate about his vocation. An obliging, friendlier soul is hard to find.
Whodoeswhat.tv knew the name from somewhere already, but these interviews are run and gun and spur of the moment for most. So forget all this so-called personal and programme research producers are supposed to do before going into a profile interview, one doesn’t need it with Paco Roncero. Paco will lead the way with the correct sound byte right out the bag and he is happy to tell you anything you want to know about himself and he does it all without oozing ego. He is just a very down-to-earth pleasant man by all accounts. A very fit one at that.
If you didn’t know him, never heard of him and you saw Paco Rancero in the street, you would never put Paco Roncero down as a Chef, let alone a Master Chef with 2 Michelin stars. This man looks very fit, he is slim and athletic and he bounces around like he could run a marathon in the morning and still cook lunch for 50 people. The word is envious!
Passion oozes out of Paco, not only for other personal achievements, but for his vocation in general. He is incredibly confident about his food, like there is never any need to explain or describe some off the radar dish or why this tastes like that and so on. Unable to get into the kitchen with him (basically size, with all the action), but one can imagine he is such a confident smooth operator and doesn’t break a sweat.
Paco also displays a lot of artistic innovation and that certainly comes across with some of the themes within his restaurants around the world. Billed as the ‘Most Expensive Restaurant in the World; ‘Sublimotion’ in Ibiza is something else to behold. Look it up.
What was the food like with his chosen menu at the Capital Club? Nothing left on the plates, nothing at all. The menu titles are self explanatory, no whitewash arty-farty titles; all to the point and exactly what was listed. Small portions again, but rich, indeed very rich in taste. Again, what level of society does Paco Roncero cook for? When one becomes a Michelin Chef, the standard newspaper wrapped ‘Fish n’ Chips’, seem a very long way away, Shepherds Pie, pork chop, roast potatoes with peas, the sort of cuisine that Paco calls ‘normal food’ or in his case, Spanish Omelette or paella say. You will need money to spend if you follow Paco Roncero around the world and dine at his establishments. You will also be somewhat of a connoisseur of fine dining, whereby the taste exploration is everything and not the size of the portion to fill your belly.
