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Jordi Vilà

Alkimia

Jordi Vilà was born in 1973 to a family in which culinary culture is a fundamental ingredient. His mother was, and remains, an outstanding and experienced cook in a home that has brought together a large family under the same roof.

But, even more than cooking, what excited Jordi when he was a little boy was eating. He has always been fascinated by the world of flavours.

Jordi Vilà has 75,000 hours hours of cooking under his belt.

When he was 15 years old, he told his parents he was interested in cooking. After that, he started working at the pastry shop Baixas. His father got him this summer job in the hope that he would quit after seeing how harsh the sector was. Instead, Vilà witnessed an entire new world open up before his eyes.

After studying at the Escola de Hoteleria Joviat in Manresa, he worked in several kitchens, including those of Casa Irene —where he met his wife Sònia Profitós— Neichel, Joan Piqué and Jean Luc Figueras. In 1998, he opened the restaurant Abrevadero in Barcelona.
In 2002, he opened, along with Sònia Profitós, the restaurant alkimia, and it was an instant success. It received a Michelin star, which it has kept to this day in 2004.

After 13 years of non-stop activity on Carrer de la Industria in Barcelona, alkimia closed its doors. Opened them again in June of 2016, on the main floor of the Moritz factory. It was the brewery with which Vilà has collaborated since 2011 as culinary director of the group.

The new restaurant has an open kitchen out of which the chef offers two proposals: Alkimia, the more gourmet of the two, where Vilà expresses his vision of the direction in which Catalan and Barcelona cuisine should be heading, contributing to the evolution of his classic recipes.

“Cooking is an odyssey, a journey that can only be made in one way: cooking”

At alkimia, under the leadership of chef Vilà, the style of cooking digs deep into the past, present and future of Catalan gastronomy. Exploring the entire range of our culinary landscape, from the center to the margins, we are both grounded in tradition and open to embracing the most radical contemporary ideas. When thinking about alkimia’s cooking, we always place value on the moment, that fleeting instant in which the secret of each dish is revealed.

“We like cuisine that looks to the future but knows where it belongs. We like simplicity.
We like to magnify the voice of the products that speak for themselves.
We believe that good cuisine needs to be handcrafted and with a good hand.
We trust in small producers, that, like us, do things handcrafted.
We like our restaurant to be small because it is the best way to offer you the best experience.”