Hermanos Torres

In a residential area of Barcelona, some 5 kilometers from La Sagrada Familia, lies the Les Corts de Sarrià neighborhood. This is the real Barcelona, locals say. Far from the historic beauty of the city center, it is organic, lively, loud and slightly gritty. In the most real and most perfect of ways.

It is the definition of big city life. Not the sort of area you would expect a culinary revolution to take place. Yet at the heart of the neighborhood, in an old converted tire factory nestled between concrete apartment buildings, two brothers have taken it upon them to change the very face of Spanish cuisine.

Cocina Hermanos Torres - a dream come true

As you step through the open garage doors of this alternate reality, you find, at the center of this former industrial space, a culinary dream come true. Far from the reality of the world outside, it is, for lack of a better word, an otherworldly setting. A warm, modern and beautifully designed space where technology and memories fuse to create culinary magic.

The first thing you notice is the prominent kitchen that takes up the center of the space. Around this central focal point, as if seats in a theater, are groups of immaculately set tables, all with full views of the open dining space, the central kitchen as well as staging areas, the wine cellar and other elements that make up a classic gourmet restaurant.

This space, Cocina Hermanos Torres, one of the world’s more unconventional Michelin-starred restaurants, is the culinary playground of twin brothers Sergio and Javier Torres. Two heavyweights of modern Spanish cuisine who, after 40 years of planning, have made their childhood dream restaurant come true. And more than anything, it is a tribute to the ritual of preparing and eating a memorable meal. 

Indeed, as you step further into what opens up into a large, open and beautifully renovated space, thoughts press on. What is this space? Is this a restaurant? A kitchen? A theater? The simple answer to the question is a little of all of the above.

Creating a boundaryless dining experience 

What you have stepped into is a wall-less representation of a fine dining restaurant and a perfect setting. What you witness as you turn in wonder and stare at the combination of modern design and traditional art is the result of a dream. A dream that was born in the late 70’s and took four decades to come to fruition. A dream of creating the perfect, most memorable meal. And a dream that took the help of an army of architects, designers, craftsmen and artists to transform a soulless space into the perfect, most luxurious and captivating setting for the dream to unfold.

“More than a restaurant with a kitchen, we wanted to create a kitchen with a restaurant,” the brothers explain from the heart of their culinary dreamscape, pointing at the tables that surround the kitchen. “The intention is to blur the lines between the spaces that make up a traditional restaurant. To make diners participate and empathize with the chefs as eye-witnesses to the creative act that is unfolding.”

Read also: Cocina Hermano Torres - Review

It is an unusual approach to starting conversation. One that raises more questions than it answers. And to even begin to make sense of it all, we need to first answer the question that many outside of Spain may be asking themselves: Who are Javier and Sergio Torres?

Truth be told, outside of their native Spain, only the culinary elite may have heard of Javier and Sergio Torres. But in their hometown of Barcelona and across Spain, they are celebrated as nothing short of culinary heroes. Yet, their chef tale, like many, begins humbly in their grandma’s kitchen back in the late 1970’s.

Who are Javier and Sergio Torres?

“Our love for cooking came from our grandmother. Catalina,” Javier and Sergio smile lovingly. “She worked as a cook in the kitchen of wealthy families. We grew up, following her to the market, watching her cook in the kitchen, helping her peel onions and potatoes. In a large family with busy parents, she took great care of us. And inadvertently she distilled in us a love of cooking. This is the reason the kitchen is at the heart of our new space. Because it is the heart of our story,” they explain.

Growing up in their grandmother’s kitchen and thriving on her passion for food, instilled very early in life for Javier and Sergio a dream to open a restaurant in their own image. In fact, they decided at the age of eight that they wanted to cook, they recall, and laugh as they relive how they were immediately sent straight to bed by their parents when they announced their plans.

Yet, the dream lived on as they grew from childhood into their teens and early adulthood. The drive was always there, they explain. It was something they knew they wanted to do. So as early in life as they could, they set off to pursue their dream. Come whatever may and even if it meant breaking a special bond.

As twins, Javier and Sergio have always done everything together. They have always faced their challenges together. And to this day, they still do. It is a bond only twins would understand, they say. “We are more than just coworkers, best friends and brothers. We have been together since we were cells, we spend our days together and tackle most tasks together,” they admit, finishing each other’s sentences as they speak.

This special holds true to this day when they bike together to the restaurant every morning and spend the day together there. It holds true on their days off that they spend together as well. And it certainly also held true at age 14 when they started culinary school together.

Needless to say, owing to their bond, discipline and determination, the twins exceeded expectations at the Arnadí Culinary School in Barcelona. Yet, as they graduated at the top of their class, something highly unusual happened in the life of the symbiotic twins. 

They split up. They pursued their goal separately. For the first time in life, they had to separate and pursue separate paths in life. Not out of need. And certainly not out of want. They did so with a very elaborate strategy in mind; they wanted as many top restaurants in their culinary CV as possible.

A shared culinary CV few can dream to match

In the case of Sergio Torres, his academic training was complemented by tenures at Michelin-starred restaurants such as Akelarre in San Sebastían, Neichel in Barcelona and Le Jardin des Sens in Paris. He even spent time under the watchful eyes of culinary masters such as Alain Ducasse, amongst others.

Javier Torres, on the other hand, made a name for himself mainly in Spain, most notably as chef de cuisine at Can Fabes - a three-Michelin-star restaurant created by avant–garde chef Santi Santamaría whom he characterizes one as his culinary mentor, alongside with Philippe Rochat whose two-star Michelin restaurant in Lausanne, Switzerland he also worked at.

