“There is a man in Spain who does everything,” sang the musical group Astrud more than a decade ago, with which it was one of their hits. In Barcelona, more specifically at the La Forquilla restaurant (Carrer de Aragó, 152), Vidal Gravalosa (Barcelona, 1981) could have a similar string of background music.
Become the one-man band of your own restaurant, Gravalosa is at the same time a cook, waiter, sommelier and office manager. An all-rounder that produces signature cuisine in the center of the Catalan capital. Speaker at one of the talks at the Gastronomic Forum BarcelonaGravalosa spoke about degrowth and a more acceptable and less incomprehensible hospitality industry.
A reality that, transferred to The Forquillahe is realistic and goes where he can go. A message that seems difficult for these times, especially in the hospitality industry, but being clear that there is an SME life behind where it can pay more to depend on oneself than to depend on four or five other people.
“In a business, either you have 400 employees and you can really leave, or you are on your own and you don’t depend on anyone. If you have four, eight, ten, twelve employees you are equally tied,” he laments.
From haute cuisine to being the one man orchestra
Son of hoteliers who cut their teeth in feeding in large dining rooms with up to 40 employees at their service, Gravalosa is a redeemed chef who has gone through haute cuisine and has also known the unpleasantness of the profession and, despite being barely 42 years old, his experience seems like that of someone who has lived several lives in one.
Steps through Can Fabes, the legendary Michelin star of Santi Santamariaor Lasarte—the landing of Martin Berasategui in Barcelona, where he was active when he earned his first and second Michelin star—are an example of his resume at the posh tables. However, His struggle has also been in catering and in his own restaurants.
Honest, both with himself and with his cuisine and his own past, Gravalosa acknowledges having made mistakes and having hit rock bottom. He also assumes that “now people don’t want to spend 80 or 90 hours in the kitchen and that haand a generation that does not know what it is work split shifts“.
However, In his words there is no nostalgia for that past time —of which he does not say if it was better or worse, but “yes, different”, even assuming that his work days do imply those 80 or 90 hours a week but, as he admits, “they are for me and I depend entirely on what I do “.
Take advantage of the wave
From that breed of self-employed cook, Gravalosa, restless and fast, insists that this may not be the most logical thing, but is riding a wave in which La Forquilla now works well—very well— and that he has to take the opportunity to make money and buy his freedom after having gotten into previous businesses that made him lose a lot of money, changing a profitable restaurant for a proposal in Tarragona with partners that, he comments, “should not have been associated.”
A vital backpack that explains The reason for the reluctance of this perfectionist hotelier to not want to employ more workers because that would condition their freedom. “Now, being alone, if I organize myself I can go on vacation for a week,” he says.
Realities that I had not known until now: “I have worked every Christmas and New Year’s Eve of my life since I have been a chef. Now I can consider not doing it.”, He confessed before a press table.
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Just as naked as in his kitchen, Gravalosa can have a speech that sounds harsh and, in some ways, old-fashioned to the extent of a culture of effort that he has imposed on himself. Furthermore, he explains, that culture that now leads him to work 16 hours a day has more to do with the recovery of his freedom, now captive to loans and banks, being clear that “when I recover, I do not intend to work 80 hours a week.” “.
Images | Jaime de las Heras
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