Somewhere between running Shanghai's most popular Spanish restaurant and an equally popular cocktail lounge, expanding to the Bund, opening a sandwich shop and looking after a satellite branch in Hong Kong, chef and restaurateur Willy Trullás Moreno has found time to publish a book too. It's a playful culinary travelogue documenting his experiences in China. He's throwing in about 32 recipes from the kitchen of el Willy and has named it, appropriately, el Willy, Three Years in China. It launches tomorrow and you can find more details on that right here. We caught up Moreno to get a sneak peek.
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SmSh: First off, why a cookbook?
Willy: I have been collecting cooking books since I was 17, when I started to study in the culinary school. I has been 17 years since then and I'm beginning to have a good collection -- I treat them like treasures. To make a cookbook, for me, is a dream come true.
SmSh: From what I've seen of the book, it looks like it's exclusively in English. Why not Chinese as well?
Willy: We had a limited budget and we had to choose one language to start. First we wanted to do it dual but as we needed much more pages, the costs were much higher. This first edition is in English to see how it goes.
Hopefully, enough people will like and then we can consider translating it.
SmSh: Tell us about some of the recipes you're divulging in this cookbook.
Willy: In the book, we have dedicated a part of it to the Spanish tradition and another part to the contemporary Spain -- always within tapas format. I like both traditional and modern cuisine so I like to introduce people to the reality of Spain today where, of course, tradition is there, and where young chefs are doing new different things.
SmSh: Are you branching out from Spanish cuisine? Will there be any Japanese-Spanish fusion like what we saw at Ohana?
Willy: I want Spain to be my main focus but I love to try different projects where I can play with different cuisines and concepts. Regarding a similar Ohana-style place, so far, I am not thinking about it as I'm quite busy. However, I'd consider it in the future, only in a more central location.
SmSh: Will you be featuring any recipes from FoFo, your Hong Kong venture?
Willy: A lot of recipes are shared in Shanghai and Hong Kong, although in these two years of FoFo, we have developed some specific recipes for Hong Kong, together with Chef Alex Fargas. But we didn't have time to include them in the book... But hopefully we can do a next one in the future and include more work we have been doing in FoFo.
SmSh: What recipe do you think your die-hard followers will be the most surprised to find in this book?
Willy: I certainly think that the classic "Scallop ceviche with avocado," and the "Beef cheek with banana and passion fruit,” also the low-temperature octopus.
SmSh: Judging from your personality, I can't imagine this being just text and pictures. Tell me a little about the look and feel of the book.
Willy: The style of the book follows the casual, funky style we have been developing. Of course, it's totally linked to my personality .This book explains the story of my first three years in China. It also introduces a bit my background in Spain.
SmSh: Tell us a little about the artistic team behind the book? The designer, photographer, illustrator?
Willy: The designer and art director is Ignasi Fernández. He is the man behind the texts, coordination, layout, printing, etc. We met several years ago when he had his studio in Barcelona, it was great because not too long ago he moved to China. Has done an outstanding job as a project director, without him this would have not become a reality.
The illustrator is Juli from Barcelona. We have been collaborating together for several years now. He is a very talented illustrator with a very unique collage and mix match funky style. His work matches perfectly with the style of "el Willy.” The photographer Tristan Chapuis. This is the first of what I hope to be many projects we've done together. He was born in Hong Kong but has French roots. He has great passion, is willing to experiment and look for the best results. It's a great pleasure to work with him and his partner Lidia.
SmSh: A lot of the food you serve in el Willy is pretty specialized. How many of the recipes in this book can be prepared with just local products?
Willy: I'd say over half of them you can prepare [with local products]. The others you may need to source from specific shops.
SmSh: What ingredients have really excited you lately?
Willy: Lately I have been enjoying quite a lot of freeze dried products such as raspberries, vinegar, etc.
It is amazing how they can preserve such a purity of taste with an interesting texture where you can keep them with the original shape, powder them to coat other ingredients...
SmSh: You've got a full plate these days. Have you dined out much lately? What’s the best restaurant you’ve been to in the past three months?
Willy: I don't dine out much as I work in the restaurant but I try to do food trips as often as possible. I was really impressed by “Les Creations de Narisawa” in Tokyo.
SmSh: You’ve got two Japanese restaurants in the family too. Any plans in the works for a Japanese cookbook?
Willy: Not in the immediate time line but we hope in the future we can tell more and more stories through books.
For more details Willy Trullás Moreno's cookbook launch, click here.
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