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Javi Olleros

Culler de pau

Javi Olleros was born in Lucerne, in Switzerland, where his father, also a cook, emigrated to work in the kitchens of large restaurants. Today is the owner and head chef at El Culler de Pau restaurant in the town of O’Grove (in the province of Pontevedra), in the Rías Baixas region.

Trade, commitment, and passion

My influences are and have been many (Aduriz, Noma), but my first big referent is my father. He taught me everything about this Trade: discipline and eagerness to improve each day doing your best. The pursuit of excellence is one of the pillars of our daily activities. Another one is Commitment: with the client, with the environment, with the suppliers, with the team…

And finally, Passion, that drives us to keep our senses awake; the one that we print in all our dishes and that we want to convey to our diners. Trade, commitment, and passion in equal parts, constitute the philosophy of Culler. On this basis, we practice a proximity, natural kitchen, without fundamentalisms, with roots, products from the environment and influences of the world.

Galicia is a paradise for a cook

Therefore, it is a very intuitive proposal, the result of reflection and knowledge, nurtured from what we feel, from our background, influences and tastes. Galicia is a paradise for a cook. So, I look for a personal kitchen, having tradition as a natural support to keep on growing. From it, we bring something else but never play at being modern just because we already are. The product is the cornerstone that moves any kitchen, even more so in my country, where recipes are required to be loyal to the ingredients that compose them.

So, in our kitchen flavours are basic; very marked, defined and balanced between the absolute respect for the product and intuition. We get carried away by what the body asks us to create a dish, working with the world of plants and sea, far from glamour, closely with suppliers, close to the land, the people, the space… We start from the environment to do what we do: a clean, committed, tasty, very healthy Galician kitchen, honest, with sense, reasoned but very intuitive, with ingredients like illusion, honesty, affection, humility, and passion, that are never missing.

“The sea is not only my reference in this space: it’s in my veins. It is the basis of my inspiration… “

“Together with it, the orchard, the market, the fish market, and everything around me is the principle on which I start to create dishes with a life of their own that are pure feeling. But also, of course, memories, moments, experiences, childhood, culture, feelings… All of them integrated into the experience of cooking and eating in Culler.”