What are your earliest memories of being interested in food?
Monty Aguiló Wray|I was always cooking with my mum and eating at all the restaurants of my home town with my dad.
Pato Zucarini |My grandmother’s kitchen, all the aromas and classic Italian food.
Andreas Rehberger|Making tarditional Austrian “Apfelstrudel” with my mother.
What would you say has inspired your cooking the most?
Monty |My mother
Pato |The whole life. Everything I can feel, see and touch.
Andreas |The good thing is that I feel getting inspired every day – one just need to open the eyes.
Describe how you see your own culinary style and how it has evolved over the years…
Monty, Pato & Andreas |We love honest and tasty food, but won’t cut it down to just one exact culinary style. For sure our way of cooking has evolved over time in how to use excellent products in a more sophisticated and precise way to liften their natural potential and taste.
Tell us about your work at 5-Cincoin Berlin …
Monty, Pato & Andreas |Here at 5-Cinco we are focussing on a modern, contemporary cuisine with a Spanish base by combining passion, best international and regional products as well as modern technics. Moreover, we are running a multi-lingual, international team with talents from around the world to reach the success we want to achieve and to become a little better every day.
Together with Paco Pérez, we are in charge of making this place special for our guest and ensure that the kitchen is an amazing and challenging place to work at for our team as well. Berlin is such a bustling city with so much energy and culinary variety – people from all over the world come to experience its unique atmosphere – and we love to be part of this with a place to be and come back!
What can guests expect at 5-Cinco?
Monty, Pato & Andreas |An experience that involves not only the food but also all senses. That’s why we called it “5-Cinco”in the first place. The restaurant itself is a little treasure design-wise with its show kitchen and its giant installation of copper pots and pans above the table. But it has a very relaxed atmosphere. The signature menu focuses on different landscapes like the sea, the forest and the garden – it is ment to surprise guests and live the moment with us as an experience for all senses – not just having a meal because one is hungry – it’s much more than that!
How did you decide on the menu?
Monty, Pato & Andreas |Paco Pérez himself clearly is the master mind and artist behind the menu in all his restaurants – he is the creative head, but here in Berlin it is our job to do the fine tuning, adapting dishes to some local ingredients and make it happen every day. We work on it as team very regularly when he is with us once a month.
It’s been said that you are focusing on Spanish avant-garde, even in Germany? Can you explain a bit more about this?
It’s true, the base of our cuisine is Mediterranean, Catalonian and Spanish, but we are not limited to that as we use techniques and ingredients from around the world – simply depending on what is best to boast a product and create tasty and surprising dishes with a modern twist. Of course, it is a niche in Germany but we are a very international kitchen with up to 9 used languages in the team and working in a super-international envirement – so for us it feels quite natural to offer an internationally successful kind of cuisine as well.
What are your most indispensable ingredients?
Pato |My Team, Passion and time.
Monty |Olive oil! We love using olive oil even when we create Asian dishes!
Andreas |Love, love and love.
What would you say has been the most memorable moment in your culinary career so far?
Pato |Too many to name them, but I always believe that the next day has the potential to top it again!
Monty |First of all, being accepted in such a beautiful project as what Das Stue is and having the advantage of meeting so many good chefs and friends while working. And secondly, gaining our first Michelin star in such a short time.
Andreas |Purely focussing on tomorrow – so I am still waiting for it!
What’s next for you?
Pato, Monty and Andreas |We all feel very much the same about that: We are truly thankful and enjoy what we are doing right now. The mutual aim is to continue cooking with the same passion and enthusiasm, keep on fighting and giving our best to grow a little better every day. Time will show what’s next.
What restaurant is currently at the top of your list to dine at?
Pato |Oh, it is a long list; I do not want to forget someone.
Monty |Recently I have been to Mugaritz and Dos Palillos and I have to be honest, don’t hesitate to go to both! They could both be your number one!
Andreas |One in Germany -Restaurant Alte Schule in Fürstenhagen
Find out more about the culinary career ofPaco Pérez
Drakestraße 1
10787 Berlin
Germany
+49 30 311 7220