Marc Mallasén: “Thanks to my previous experience in hotels, today I can enjoy the privilege of cooking at Seventy Barcelona”
Not yet 40, Marc Mallasén (Barcelona, 1980) has spent almost half of his life in the kitchen. To his 15 years of strictly professional career, we must add a few more years of self-learning. And it is that his, is a vocation that comes from far away. “I liked to sit in the kitchen of my grandparents or my parents and watch how they cooked and subject them to a full interrogation”. Now, he has recaptured those sensations from dishes in his memory and it has served as inspiration to create the menu for Seventy Barcelona: “It's about simple cooking; honest, in front of an audience that can see how all the products are fresh and of the highest quality”.
Volleyball fan, married with two daughters aged 3 and 8, his dedication to his profession is such that “the best way to relax after spending hours at work is to come home and bake a cake with my daughters”. Cooking is a passion he also enjoys as a patron, in restaurants like La Mundana, Bar Mut, Terraza Martínez, or Axol in Cabrils. Places he frequents and recommends we visit when we get the chance. Among his culinary references, names like Eneko Atxa, Dani García, Martín Berasategui, or Dabiz Muñoz, all members of the exclusive 3 Michelin Stars club. Names he admires and that inspire him to keep improving: “I would have liked to open a restaurant, but managing one is complicated because it requires giving your all, endlessly. In a hotel, you don't have the business responsibility of a restaurant”. Marc Mallasén enjoys his daily work in the kitchen of Seventy, “a place where I aspire to give the best of myself”.
Throughout his journey to this point, Mallasén has been gaining experience in hotel kitchens. “Thanks to that experience, today I can enjoy the privilege of cooking at Seventy”. His extensive career has allowed him to witness the professionalization of hotel cuisine. “Before, there was a significant difference between the food served in hotels and that in restaurants. Hotel food was more about 'quantity' and less sophisticated. Now, with the support of great chefs, and considering that working in hotel kitchens is more pleasant for the cook, there has been a great improvement in the services”.
To an excellent career and vocation is now added a unique place in which to develop one's activity. “At Seventy Barcelona, I have a great team, and I am fortunate that the project has greatly valued the spaces. And I have all the tools to provide excellent service. The aim was to offer the feeling of being at home. So our cuisine is a reflection of what we would want to offer in our own home. Simple dishes that we try to do as well as possible so that the food is good and above all that they offer many options to our customers, so they can choose”.
And he adds, “we offer a choice of different sides, between chicken thigh or breast, or how you want your eggs. If it's not on the menu, we also try to accommodate requests”. There are also nods to other cuisines, “like the roast beef, which is English…with our Harrys sauce”, one of the star dishes, along with the grilled fish of the day. Moreover, as in any other Mediterranean home, the common thread of their cuisine is olive oil. Another characteristic trait of this new gastronomic experience is that all food is prepared in their kitchen. From the gnocchi to the croquettes, just like at home.
To verify that this statement is true, one only needs to approach Seventy Barcelona during meal times. There, one can observe the team cooking in an open kitchen, in front of the customers. This is a situation to which Mallasén has had to adapt: “The initial impact is challenging because you have to give up certain quirks or habits. But for me, it means demanding myself to be better every day. You get used to it and you have the customer eating but you focus on your work, and everything flows smoothly”.
And so, with just a short trajectory, Marc Mallasén highlights “the atmosphere at Seventy Barcelona, very comfortable. These are very good feelings. We are making progress every day and we see that the concept is very well received”. Experiencing it firsthand is as easy as going to 344-352 Córcega street and letting a team of people advise you that will make you feel at home.
