Gabriela Palatchi (Barcelona, 31 years old) wears a
frou-frou dress
Dior and boots with heels, but she has no objection to getting on a Christmas table to do acrobatics between panettones and nougats.
With one hand he takes a meringue, while with the other he raises a San Marcos cake.
"I like the idea of giving prominence to Spanish products on these dates: shortbread, empiñonadas, glazed fruit... It's what we always eat at home," explains the chef.
A year ago she founded Gabfoods, her catering and food delivery company.
Today it is one of the most requested in Madrid, famous for preparing sustainable menus and stagings with local raw materials.
This summer, for example, she recycled 40 second-hand tablecloths for a dinner party for Australian fashion house Zimmermann.
“I love giving things a second chance.
I'm always repurposing everything,” she says.
A few years ago, she herself had a second chance.
The daughter of Alberto Palatchi, founder of the Pronovias wedding dress empire, Gabriela was destined to work in the fashion industry.
“Everyone told me that she was going to end up in the family business.
Until I fell in love with my Turkish and went to Istanbul, ”she recalls, referring to her husband, Ediz Elhadef.
In 2017, already settled in Turkey, she began to look for work in the restaurant sector.
“Nobody hired me.
They told me: 'What is a posh woman going to do who doesn't know how to peel a potato?'.
Well, this posh knows how to peel potatoes perfectly.
She has been cooking since she was 12 years old.
As a child, she studied in a Swiss boarding school and, since I didn't like food, I spent the day cooking, ”she says.
Tired of sending resumes, she started cooking at home and three months later she opened her own place,
The hoteliers Nacho Ventosa and Sara Aznar are the creators of Los 33, one of the new trendy restaurants in Madrid: Uruguayan cuisine with a Spanish touch.
“We did not expect this success.
It makes us very ashamed and it also scares us,” admits Ventosa.
“Every day is like opening the curtain and we are afraid of making mistakes,” adds Aznar, who is wearing a Max Mara jacket, sweater and pants, and a Paco Rabanne necklace.
The couple, who also have the El Viajero bar-restaurant in the Madrid neighborhood of La Latina, have prepared a festive dinner that pays tribute to the grill: Galician blonde ribeye and wagyu entrails, both cooked on the stoves of Los 33;
fruit and vegetables from Entre Col y Col (Mercado de Barceló), breads from Panadería John Torres, panettone from Estela Hojaldre and wines Barón de Chirel and Sauvignon Blanc from Marqués de Riscal.Anna Huix
Nacho Ventosa (Barcelona, 48 years old) and Sara Aznar (Madrid, 35) have also thought of a festive table with local products.
The Galician blonde ribeye steak, combined with wagyu entrails, is their star dish for these dates, washed down with Barón de Chirel from Marqués de Riscal, a Rioja that pairs perfectly with red meat.
Ventosa and Aznar are two of the most successful hoteliers at the moment.
A few months ago, the couple opened Los 33, one of the trendy restaurants in Madrid.
Its Spanish-Uruguayan-inspired menu has revolutionized the Justicia neighborhood with choripán, Creole empanadas, entrails and chivito, the typically Uruguayan beef sandwich.
"Sara is half Uruguayan, so the grill, the meat and the fire are always in our lives," says Ventosa.
On her kitchen island,
In a bright and modern apartment in Chueca, they prepare a feast with a South American flavor.
“For us, the kitchen is always the starting point of everything and our favorite meeting place, at Christmas too.
When we organize something at home, the funniest moments happen here,” she says.
“As you can see, the kitchen is in the middle of the floor.
We don't have it hidden," he adds.
The painter Bárbara Pan de Soraluce admits that when she was young she worked for about five minutes and then, for 35 years, she was a “flower vase woman”.
Eight years ago she launched herself into hand-drawing personalized plates with a pen, in earthenware and Limoges porcelain.
This is how his own brand of tableware was born, Los Platos de Pan, which pays tribute to the garden of his house in Madrid and to botany: flowers, butterflies, vegetables, gardening tools... For these holidays he has thought of a snack for his grandson Juanito and his dog Petunia, a table littered with lemon pavlovas and chocolate cakes made by Lacreme Madrid, Mónica García's pastry shop.
The crockery is from Los Platos de Pan, the table linen is made with a fabric designed by Pan de Soraluce for the interior designer Nacho de la Vega, and the flowers are from Floreale.
The painter is wearing a Jorge Vázquez dress and Carolina Herrera earrings, and Juanito is wearing Chucu-chu clothes.
Anna Huix
The house of Bárbara Pan de Soraluce (Rome, 61 years old), located in one of those exclusive neighborhoods behind Paseo de la Castellana, is accessed through a lush garden.
There, the painter has organized a snack for her grandson, Juanito, a menu full of pavlovas and cakes.
“It is the table of his dreams, a Christmas present for him.
The sweets, the meringues…, everything that is most forbidden, designed so that he does not leave my side”, says the proud grandmother.
The tablecloth is made with a fabric with peonies motifs that she has just designed for the interior designer Nacho de la Vega.
The crockery is also from her signature, Los Platos de Bread, and is decorated with yellow mimosas.
Pan studied Fine Arts and restoration of paintings, but, as she herself says, she worked for five minutes and for 35 years she was a "vase woman."
Pascua Ortega is one of the pioneers of interior design in Spain and throughout his four decades of experience he has led more than 800 projects, including the staging of the wedding of Kings Felipe and Letizia.
“The Christmas table is a topic.
Except for tables upside down, we have already seen everything, ”he says.
For this reason, he proposes different parties: a picnic in one of the rooms of his house-studio, in the Madrid neighborhood of Las Letras.
Ortega and his niece, Inés Urquijo, one of the best florists in our country, toast with champagne in front of a 19th-century marble fireplace that includes an 18th-century Sevillian nativity scene.
The decorator is standing next to a tray with plates, old porcelain and a Russian samovar, while the flower girl, who is wearing a Cortana dress and Manolo Blahnik shoes,
she is sitting on an old guanaco blanket from Patagonia and an old Turkish Ziegler-type rug, surrounded by silk cushions and old brocades.
For the occasion, Urquijo has designed a large garland of winter greens and berries and small flower arrangements made with baroque tulips and chrysanthemums.Anna Huix
15 minutes from there, in the Barrio de las Letras, the interior designer Pascua Ortega (Barcelona, 77 years old) has her own paradise.
His home-studio, a mansion with high-ceilinged rooms, sumptuous furniture, and extraordinary antiques, smells of a fireplace.
One of the pioneers of decoration in our country has improvised a picnic in front of the fire, on a Ziegler-type Turkish rug.
“The Christmas table is a topic.
Except for upside down tables, we've already seen it all.
There are fewer and fewer large families in Spain and the parties are more intimate and smaller.
Exaggerating this trend, I have proposed the meeting of two friends who want to celebrate in a different way, ”he says, as he uncorks a bottle of champagne and asks that they add more fuel to the fire.
His niece, Inés Urquijo, one of the great florists in the capital, acts as a partner.
For this family rendezvous,
he has designed a floral installation inspired by traditional garlands and has planted delicate vases with tulips and chrysanthemums.
“Take off your shoe”, the photographer suggests to the florist “No!” exclaims Pascua.
“That is already too much privacy.
Do not forget that we are uncle and niece.
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