Jose Alonso Managing Director Tapas Club

Jose Alonso, Managing Director, Tapas Club

Jose Alonso, Managing Director of Tapas Club shares what life is like behind the scenes and lets us in on some things coming up for the group in 2018.

How did you get into the industry?
Since I was very young I liked to cook for my family. Where I was born in La Rioja, there is a great culture of gastronomy and in my house, we always liked to eat very good products. At the age of 10, I used to go with my father to the market to buy ingredients for cooking. Since I was very young I always knew that I wanted to be a cook but my family forced me to study high school until I finally went to the Academy of Gastronomy.

What’s the best/ worst part of your job?
Best
First of all, we have to be constantly testing new products in order to create new recipes. Being able to travel first in Spain and then around the world is a result of being a chef. Right now it’s about being able to understand the culture of countries by the way they eat. I really consider myself lucky.
Worst
That I like what I do so much that I sometimes forget that the rest of the world exists.

What are some of your favourite restaurants in the world?
Quique Dacosta and Can Faves

What’s one of the craziest things you’ve seen behind the scenes?
Working in a two-star Michelin restaurant we once had an internship guy working in the kitchen. The boy was in the production part and the chef told him to come to the kitchen and cook. I had to put a fish air on a plate for a client to eat it and the boy never tasted the food. The fish air, it was really soap foam. When he put it on the plate the chef hit him and told him that he never put anything on for a client without first trying it.

The perfect day would be…
A full restaurant and happy customers

What is a good day in the life of a chef?
The day you open a restaurant and what you cook, the customers like.

What do you do for fun?
I love to travel with my wife and discover new places. I love sports (soccer, tennis, skiing).

What’s something you’d like guests to know about Tapas Club?
The work and effort that I and all my team put into making our food delicious every day.

What’s your favourite food and wine pairing?
Fried eggs with homemade potatoes and a nice bottle of Rioja wine.

What’s in store for you in the upcoming months?
A lot of work but I’m happy and very excited. We just opened the fourth Tapas Club in one year in three different countries and we are very happy with the way things are going. In a month we will open a new concept called Chulove that will be a cafeteria where the main product will be the CHURRO. I’m very excited about this new concept because so far no one has worked on such a traditional product as churro the way we’re going to do it in Chulove. 2018 is a great year and 2019 is full of great illusions.

Take a look at our Tapas Club experience in Malaysia here and Singapore here.

3 Comments

  1. I like tapas ❤

  2. Cuisine and travel – the best things in the world.

  3. Fried egg with potatoes sounds smple but divine on any day.

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