Juan Pablo Colubri, the Argentinian in London

How would you introduce yourself?

I'm Juan, the Head Pastry Chef at HKK, London.

How did it all start? How did you fall in love with pastry and chocolate?

My passion for food started when I was a kid, enjoying watching my grandmother cook for hours every weekend for the entire big family. Whilst growing up I realized that there was something behind all those long hours of preparing meals and desserts, it was the environment created around the meals; it was that gathering around the table that I was passionate about. When I was eight years old I started cooking for myself because my parents were both at work, and I realized that I could feed myself and it was a pretty easy job. I used to try different new ingredients for my grandma’s recipes. I also studied cooking while I was at high school as an extra subject, it was for fun at that moment.

When I started working, my first job was of course in the kitchen. I used to work in a savory part of the kitchen first; this was for a long time although I was always impressed by the pastry. There was something about pastry that always caught my attention, it was the kind of laboratory that the pastry kitchen is - full of formulas to create, to follow... I found that amazing and I still do. It also involves lots of creativity - you can almost be an artist.

Who was your greatest teacher?

There were two great teachers in my career, Paco Torreblanca and Graham Hornigold. From Paco I learnt how to work the classics of pastry and to take the basics to a supreme level, and I discovered chocolate and just fell in love ... Its textures, its perfume, and also the great and exotic combinations you can do with it. With Graham I learnt a lot about restaurant desserts, from developing to plating a dessert, the commercial part of creating for sales, I learnt to understand the clients’ minds and to manage the whole team. He also taught me to respect the ingredients, how to develop the flavours and to be authentic.

What was the best lecture you got?

My baking lessons with Claudio Olijavetzki in Argentina were the most enjoyable - Claudio knew how to transmit his passion and how to teach anybody no matter how good or bad his skills were or how gifted he was; you would learn with him.

What was most difficult to master?

There were different difficult things to learn along my career. Of course these difficulties change and what you thought impossible to achieve two years ago becomes only an anecdote of something you can now laugh about. I can say that it was an enormous challenge for me when I arrived in London with practically no knowledge of English (except for a "Thank you" and a "Hello") and in a blink of an eye I was standing in front of a team and managing the service of one of the busiest and most prestigious restaurants in London.