For a moment, hearing Paco Parreño speak, one forgets the bustle of New York City. His voice – Serena, with a Valencian accent and precise words – transports us to a kitchen full of warm aromas and family memories. “From a young man I was clear that I liked this world,” he tells me while remembering the exits with his parents to restaurants, those moments in which he began to enjoy, almost without knowing it, of something that would later be his whole life.
At age 15 he had already launched fully into the kitchen. “It caught my attention to see that those who cooked and served them did with pleasure, enjoyed their work,” he says animated. He says it with that tone that one uses when he talks about the things that really marked him. It does not come from a family of chefs, but his vocation was clear from the beginning.
Today, Paco leads the kitchen of the National, the oldest Spanish restaurant in New York, which has just celebrated its 100 years with a special menu called “Back to 1925”, which he himself investigated and recreated, with dishes inspired by the original flavors of the restaurant when he opened a century ago. “It’s an honor,” he says with pride. “You are not always lucky to work in a Centennial restaurant. Being part of that story is proud, and it also makes me feel responsible for these 100 years to become 150.”
In your kitchen there is a subtle mixture between tradition and opening. He tells me that he always tries to stay faithful to Spanish cuisine, but without losing sight of the New York public: “Luckily, it is an open audience. They like what we do.” And what they do in the national is not little: paellas, tapas, rice … Everything prepared with technique, respect and a lot of soul.
“Cooking is telling stories,” he says, and then I understand that each dish keeps a bit of the places where he has been. Paco has worked throughout Spain, and every experience – each market, every kitchen, every conversation – is present in its way of cooking. “Through gastronomy you learn a lot about people and the environment. Today I bring here all that knowledge.”
I ask him about the place that the national occupies in a city as changing as this. His answer is clear: “The most important thing is to know history, keep it and share it. Without history there is no evolution.” That philosophy is breathed in every corner of the restaurant, which is not only a place to eat, but a refuge, a bridge between cultures and generations.
And when I ask him what he would like to feel a new client after dinner there, he does not doubt: “A good gastronomic experience is not just eating well. It is feeling well treated, served, comfortable. The client, when he goes out through the door, has to be satisfied.”
With Paco, one not only talks about cooking. Talk to memory, community, respect. And he understands, without saying it openly, that in each dish there is a story that is worth savoring.
