When Enrique Tomás is asked what it is that Barcelona has, paraphrasing an Estrella Damm commercial from a few years ago, he begins by responding with a correction: "What are we missing?" In addition, he takes the opportunity to answer with twenty responses and resolves a few more questions along the way. Oh, and he doesn't waste a second to encourage anyone to buy one of his ham sandwiches. "We have so many things, we are in a privileged place. First, because the best place in the world is the Mediterranean and, then, because of the Catalan character. Surely, it has its negative side, but we are very hardworking and serious," said an energetic Enrique Tomás this Monday in the last session of the season of the cycle The New Barcelona – Moments Estel·lars, organized by The New Barcelona Post with the collaboration of CASA SEAT, Must Media Group and Barcelona Global.
The businessman, who prefers to define himself as a shopkeeper, was accompanied in the CASA SEAT auditorium by chefs Sergio and Javier Torres, owners of the Barcelona restaurant Cocina Hermanos Torres, awarded with three Michelin stars. The three debated the impact of the gastronomy sector in the Catalan capital in front of a very large audience, with the presence of the Barcelona City Council's Councilor for Commerce, Rosa Alarcón; Sister Lucía Caram, pastry chef Christian Escribà, driver Marc Gené, former Gran Hermano winner Ismael Beiro, the leader of the Casacas Rojos, Gregori Salas, and executives such as José Elías (Audax), Albert Triola (Audax), Manolo Soria (Matinée), Àngel Velasco (Turrons Vicens), Elisabeth Álvarez (InOut), Josep Arcas (GBFoods), Joan Juvé (Juvé & Camps) and Enric Crous.
Moderated by Toni Aira, journalist and professor at UPF-BSM, Tomás and the Torres brothers began the session by assuring that Barcelona is a city that attracts a gastronomic tourist who not only stops by Cocina Hermanos Torres, in Les Corts, but then takes the opportunity to go to museums or shopping, explained Sergio Torres. "And they eat three times a day," added Enrique Tomás, hoping that one of those times is a ham sandwich. "Today, Barcelona is the city with the most Michelin stars in Spain and, moreover, each project has a lot of personality," remarked Sergio Torres. The chef highlighted that the Barcelona customer "is very demanding, but very loyal." "Here, you really eat. It is the city itself that pushes you and makes you better," he emphasized.
The three speakers have agreed in refuting the storm clouds that some sectors project over Barcelona. "There are colleagues in Madrid who fill less than us," the Torres brothers pointed out, emphasizing that they do so with local and foreign clients. "All of us who are here have to commit to not speaking ill of what is ours. There is no better place in the world, we have to believe it!", Enrique Tomás defended. "We don't have to be positivists, but we have to be realists and stop speaking ill of ourselves and throwing stones at ourselves," he remarked. "Barcelona has suffered a series of misfortunes, but the brand is so strong that it has been able to overcome everything," said Sergio Torres. "Everything we have experienced is tremendous. For a long time, we were the place where everyone wanted to come. It was aspirational. This has to happen again," added Enrique Tomás.
Seeing the new political stage that is opening in the city and waiting to see how the national map is resolved, the ham entrepreneur has opted to "start a new wave, although then there may be tsunamis like the America's Cup." "Let's start thinking big from Barcelona," remarked Enrique Tomás, born in Badalona, a city that he "carries as a flag" and that he mentions almost more than his ham sandwiches. "Today, Badalona is the epicenter of the world of ham. It's tremendous. I start talking to someone, they ask me where I'm from and everyone takes it for granted that I'm Andalusian. And where does it come from?, they tell me, it comes from the fact that I was in Badalona and I thought that ham was not in its place," he said.
Even so, for this, both the Torres brothers and Enrique Tomás have asked for more support from the institutions. As the two chefs demanded a few years ago when leaving a Michelin gala in Valencia, angry because it was not held in their city. In the same car on the way back, they did not hesitate to call the now mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, who at that time was deputy mayor, to tell them that it could not be, that the Catalan capital could also host a ceremony of these characteristics. As it will be, finally, next November. An event that will have an economic impact of 8 million euros, according to the chefs, taking into account all the guests who travel to the city to attend the gala. "If events of this caliber are held, Barcelona comes out winning," Sergio Torres has emphasized.
In this sense, Enrique Tomás has stated that the administrations must have a more receptive and positive attitude with entrepreneurs, first telling them to go ahead and supporting them. "At the outset, the administrations have to give you the yes, and then let the problems come little by little," he said. The Torres chefs have also asked for more training and promotion of gastronomy: "There is a long way to go. Catalan cuisine is one of the oldest in the world and has such a strong history that it is what makes it so important. From there, there is a lot of talent that is visible and another that is yet to be discovered". "We have to be persistent with the institutions, we will keep pushing, because this gastronomic destination could be given much more strength," they have warned. "You are engines, gastronomy gives life to many things," pointed out the ham entrepreneur.
Among the thousand ideas that Enrique Tomás launches per minute, it slipped out that he is preparing a concert in the Sagrada Família next Christmas to support the victims of the war in Ukraine. He is plotting it with Sor Lucía Caram and they have already obtained the support of the Pope. For now, the first confirmed is Pasión Vega and they are finalizing the participation of a Spanish singer of international reach.