el Willy balances yin-yang with chopsticks
By Gao Ceng |
July 26, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SERVING authentic and contemporary Spanish food to be eaten family style and with chopsticks is part of the allure of el Willy, the newly relocated and still wildly popular creation of head chef and co-owner Willy Trullas Morena.
The Spanish chef - everyone calls him Willy - presents a menu appealing to both Westerners and Chinese with a balance of the East and the West, traditional and contemporary.
"Balance, especially the yin-yang (the opposite elements in the natural world) balance deeply rooted in traditional Chinese culture, greatly inspires my cooking and the way I run my restaurant," Willy says.
The chef is one of the first in Shanghai to break down a classical Western-style menu and reconstruct it in a Chinese-friendly style.
In observing how Chinese order food, Willy identifies a pursue of balance, a yin ("cold" energy) dish is paired with yang ("hot" energy), meat (yang) paired with fish (yin) and dry startch paired with liquid soup.
The Western menu is categorized into appetizers, main courses and desserts, Western-style.
He divides all food into sections such as tapas, appetizer, greens and vegetables, meat, fish and seafood.
He places considerable emphasis on tapas, featuring small portions but great variety, rather like Chinese sharing family-style; Eight, 12, even more dishes are served on the table at once.
He still appeals to Western customers and he insists in quality ingredients, consistent quality, authentic Spanish flavor and English-language service.
"However, frankly speaking, Chinese are more important unless I don't want to survive," Willy tells Shanghai Daily.
The environment for running a restaurant in Shanghai is tougher than before due to high inflation and better informed and more demanding customers.
Compared with the competitive market of Chinese restaurants, foreign restaurants are still and will be a niche market.
"But the risk for me is more about opportunity. I am sure that the Chinese middle class with big consuming power is more willing to pay for quality dining experience," Willy says.
Traditional, contemporary
The new venue on the Bund doesn't seem like a typical Spanish restaurant - the decor is simpler, with colorful post-modern paintings and background music.
"It is the true interpretation of today's latest Spanish dining, an alternative to South Beauty and Lost Heaven in Shanghai in interpreting Chinese dining," chef explains.
Contemporary reflects not only the ambience but also the food, such as "contemporary Spanish tapas," which are prepared using innovative techniques with familiar Spanish ingredients such as tomato, olive oil, chives and rosemary.
Based on a classic Mediterranean approach, the chef integrates Japanese, Thai and Chinese ways of cooking, adding ginger and chilli, crispy garlic, shallots and oyster sauce. He uses Chinese woks and steamers as well.
Career
Willy was inspired by a restaurant in his hometown Barcelona, Santa Maria, opened by a young chef who was the first there to make tapas with an Asian approach.
Willy took Thai and Japanese cooking courses in Barcelona and read many cookbooks by Cantonese chefs.
"You cannot master everything. But the more you know, the better you are," the chef says.
For el Willy's boss, there's no contradiction between being innovative and dynamic and preserving tradition.
On the menu he divides tapas into "traditional" and "Willy" style. He offers both "juicy" paella and the traditional dry paella popular in the Mediterranean region.
The wine list is 90 percent Spanish. Always passionate about food, Willy entered the culinary field when he was age 16. He was an exchange student in the United States at Elk River High School in the state of Minnesota. He became fluent in English and open-minded about all kinds of food.
When he was 22, Willy went to France working at Georges Blanc, a Michelin three-star restaurant. Besides learning about the diversity of French food culture, he also learned how the French run their kitchens.
"It's so consistent and precise, just like a clock," the chef says.
In 2007 he moved to Shanghai and soon opened his first restaurant, el Willy, which soon became very successful.
Now, he is both chef and entrepreneur.
"From el Bulli and Noma to Fat Duck, it is demonstrated that chef-owned restaurants are the best. This is because compared with ordinary businessmen, the chef cares more about food quality and dining details," he says.
It's not difficult to recognize chef Willy in his restaurant, since there's only one person greeting diners with a hearty "hola" in Spanish or nonghao (hello in Shanghai dialect)."
Ingredients:
Garlic mashed, celery chopped, onion choppedetc etc.
Salmon 100g (cut in rectangles); 1 red onion; 1 stick celery; 1/2 red chilli (with seeds); 4 cloves garlic; 50g coriander; 30g ginger; 2 deciliter fish stock; 10 pcs Thai lime (juiced); 25g snapper; a little salt/pepper; 1 spring roll sheet
Steps:
1. Except salmon and spring roll sheet, blend all ingredients together to make ceviche sauce.
2. Clean salmon and cook with skin sous vide (sealed in airtight plastic) 20 mins at 70 degree Celsius.
3. Leave to dry on Silpat (non-stick baking silicon mat) for 48 hours.
4. Roll the salmon, seasoned with salt and pepper, in spring roll sheet.
5. Pre-heat non-stick pan, add a little oil, cook salmon roll for 10 seconds on each side until roll gets golden color, a Japanese cooking method called tataki.
6. Cut salmon roll in four pieces and spread it with Ceviche sauce.
Willy Trullas Morena
Head chef and co-owner of el Willy, from Spain
Q: What's your favorite Shanghai restaurant?
A: Franck Bistrot for Western, Lei Garden for Cantonese, Xin Da Lu for Chinese and Sushi Oyama for Japanese.