Their combined experience eventually spanned a grand total of 12 Michelin-starred restaurants, some of them the best within their field - some of them the best in the world. Period. And the decision to split up like this and do things separately, they admit, was fully intentional. It was the best way, they reasoned, to gather the most experience possible in the shortest possible time, and achieve their shared culinary CV that few in the business can even dream to match.

When two work as one

“It was a basic strategy,” they shrug in unison. “To learn twice as much in half the time,” Javier explains, looking at his brother. “If I do half of the best restaurants in Spain and Europe, you will do the other half. Then we will meet in the middle and share our experiences.” - “Ever so often, we would find a great restaurant where we could go and have a good meal,” Sergio adds, “and share every minute detail of each other's experiences.”

Working separately and under others not only offered the twins great practical experience. It also proved an important learning experience on their journey towards realizing their childhood dream. “We need to work together towards our common dream. And we need to break free from partners and people telling us what to do,” they concluded early on in their journey. 

They would have to summon the courage to jump in, as they say, and aim for the stars. “We needed to come through with our idea - on our own - and we knew exactly how we wanted it to be,” they say pointing around the open space around them, “and this is the result.”

And what a magnificent result it is. The Torres brothers define Cocina Hermanos Torres as a new approach to Spanish haute cuisine - an engaging open kitchen focused on technology, presentation and heart. An experience which immerses the diner deeply in the preparation of their meal of sensory experiences. This was their vision from day one, they explain. To create the ultimately engaging dining experience. Everything they ever did in life was a part of the plan. Part of the journey.

Tradition, essence and technology

But what sort of journey is this? When asked, the Torres twins will say that their culinary journey deals primarily with memories and tradition - and of finding new ways of sharing these with others. The produce is great, of course. Local, seasonal and of the best quality. Yet, to Javier and Sergio, the two most important factors of their cuisine are memories and time. They describe their food as a mix of tradition, essence and technology. A kitchen where technique, high-tech tools and molecular touches meet tradition and simplicity in perfect harmony.

“There is a lot of technology in everything we do,” they readily admit. “Some of our stocks and dishes cook for upwards of four days and we have collaborated with some of the best producers of high tech kitchen hardware to achieve the best possible results. Maybe you will notice the technical elements, they smile, “some people will not. But what you will always notice is the feelings and the flavors. The human heart. There are many technical and skill-based factors to our cooking, but none of them are more important than feeling and heart.”

Indeed, reviewers describe their dishes as high tech elaborate works of thought and art. And indeed high tech gadgetry like 3D Printers and vacuum cookers are integral parts of the kitchen. Yet to the brothers, their dishes are about creating simplistic renditions of traditions and memories. “We hear a lot of talk about Nordic cuisine,” they say when approached about their inspiration. “Clean, crisp, intensity driven food.” 

In Spain food is simply richer and more robust, they realize, yet they try to convey those expressions in a cleaner way. Their idea, they say, is to look at Spanish cuisine from a purists’s standpoint. To create something really flavorful, but as healthy as can be. “It does not have to be a bowl of fat to be flavorful,” they stress, adding that the goal is to fuse the finesse of the world kitchens, the Nordic and Asian kitchens in particular, with the bold flavors, ingredients and traditions of the Spanish kitchen.

It is an organized chaos. It is really hard for us to put into words what it means to be twins and work together. This is the best way we can describe it.

But how does one transform Spanish cuisine, the mind wonders? How is the creative process behind turning traditions and memories into simplistic pieces of art?

Forces of nature - a reflection of a life’s work

“Oooof,” they simply wince in reply to the question. “It is nearly impossible to explain. The creative process is very complex. As twins, we work together as one. With two minds and four hands. And we constantly improve on one another. We have been doing it since we were kids.” Ideas, they say, can grow from anything, from something as simple sa one of them looking at a flower and having an idea. And from there, they will just expand on it, each adding their own elements and twists. As an idea grows, they add to it over and over again until it becomes an actual dish. Or rather, a culinary work of art full of thoughts, feelings and history. 

“It is an organized chaos,” is, in the end, the best description they can come up with for the process and their working relationship. How they seemingly switch roles naturally, flip responsibilities constantly and sometimes chase off in different directions - towards the same goal. It is this seamless cooperation that keeps them moving towards the goal, says the twins. ”It is really hard for us to put into words what it means to be twins and work together. This is the best way we can describe it.”

What in the end exemplifies their cooking, they agree, is that every dish has a strong sense of history, feeling  and thought to it. Whether it is a seafood dish based on memories and glimpses of flavors from a past trip to Brazil - or a rich, comforting onion soup created as a stunningly complex and beautiful  homage to their father, every single dish in the restaurant has a story or a why.

As with their personal story, absolutely nothing in the restaurant or in the dishes is left to chance. Everything is the result of years of personal planning, they nod again and again. “What you see and what you eat is the reflection of a life’s work,” they say… “Of two lives’ work,” they quickly add with a grin, correcting their own slip of mind as they wrap up the tale, just as they have done everything else in their life - in perfect unison. 

Thus ends, for now, the story of the Torres Brothers. With the promises of more to come, including another TV show for the Brothers who are not only chefs but also TV stars in their native Spain. It is a tale of two lives’ work and one common dream that the English speaking world may have first heard now. A story that till now rested perfectly within the microcosmos of the Spanish culinary scene. 

But the story of the personal journey of Javier and Sergio, the twin superstars from Barcelona, is one that bears telling. A story the culinary world deserves to hear. And if their two Michelin Stars is anything to go by, it is also a story that can barely be kept a secret any longer.