Èric Ortuño: “After esophageal cancer, I won three pastry awards in a row.”

BarcelonaI interviewed pastry chef Èric Ortuño (Lavelhanet, France, 1972) in his bakery, L'Atelier Barcelona (Viladomat Street), hours before the start of the afternoon classes he teaches for students who want to dedicate themselves to the trade. Ortuño has been teaching for so many years that he has students spread across the best bakeries in the country, who always speak of him as the master, with all due respect. The last thing he told me about his mastery in the classes was: Joe Bruises, winner of the best chocolate monkeyThese days Ortuño and Ximena Pastor, partners and co-owners of L'Atelier, are preparing a pop-up with the chocolatier Lluc Crusellas, another student. On May 16 and 17, the world's finest chocolatier will be selling exclusive chocolates, made for L'Atelier, and chocolate ice cream, which will be placed on the cakes created by Ortuño, as well as on the cone-shaped croissants.

How did your passion for baking begin?

— When I was young, I decided to study pastry making in Toulouse, taking a dual course, which consisted of attending school for one month and doing an internship for the rest. I remember being given a book about 200 pastry chefs in France, and I wrote to two of them to introduce myself. They both told me to come, and I chose one. So I learned about French pastry making from the inside, in the workshop and at school.

I went to Paris to write about croissants, and I thought they were still doing everything the same as the last time I went.

— Because French pastry is very strict. They struggle to change; we do because we're in Barcelona, ​​and we don't realize it. Look, a French pastry chef came to L'Atelier and was amazed by the fillings in our croissants. He took photos of one and posted it on his Instagram account. Well, they said all kinds of things to him, it sparked a backlash, and this fact is proof of what I'm telling you, that the French don't accept change. And this happens both in France and Italy, two countries with a great tradition. And another detail: I've participated in banquets at French restaurants with three Michelin stars on Mauritius. I made the dessert. The cuisine was impeccable, the product, the technique, but it wasn't creative. In fact, the most creative thing was some foams, which the waiters served to the table, which here, if they did that to us, we would consider completely outdated.

So, in France, they respect tradition, which is why croissants are as they always were. But in Paris, croissants cost between €1.10 and €1.80.

— True, and I don't understand why they maintain that price when the product has become equally expensive for everyone. Well, in France they have an excellent product, much more affordable. We have a hard time finding strawberries from the Maresme region, and in France, on the other hand, the work of farmers is highly valued; they're certainly better paid, and it's easier to find and buy.

The only exception I found in Paris was the Ritz Paris Le Comptoir pastry shop, where croissants cost €4 and are shaped like a very elongated, tubular churro.

— It's a trend that exists in France. Hotel-linked pastry shops are moving beyond the four walls of the hotel, thus targeting the entire population. It's difficult to enter the Ritz in Paris if you're not staying there, but you might be able to enter the pastry shop, which is located on a nearby street at street level. Pastry chef Cédric Grolet was the first to do so, and now more have joined him.

At the Ritz bakery, I saw some shell-shaped madeleines that were all the rage. I was surprised that everyone bought them.

— Because the Ritz madeleine is emblematic: inside it's a cake and outside it's a madeleine. Pastries excite, and I'd say that in Catalonia, much more so than in France. Catalonia eats more sweets than in France. Furthermore, we have more dates marked on the calendar that are linked to a sweet treat. In France, after Easter, they won't have anything else until Christmas; on the contrary, we have the St. John's cake and panellets, which are busy times in the bakeries. What's more, I'd say that every three months we have a holiday celebrated with a sweet treat. In France, what's also happened is that pastry shops open late, around ten or eleven in the morning, so other establishments offer breakfast.

If you were to walk into Paris with your cone-shaped croissants, what would happen?

— That they would judge me. In Barcelona, ​​in Catalonia, there is freedom. We started making cone-shaped croissants in 2020 because we were looking for a shape to serve ice cream, which we also make, and that's how we ended up with the cone shape. I remember that chef Oliver Peña, with whom we are very good friends, was the first to try it. He was alone in the pastry room, and I wanted to see how he ate it and what he thought. I went to ask him, and he told me he really liked it because it was crunchy and tender at the same time. It was an opinion I valued a lot. So, for the first time, we kept the traditional croissant, the straight one, and what we had created, the cone, because we thought we would always have the public who would ask us for the classic croissant, but there came a time when we stopped making it, and they've never asked us for it again.

Changing the subject. Today, April 30th, if I ask you about the San Juan cakes, I'm sure you'll tell me what's new you're thinking about.

— Yes, I'm already thinking about it, but I'm not saying anything in advance. We make new ones every year, and the people who come to L'Atelier ask for them. Candied fruit and chocolate will be a must, as will special doughs, which we make using panettone techniques, that is, with plenty of sourdough, without added yeast, because that's how they last much longer.

I see you still have some Easter doves. Is this dove-shaped panettone suitable for Easter?

— For the first time, this year, yes. We were surprised, because I used to make it in other years, and it didn't work, but this year we sold a lot. Colomba is the Italian invention to extend the panettone season, which didn't work in our country, but this year it's the opposite.

What are your favorite desserts?

— Flan. We make it creamy, that is, we've modified it, because tradition dictated fixed ingredients: sugar, milk, and egg yolks, and we added cream and baked it very precisely. Technology helps achieve ideal textures.

What was the deal with the holes in the flan? Should it have them or not?

— It shouldn't be, because if it is, it means it's overcooked, and therefore, it'll have a dense, rather than creamy, texture. The maximum temperature at which it should be cooked is 85 degrees.

Do we also make Catalan creams and rice pudding?

— Catalan burns, yes, and we've made our own version of it; and rice pudding, which I love, I've never considered using in pastry. I'm also not sure if it would be popular.

Eric, I saw you at Christmas, and you told me about the illness you'd suffered. It's all behind us.

— Yes, I'm now recovered, and in July it will be a year since I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. I went for a routine checkup because I had high blood pressure. No symptoms of anything, just high blood pressure. Then, during an endoscopy, they discovered esophageal cancer. It was in July, and in September I was going into surgery to have my esophagus removed. During the operation, they lengthened my stomach to act as an esophagus. It was a complex, high-risk operation, from which I emerged without a voice and only able to ingest liquids.

You've lost quite a bit of weight since then.

— And yet I've struggled my whole life to keep from gaining weight because I've always loved eating. Now the doctors tell me I have to eat fat, that I have to gain weight, but after the months I've spent eating liquids, I don't feel like it. And now I'm thinking about a feeling I had just before the operation, last September. I had an inner peace with myself. In September, I have the operation, and from November to January, I win three pastry awards in a row. Look, I have them posted here on the door of the bakery: the nougat award, the roscón award, and the award for best pastry chef in Catalonia. So, after esophageal cancer, I've won three pastry awards in a row.

I would interpret it as you have a lot to do and gain.

— I hadn't thought about that before. You're right.

Do awards give visibility to your work? I remember the first thing you won, the Reus cookie award, which I always recommend to everyone who visits it.

— The Reus biscuit, which we make with hazelnut, caramel, and milk chocolate, was the first award we won, yes, when we opened L'Atelier in 2019.

Finally, Eric, I visited Ximena Pastor's other bakery on Dr. Fleming Street with me. How's it going?

— This summer we're turning it into an ice cream parlor, because there isn't one in the area. Plus, it's located near the movie theaters, so we think it'll be a great success.