Nandu Jubany goes on stage in the Auditorium to talk about lobster, the star product at his restaurants in Formentera. An island he fell in love with on holiday, where he opened several outlets. 

“Lobster was what fishermen ate. The island had a lot of lobsters, and they ate them with potatoes, peppers and onion. Normally male lobsters are used for traditional recipes, because although the taste is the same as the female lobster, the texture is different. But we always use the female lobster. At the beginning, when we arrived on the island we copied what they were doing at the Molí de Sal restaurant, which is a leading light there, but as we learned more about the product, we decided to turn it around a little", Jubany admits. 

Before starting in with the cooking, the chef demonstrates how to distinguish male and female lobsters. “The male's egg sac is smaller, and the lower pincer has a sharper end". 

It should be pointed out that although Nandu worked on two Moroccan lobsters on stage, "due to restrictions in Formentera at the moment", his restaurants serve up local island lobsters with a seal of quality. 

Lobster becomes a trilogy on the restaurant's menu: a "salpicón" scatter served in the head shell; with rice, and as a frit. “We went a little further, and now the frit is more like a stew. The "picada" sauce is what we do differently. We keep the blood and the coral to use in the recipes".

Nandu rounds off his talk with two tips; lobster cooking time should be as for sirloin, medium, to bring out all the flavour and texture. And when they serve the lobster with egg, they cook it a little less than usual because when it breaks on the plate the yolk acts as a sauce.

Respect for the restaurant floor

Pedro Subijana began his talk by explaining how they coped with the pandemic through regular meetings with the team, training and a great deal of communication and transparency concerning the future of the business. “When we opened again there was a marvellous reaction because everyone arrived with much more motivation, energy and commitment". The chef, however, admits that the problem is now a shortage of staff. “You get CVs that look as if they were done by Spielberg, but when it comes down to it, they’re nothing like that. We have to combat this shortage with training", he went on, before discussing the details of his new sampling menu. 

Four of the recipes were presented: Chicken slivers (a pastie made from the flesh and a filling, with a purée of common chickpeas and green chickpeas)); Lamb (used to make up a roll with lamb-flavoured potato purée and a bun with a sweetbread filling); "Damero" (chunks of bacon and cabbage wrapped in film and fried in a sauce made from other parts of the pig) and "torrezno" scratching with potato (used to make a dough which is rolled out, cut and fried). 

Subijana left the stage with a message: “I repeat today what I said yesterday. As chefs we have done many things and we have been in the limelight. Then it was the turn of the sommeliers, and after that it will be those who work the floor. We must work so that, in the same way as people nowadays are proud to say they are chefs, people can also swell with pride as they say 'I'm a waiter'. But one aspect is still missing here. We have to educate customers so that they respect those working on the floor. Customers must learn to respect waiters. Diners must adhere to the rules of each restaurant. It's true that we're not paid by the company, but by customers, but this is a profession which does not obtain forgiveness when other professions would obtain it. If you go to a bank ten minutes before it closes and they don't let you in, you don't complain. In fact some people even think, 'now I've finished what I had to do, here I am waiting to be served, and bugger everyone else’. We must have respect for people”. The auditorium rose in applause.