|
|
 |
| |
Carlos’s family in their Malaga delicatessen |
Heaven and El with a taste of Spain
THE kitchen secrets of El Parador have kept happy regulars coming back to what critics call one of London’s finest Spanish restaurants for 20 years.
Based in Eversholt Street, Mornington Crescent, El Parador was first set up by two school friends, Patrick Morcas and Carlos Horrilo.
And now the pair, who celebrate two decades at the helm in December, have produced a cook book lifting the lid and opening the oven door on the dishes that have had food lovers beat a path to their tables.
Their success is, at first glance, extraordinary: the parade of shops where they set up was an unlikely venue to peddle authentic Iberian tastes from. Both men had experience in the catering trade and were fed up with working all the hours for other people. But other than that, they did not have a well-formed game plan.
But the pair intrinsically knew how to create a great menu.
“We were working hard for other people,” recalls Carlos.
“We’d spoken about running our own place and then thought: ‘why not just do it?’
“Patrick had worked in the kitchens and I had done front of house so we joked that we should start something up together. Friends warned us that the trade was tough and we’d close within a year.
“Two decades later and we’re still here.”
The book came about in a similar way.
“We’d been thinking about doing a cook book for some time but never got round to it,” says Carlos.
“Then a regular diner who is also a publisher one day asked us if we’d considered doing a book. Suddenly it became a reality.”
Carlos’s family are Spanish and he has drawn on recipes that are staple family favourites. The pair have seen British dining habits develop and grow since they first opened.
“Spanish food on the whole was never really taken seriously by the British,” says Carlos.
“A lot of it was holiday stuff – things to remind you of your week in the sun. Tortilla, paella and not much more. But now Spanish food is really taken seriously.”
The menu has other influences: there are dishes with a Moroccan twist, and the rest of the Mediterrean is also an influence.
But it’s the style of eating that has really caught imaginations. Small dishes to share makes for a more sociable meal out, says Carlos. “You go to Europe and people go out to eat because they like going out to eat, and that’s that,” he says.
“In France and Spain you find small, lovely restaurants – you get business people in suits rubbing shoulders with delivery men. They are there for the food and socialising, not for any other reason.”DAN CARRIER |
 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