Q: If you were not a chef, what would you be?
A: A movie star!
Q: Any dream yet to be realized?
A: Traveling together with working.
The Spanish chef - everyone calls him Willy - presents a menu appealing to both Westerners and Chinese with a balance of the East and the West, traditional and contemporary.
"Balance, especially the yin-yang (the opposite elements in the natural world) balance deeply rooted in traditional Chinese culture, greatly inspires my cooking and the way I run my restaurant," Willy says.
The chef is one of the first in Shanghai to break down a classical Western-style menu and reconstruct it in a Chinese-friendly style.
In observing how Chinese order food, Willy identifies a pursue of balance, a yin ("cold" energy) dish is paired with yang ("hot" energy), meat (yang) paired with fish (yin) and dry startch paired with liquid soup.
The Western menu is categorized into appetizers, main courses and desserts, Western-style.
He divides all food into sections such as tapas, appetizer, greens and vegetables, meat, fish and seafood.
He places considerable emphasis on tapas, featuring small portions but great variety, rather like Chinese sharing family-style; Eight, 12, even more dishes are served on the table at once.
He still appeals to Western customers and he insists in quality ingredients, consistent quality, authentic Spanish flavor and English-language service.
"However, frankly speaking, Chinese are more important unless I don't want to survive," Willy tells Shanghai Daily.
The environment for running a restaurant in Shanghai is tougher than before due to high inflation and better informed and more demanding customers.
Compared with the competitive market of Chinese restaurants, foreign restaurants are still and will be a niche market.
"But the risk for me is more about opportunity. I am sure that the Chinese middle class with big consuming power is more willing to pay for quality dining experience," Willy says.
Traditional, contemporary
The new venue on the Bund doesn't seem like a typical Spanish restaurant - the decor is simpler, with colorful post-modern paintings and background music.
"It is the true interpretation of today's latest Spanish dining, an alternative to South Beauty and Lost Heaven in Shanghai in interpreting Chinese dining," chef explains.
Contemporary reflects not only the ambience but also the food, such as "contemporary Spanish tapas," which are prepared using innovative techniques with familiar Spanish ingredients such as tomato, olive oil, chives and rosemary.
Based on a classic Mediterranean approach, the chef integrates Japanese, Thai and Chinese ways of cooking, adding ginger and chilli, crispy garlic, shallots and oyster sauce. He uses Chinese woks and steamers as well.
Career
Willy was inspired by a restaurant in his hometown Barcelona, Santa Maria, opened by a young chef who was the first there to make tapas with an Asian approach.
Willy took Thai and Japanese cooking courses in Barcelona and read many cookbooks by Cantonese chefs.
"You cannot master everything. But the more you know, the better you are," the chef says.
For el Willy's boss, there's no contradiction between being innovative and dynamic and preserving tradition.
On the menu he divides tapas into "traditional" and "Willy" style. He offers both "juicy" paella and the traditional dry paella popular in the Mediterranean region.
The wine list is 90 percent Spanish. Always passionate about food, Willy entered the culinary field when he was age 16. He was an exchange student in the United States at Elk River High School in the state of Minnesota. He became fluent in English and open-minded about all kinds of food.
When he was 22, Willy went to France working at Georges Blanc, a Michelin three-star restaurant. Besides learning about the diversity of French food culture, he also learned how the French run their kitchens.
"It's so consistent and precise, just like a clock," the chef says.
In 2007 he moved to Shanghai and soon opened his first restaurant, el Willy, which soon became very successful.
Now, he is both chef and entrepreneur.
"From el Bulli and Noma to Fat Duck, it is demonstrated that chef-owned restaurants are the best. This is because compared with ordinary businessmen, the chef cares more about food quality and dining details," he says.
It's not difficult to recognize chef Willy in his restaurant, since there's only one person greeting diners with a hearty "hola" in Spanish or nonghao (hello in Shanghai dialect)."
Ingredients:
Garlic mashed, celery chopped, onion choppedetc etc.
Salmon 100g (cut in rectangles); 1 red onion; 1 stick celery; 1/2 red chilli (with seeds); 4 cloves garlic; 50g coriander; 30g ginger; 2 deciliter fish stock; 10 pcs Thai lime (juiced); 25g snapper; a little salt/pepper; 1 spring roll sheet
Steps:
1. Except salmon and spring roll sheet, blend all ingredients together to make ceviche sauce.
2. Clean salmon and cook with skin sous vide (sealed in airtight plastic) 20 mins at 70 degree Celsius.
3. Leave to dry on Silpat (non-stick baking silicon mat) for 48 hours.
4. Roll the salmon, seasoned with salt and pepper, in spring roll sheet.
5. Pre-heat non-stick pan, add a little oil, cook salmon roll for 10 seconds on each side until roll gets golden color, a Japanese cooking method called tataki.
6. Cut salmon roll in four pieces and spread it with Ceviche sauce.
Willy Trullas Morena
Head chef and co-owner of el Willy, from Spain
Q: What's your favorite Shanghai restaurant?
A: Franck Bistrot for Western, Lei Garden for Cantonese, Xin Da Lu for Chinese and Sushi Oyama for Japanese.
Q: If you were not a chef, what would you be?
A: A movie star!
Q: Any dream yet to be realized?
A: Traveling together with working.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
