Víctor Torrent: "The secret to being a good head waiter is to love the job"

C.M / Ciutadella – Víctor Torrent Vivó (Ciutadella, 38 years old) is the co-owner, together with his brother Alfonso, of the restaurant Pinzell (Plaça dels Pins, 4. – Ciutadella -871 027 334), of which he is also the head waiter. The Association of Gastronomic Journalists and Writers of the Balearic Islands (APEGIB) has recognised his work by awarding him the Best Head Waiter in Menorca Award.

After completing the Intermediate Degree in Catering at the IES Maria Àngels Cardona Hospitality School in Ciutadella, Víctor Torrent began an intense professional career that led him to work at the Hotel Prinsotel La Caleta, at the kiosk in Plaza des Born (ten years) and at the Es Fabiol restaurant (eight years), alongside his brother Alfonso.

With the opening of Pinzell on 6 May 2018, Víctor made a dream come true and, at the same time, paid tribute to his deceased brother, the artist Pepe Torrent Vivó, who passed away in October 2017 in Pisco (Peru) as a result of an asthma attack. Pinzell represents an original and novel proposal on the Ciutadella scene that does not forget its roots or its origin.

What is the secret to being a good head waiter?
The secret is to love the job, to be constant and organized, a bit of a maniac, and to have things very clear. And also, above all, to know how to communicate to the team what needs to be done.

How important is service?
Service is the most important thing today. The food in a restaurant can be very good, but if the service is not good and we are not one hundred percent focused on what we do, it is useless. People take with them the memory of how they have been treated. That is what they will remember, not whether the food was more or less good. If the food is good and the service is good, the experience is perfect.

Coming from a family of artists, the restaurant could not have another name…
Its name is not a coincidence. My family has always been linked to the world of the plastic arts. My grandfather, Pepe Torrent, was a renowned painter and professor at the Escola Municipal de Dibuix; my mother, Carme Vivó, has also always dedicated herself to painting; my father, Carlos Torrent, is a great art lover; Just like my brother, Pepe, who, unfortunately, is no longer with us. When Alfonso and I were in Es Fabiol, Pepe always encouraged me to open my own restaurant. We opened it in recognition of my grandfather, the painter Torrent, my mother and my brother. We started the project in 2017, when Pepe was still alive, and we opened it in 2018. Shortly before opening it, Pepe travelled to Peru, with the outcome that everyone knows.

Joan Salord Roca is a guarantee in the kitchen…
Without Joan nothing would be possible. We both studied the trade at the IES Maria Àngels Cardona Hospitality School, where we met. While I studied to be a waiter, he studied to be a cook. We have known each other for many years. He is a very young cook who has always adapted very well to our idea of ??what a restaurant is. From the beginning we wanted to convince him of what we wanted: a Menorcan cuisine with lots of sauces that fall on the plate in the form of brushstrokes. There are many brushstrokes in the dishes we present. Our entire proposal is related to the plastic arts. Joan has worked at Cas Ferrer, at the Roca Moo restaurant - the Roca brothers' restaurant in Barcelona with a Michelin star under the direction of Felip Llufriu - and at Es Tastet. He is a great cook and a lover of Menorcan cuisine.

How would you define Pinzelll's cuisine?
We have reinterpreted traditional Menorcan cuisine with touches of innovation.

What are the star dishes on the menu?
Perhaps the stuffed squid that we Menorcans have known all our lives. We make it from a very old recipe from Fra Roger's book, El Art de la Cuina, stuffed with the same squid. It is a star dish that has always been on our menus.

What does winning this award represent?
A recognition of a job well done, of daily sacrifice and of the effort of the whole team, because despite being an individual award, without the work of all my colleagues it would not have been possible. The secret is, as I said, to be very consistent and obsessive with the ideas of the restaurant. It gives maximum happiness to a job well done.

How important is the interior design of the restaurant?
It is fundamental because we try to make sure that everything is aligned: the name of the restaurant, the dishes, the product we offer - a local product 100% Menorcan - and the interior atmosphere of the restaurant. The colours are also Menorcan. Everything is thought out to maintain harmony.