Torres Brothers
For a few months (and those that remain), Sergio and Javier Torres they spend their time between Barcelona and Madrid: between Dos Cielos Barcelona and Dos Cielos Madrid. And, on one of those trips, we stole a few minutes from them in this new restaurant, the first to open in Madrid, which hasn't been open for even two months and has already carved out a niche between the obligatory gastronomic appointments.
The main hall of Dos Cielos Madrid
As soon as you enter Dos Cielos Madrid, you understand why these two twin brothers, known for their program Towers in the Kitchen , finally decided to open a restaurant in the capital encouraged by the spectacular venue: located in the courtyard of the new Gran Meliá Palacio de los Duques hotel, they are old stables with more than two centuries of history that have been respected and polished.
The interview will be at main room surrounded by windows, brick walls, exposed beams and glass floors that allow us to see the ruins of the building, but before starting to talk, Javier Torres shows us the second floor where there is a reserved area for 20 people who sit around a table made with the wood from the beams of the stables. And, in the background, his grandmother's cupboard Catalina presides . Because of her grandmother they began to cook and she is still very present in her place and in the kitchen from her memory.
Grandma Catalina's cupboard, always present
Has the space been essential to finally encourage you to make the leap to Madrid?
Xavier Torres: Yes, we already wanted to and in the end we found the space.
Sergio Torres : Everything was dusty, but it had very good energy. It had been the stables and then it was a school. Clients who were students here have come to us. It is a 250-year-old building, and that gives it a lot of vibes.
Having a place with this story, does something inspire you in the kitchen?
JT: The place, Madrid, and this traditional area where it is located has inspired us to make very personalized dishes.
ST : Having a history gives it a lot of personality. And then the menu has traditional winks, but done our way...
There is already a lot of talk about you reinterpretation of cooked …
ST : We've called it the ' winter hug and we have some callos a la madrileña , that instead of making them with pork we make them with cod. And there is some more wink. But there are not only influences from Madrid. For now we are starting, and we come out with the dishes that have worked very well for us in Two Skies Barcelona . But we also introduce influences from Brazil and from all our history.
Cod tripe Madrid style
What are those dishes that have worked well for you that we found in Madrid?
ST: The classics.
JT: Well, the young classics.
ST: Contemporary, yes, because they don't have that much time. Now that we are in winter, the foie gras ravioli with dried tomatoes and black olives
JT: The suckling kid from a farm in Extremadura that is brutal, San Pedro with bread with tomato and ham
ST: Peas…lots of them.
Do you want to differentiate Dos Cielos Madrid from Dos Cielos Barcelona?
ST: Nerd. The philosophy is the same , but each one picks up his personality. Here the crockery changes and we do it more to the taste of Madrid, but the cooking philosophy is the same.
And that philosophy is...
ST: Very ours. Product, producer, very clean broths, but with a lot of flavor . It is a kitchen of memories, of memories. It's good cooking.
Marinated Galician Blonde
What differentiates the sky of Madrid from the sky of Barcelona?
JT : There is a heaven, here there is another and that makes 'Two Heavens' [laughs].
ST: Now the circle is closed: the sky of Barcelona was missing the sky of Madrid, and the sky of Madrid was missing the sky of Barcelona.
How have you seen the gastronomic scene in Madrid?
ST: If we had to open somewhere other than Barcelona, it had to be Madrid.
JT: It has an impressive capacity. In a few years, and especially this last year and the next, the number of restaurants that open, with very different offers, is incredible. It is a city where many things happen.
All that number of restaurants, new proposals and gastronomic boom who lives in Madrid, does it impose a little?
** [They both jump at the same time, their synchronization is amazing]** : On the contrary, it motivates.
ST: The good thing is that there are more and more restaurants. Competition is good and healthy. The better and more restaurants there are, the better the level.
JT: Madrid and Barcelona are two cities that were very well positioned, and the more restaurants and the higher quality they are, more tourism will come and the city will be more powerful at a world gastronomic level.
Lacquered fence knuckle "and something else"
Do you define your kitchen as “memory kitchen”, But what is your first memory in the kitchen?
JT: For me they are smells more than flavors.
ST: I have visions of the marble of the my grandmother's kitchen , and on top of it the viscera, torrijas, all very wild, very open. At home everything was very wild and I have that vision of whole chickens...
JT: Those are memories that mark you unintentionally, fortunately. And that helps you build with technique. Before the broths were fatty, now they are clean, transparent, without fat, but with all the flavor, with all the power that takes you back to that moment of childhood.
ST: We have been able after many years, acquiring a lot of base, to reinterpret dishes or flavors that you had in your memory . And it is fascinating.
Is there a specific moment when the hobby of being in the kitchen with your grandmother becomes something serious?
ST: When we were eight years old, we sat our parents at the table and told them: “Dad, Mom, we have something very serious to tell you: we want to be chefs ”. They sent us to bed telling us that we didn't even know what we were saying. But from that day on we kept repeating it every day and now, because we were tired, because we were boring, when we were 14 years old, when we finished EGB, they took us to a cooking school. Where they didn't want to catch us either because we were very young. But we went in and revolutionized that. The teacher fell in love with us.
JT: You have to think about the evolution that has taken place since then, because before there was no such kitchen trend. When we started, no one wanted to be a cook.
ST: And now everyone wants to be a cook. But before it was the last option. In the end, the teacher, also heavy, caught us. There we took the base and started working on sites from the first moment we entered the school. First in the best restaurants in Spain and then in Europe.
"Mom, dad... we want to be cooks"
What is the secret for you of having come this far, of enduring now that, as you say, everyone cooks?
ST: We are of a very fixed idea and to go for it. Many things have really happened, but we have not allowed ourselves to be influenced by anything.
JT: do it right, with enthusiasm, perseverance, seriousness in what you do and work hard.
ST: And also believe in the kitchen line we have created , we have never deviated, no matter how many influences they say you have, no matter how much they tell you that you must change... We have never changed course, we have continued forward and, in the end, it goes well.
Do you create together, separately?
ST: Since we had the use of reason, we have always been together, there is a lot of energy and a very good vibe; And when we decided that we wanted to be chefs when we were eight years old, we already outlined our strategy, which was to divide ourselves among the best houses in Europe and then get together. So we did. I have some techniques, Javier, others , and at the end sum.
And now you continue to create separately and then you put ideas together...
Both: Nerd.
ST: Now is the merger, it is time to exploit all that knowledge that we have acquired and put it there, at the service of the diner.
Steamed oxtail muffin
What has television given you?
ST: We are very happy, we have found a channel that we would never have thought of, which is very nice to motivate people to cook at home and recover the pleasure of cooking at home , which seems important to me. And we are learning a lot about the product or how to get in front of the camera
JT: It is pure cooking with four hands.
ST: People stop us more and more on the street, women make suggestions to us in the market or complain about why we put I don't know what... And we listen to everyone, because it's a daily program and we need material , although then obviously we do it our way and with our personality.
To confirm your synchronization, do you share the two favorite dishes?
** [Both, again]:** the woodcock . The other day we ate one and… Ooooh!
ST: We never wear a tie because we don't like a tie, but the day we eat a woodcock, we wear a tie
JT: It's like saying [to the plate]: "You deserve a tie."
ST: We bought a good wine, he and I locked ourselves up, with no one else, with our ties...
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The main hall of Dos Cielos Madrid