Celebrity chef to share 'gastrobotany' expertise with Beijing eatery

The Spanish restaurant Puerta 20 has just signed Spanish celebrity chef Rodrigo de la Calle, 40, to be its executive chef.

The Beijing restaurant located near the entrance of the 20th stand of the Workers' Stadium is very popular with Spanish food lovers and football fans.

The chef, who has been cooking since he was 18, is globally known for "gastrobotany", which means using botanical elements in haute cuisine. He jointly invented the concept in 2000 with Santiago Orts, a botanist.

In 2011, his restaurant Rodrigo de la Calle Restaurant, in Aranjuez, south of the Spanish capital Madrid, got one Michelin star. And his new restaurant, El Invernadeo, is about to join the Michelin list, as he has been invited to Michelin's celebration dinner.

The chef's move to China is not a sudden one.

He has been visiting the country's leading hotels as a guest chef for the past few years and noticed that the Chinese had developed a passion for Spanish food.

Now, Puerta 20 is going to be a special kitchen where he can practice and promote his ideology of gastrobotany, as well as serve authentic Spanish food.

Speaking about his food philosophy, the chef says: "I'm not a vegetarian, and 'gastrobotany' is not about going vegetarian.

"I just extend the use of vegetables in the kitchen to all edible plants, and make them the soul of a dish, instead of meat and fish."

De la Calle says he uses oils, meat, fish and non-vegetarian ingredients just as other chefs do, the only difference being is that they are dressings for vegetables and plants, and not the other way around.

Also, he says that he uses different spices profusely, but he uses only a tiny amount of each because the role of the spices is to bring out or enhance the original flavors of the ingredients in a dish not to cover them.

Despite his appointment, De la Calle will continue to be based in Spain, but as executive chef of Puerta 20, he will teach the culinary team at the restaurant to practice and promote gastrobotany, and will cook at the restaurant from time to time.

One of the chef's passions is that whenever he visits new places he creates recipes using local plants and flavors, and China is no exception.

During a recent stint at the restaurant, he cooked Spanish pumpkin soup with a Chinese twist.

Pumpkin soup is common fare in Western kitchens, but in his Puerta 20 version, he boiled Chinese pumpkin with chicken stock and used a pumpkin shell as a container.

The soup containing ham, runny egg, and broadbeans was savory and milky.

He also used Chinese hairy crab to cook Spanish paella.

As for Spanish cuisine, he feels that more Spanish dishes should be introduced to Chinese diners.

He says that many people think only of paella when they want to try Spanish cuisine, but just as China has more than Peking Roast Duck in its cuisine, Spain also has more than just paella.

There are several types of Spanish cuisine thanks to its geography and culture, just like in China, he says.