Raffles Winner: Jaan Chef Laia Pons Talks About Food
Laia Pons and partner Jordi Valles are the nearest Beijing has to a restaurant industry power couple. While Valles does his thing at Agua, Pons is in the kitchen at Raffles’ Jaan, quietly preparing some of Beijing’s finest French food. We asked her about her guilty pleasures, taxi talk and her Beijing restaurant recommendations.
If you could only cook one dish every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Bacalao al Pil-pil, a traditional Spanish codfish recipe.
What dish do you dread having to cook?
Dishes without salt.
You have new staff starting in your kitchen. What’s the first thing you teach them?
First is to listen and write everything in a notebook. Recipes, ingredients, cooking procedures … everything.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Strawberry cheesecake ice cream – I can eat almost an entire pint.
Who cooks at home, you or Jordi?
Nobody cooks at home. We always have lunch and dinner at work, and on days off we always eat out at other restaurants.
And who’s the better chef?
He is the better chef, but he always says it’s me.
A Beijing taxi driver asks where you’re from. You say you’re Spanish. What does he say next?
“Xibanya douniu” … all the taxi drivers in Beijing know about bullfighting. Then football – Barcelona and Messi.
Which other job is comparable to that of a chef?
You need the patience of a teacher and the mind of a psychologist.
Where do you like to eat?
I can write a very long list. To discover Spanish food, I always recommend Nali Patio, where they can find very different styles of Spanish restaurant. I also love Yunnan food – I recommend the soups and mushrooms from Yunteng Shifu in Yunnan Dasha. Then there’s the Smørrebrød from Modo, the brunch at Capital M, Maison Boulud’s mackerel, the pigeon at Sadler, and more …
LAIA PONS’ PLAYLIST
Music To Dine To
“Hope There’s Someone” by Antony & the Johnsons
“Canta” by Diego el Cigala
“Cold Water” by Damien Rice
“Playas de Barbate” by Chambao
“Addicted” by Amy Winehouse
(Click on the links to see video)
Laia Pons is chef at Jaan in Raffles Beijing.
