Juan Jesús Pérez Alonso has spent his entire life in the hospitality industry. From a very young age, he became fascinated by a profession that he has mastered to perfection and that has led him to be one of the great references in Barcelona hospitality. Not only in person, as head waiter at the Botafumeiro restaurant, but also on social media, thanks to viral accounts on Instagram (@donjesusperez) and Tik Tok (@jesusperezalonso19).
An endless number of celebrities have sat at his table, and even today, he serves elvers to David Beckham, Nick Carter, Isabel Pantoja, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, or Los Javis, to name some of the most recent. We spoke with him to discover more about the front-of-house profession, the celebrities who have moved him the most, and the future of restoration.
--- You started in the profession 50 years ago, at the Hotel Avenida Palace.
--- It was all fortuitous. My uncles were staying at the Palace and the hotel director, already at that time, in '74, was asking for apprentices. When I arrived, I told my brother: "Antonio, these gentlemen in black, who are they?" And he told me: "These gentlemen are the maîtres." "Well, you and I have to be like them," I replied. A year later I was already at Via Veneto.
--- What did you learn at Via Veneto?
--- I received excellent training there. I started with high mass, with bishops. I was that lucky. If you don't start at the very top, you run the risk of getting discouraged, of not really getting hooked. And the important thing is that the apprentice gets hooked little by little.
--- What would you recommend to people starting in the sector?
--- Choose a good mentor and a good establishment and don't waste the wheat. You have to know at all times in your life how much wheat and how much chaff you have. And separate it. As we say in Castilla: merinas or churras. You can't mix them.
--- When you go to a restaurant, what do you notice first?
--- I follow it like a movie, a thriller. I look at the content, the development, the knot in the middle of the movie, and then how it resolves itself.
--- What makes Botafumeiro such a special place?
--- When you drive a carriage with four horses, you dominate the situation relatively easily, right? But, when you drive twenty-two horses… How do you take the curve? Where do you place each horse? You have to be very skilled to do it well. When we talk about a cathedral like Botafumeiro, which is the Sagrada Familia of restoration, we are talking about 200 people working from 12 noon to 1 am. With a natural product, with a name and surname, and a menu with 300 dishes, brought daily from the fish markets. We give the best and the client knows it.
--- They sometimes accuse you of being a restaurant for foreigners.
They are wrong. Our foreign clients are, rather, distant regular clients. In many cases, they have been coming with their parents for forty years. Many say: "This week we came to Botafumeiro and, next time, we will come to Barcelona."
--- Explain to me why the figure of the maître d' is so important in a restaurant.
--- The maître d' directs, imposes justice, provides knowledge and must be fair to impart honesty and create a good atmosphere. I always say: if the restaurant were heaven, the maître d' would be Saint Peter.
--- Observation is a central quality in your work.
--- What does the shepherd do? Observe. He doesn't just look at the sheep; he also looks at the sky. He knows that in an hour and a half it's going to rain, that the dog is going to get scared and that's why he speeds up all day… This is the same: you must have intuition and get them to follow you.
--- Is the customer always right?
--- They should be. What does it cost to listen to them? Complaints build, help us to be better. When they complain, it's the last chance they give you to keep them. You have to get used to fighting miuras, not lambs.
--- "The bullfighter doesn't choose the bull," you often say.
--- I say this as a philosophy of service, in the sense that we cannot choose who to serve better based on their appearance. Service must be based on philosophy.
--- What other aspects do you consider important in the dining room?
--- The welcome is fundamental, to receive the client with affection. To listen to them, to consult them, so they don't have to wait. Never. The manager has to impart the gospel and have strength and judgment to seduce them. A lady once told me: "You go very fast." I replied: "Have you ever seen a Ferrari go slow?"
--- Can you tell if a diner will be easy or difficult just by seeing them walk through the door?
--- Of course, in seconds. But the diner can also transform during the visit. The work is never done. That's why we always say: "You won't leave without an upset." And one from Castile used to say: "Lord Jesus: And, sometimes, two."
--- Your Tik Tok and Instagram accounts are wonderful. How did you start with social media?
--- It was at the beginning of 2022. Inside, I thought: "I have a lot to give, a lot to tell, I can be useful and what better medium than this to spread it my way." But, of course, I didn't count on so much success.
--- In your videos, you show many of the celebrities who visit you.
--- I have always tried to take advantage of these opportunities, to be grateful for them. I remember the owner of Levi Strauss and people with whom you would spend days and days talking and sharing. Many of them are great people who enlighten and who don't waste the wheat, who know where to sow.
--- Have you been moved by any of them?
--- David Rockefeller moved me, whom I met at 94 years old. He was someone I had heard a lot about, remember José Luis Moreno's Rockefeller crow. When you see this person sitting at a table with the entourage he brings and you think about what that family has been in the world... Sometimes I think that, if the greatest ones are fading, we are all going to be left without light.
--- Tell me about another celebrity you remember especially.
--- I have had Dalí in front of me and I have observed him a lot, he powerfully caught my attention. So much so that my daughter is named Gala. But you can also be surprised by a taxi driver who comes to the restaurant with all the enthusiasm.
--- You are also a coach for companies and you have said that restoration is an accomplice of society. In what sense?
--- Restoration is one of the professions that most identifies all of us and, moreover, is fundamental in Spain. When a society transforms, it begins to do so through restoration. If you have great restoration, you have a great people. Either we transform it, or it transforms society.
--- What do you think needs to be done to improve it?
--- I would start by legislating, classifying, and documenting personnel. If a maître is a good maître, they must be officially registered and documented. Just as a water or gas technician is identified with their card and belongs to a guild.
--- In a way, you have achieved that identification with the restaurant over the years. For many, Botafumeiro, is you.
--- Sometimes I say: "I would like to go unnoticed, but I don't think I'm going to achieve it." And at the same time, I love that: I like notoriety and being recognized. Of course: it has cost me 50 years!