17
What was your 1)________ food when you were a child? S Well, I
always liked 2)________ things, at least things that most English
children at the time didn't like. For 3)________, when I was six or seven
my favourite things were 4)________, oh and 5)________ with garlic.
I Funny things for a six-year-old English boy to like! S Well, the thing is
my parents liked 6)________ and eating out a lot, and I first tried snails
in France, and the prawns, my 7)________ prawns, I had at a Spanish
restaurant in the 8)________ where we lived. So you were 9)________
on Spanish food right from the start. Is that why you 10)________ to
come to Spain?
S Partly, but of course, I 11)________ like a lot of British people I
wanted to see the sun! The other thing that 12)________ me when I got
here were all the fantastic 13)________. I remember going into the
14)________ for the first time and saying 'Wow!' When you opened
your restaurant, how did you want it to be different from 15)________
Spanish restaurants?
S Well, when I came to Spain, all the good restaurants were very formal.
very 16)________. In London then, the fashion was for informal places
where the waiters 17)________ jeans, but the food was 18)________.
So I wanted a restaurant a bit like that. I also wanted a restaurant where
you could try more international food, but made with some of these
fantastic *________ ingredients. For example, Spain's got wonderful
seafood, but usually here it's just 19)________ or fried. I started doing
things in my restaurant like 20)________ Valencian mussels in Thai
21)________ curry paste.
I What do you most 22)________ cooking? S What I most enjoy
cooking, I think are those traditional dishes which use quite
23)________ ingredients, but they need very long and 24)________
cooking, and then you turn it into something 25)________ special... like
a really good casserole, for example.
I And is there anything you don't like cooking? S Maybe 26)________.
You have to be very very precise when you're making desserts. And
that's not the way I am.
18
What's the best thing about 27)________ a restaurant? S I think the best
thing is making people happy. That's why 28)________ after all this
time I still enjoy it so much.
I And the worst thing? S That's easy, it has to be the 29)________ hours.
This week for example I'm cooking 30)________ every day. We usually
close on Sundays and Mondays, but this Monday is a 31)________
holiday, when lots of people want to eat out , so we're open. Seu Xerea
is in all the British restaurant 32)________ now. Does that mean you get
a lot of British customers?
S Yes, we get a lot of British people, 33)________ at the weekends, but
then we get people from other 34)________ too. Are the British
35)________ and the Spanish customers very different?
S Yes, I think they are. The British always say that everything is
36)________, even if they've only eaten **________ of it. The Spanish,
on the 37)________ hand, are 38)________ honest about every thing.
They tell you what they like, they tell you what they don't like. I
39)________ when I first opened, I had 40)________ on the menu,
which was very unusual at that time, and I went into the 41)________
room and I said to people, 'So what do you think of the sushi?' And the
customers, who were all Spanish, said
'Oh, it was awful! It was 42)________ fish!' Actually, I think I
43)________ that honesty, because it 44)________ us to know what
people like.
I What kind of customers do you find 45)________? S I think customers
who want me to cook something in a way that I don't think is very good.
Let's see, a person who asks for a really 46)________ steak, for
instance. For me that's a difficult customer. You know, they'll say, 'I
want a really really well-done steak', so I give them a really really well-
done steak and then they say, 'It's 47)________'. And I think well, of
course it's tough. It's well done! Well-done steak is always tough. People
say that the 48)________ diet is very healthy. Do you think people"s
eating 49)________ in Spain are changing?
S Well, I think they are changing. 50)________, I think they're getting
51)________. People are eating more unhealthily.
I How do you 52)________ that ? S I see it with, especially with
53)________ friends. They often eat in fast food restaurants, they don't
cook ... and actually the younger ones come from a 54)________ where
their mothers don't cook either. That's what's happening now, and it's a
real 55)________.
*________ **________