He grew up among kitchen ranges and ovens and although many call him Alfredo after the restaurant, Juan Riera, or “Juanito de Ca n’Alfredo” to his friends, is the son of restauranteurs and whose mother was a great cook. He fell in love with the best chef he knows, his wife, with whom he has taken Ca n’Alfredo to the top as one of the best restaurants in Ibiza.
President of PIMEEF Restauración, member of the Real Academia Gastronómica de Ibiza y Formentera and world champion of “pa amb oli”, he greets with a smile day in and day out everyone who crosses the central square in Vara de Rey to where he creates some of the best dishes from the island’s gastronomic repertoire.
We sit down for a chat with “Juanito”, a genuine character who assures us that at his table there is always a local wine and “pan de xeixa”, the local bread, or a good ‘xereca’ ibicenca, and that what he cannot live without is “sobreasada.” He begins our interview by telling us how, as an adolescent, he dreamt of becoming a footballer and he would never have imagined being the “striker” at Ca n’Alfredo and playing “whole matches” every day in his own restaurant, attending to and receiving diners of the calibre of national coach Luis Suarez and many elite players who have been honoured to eat in his restaurant and try his dishes.
Juanito recalls the history of his restaurant founded by his father in 1941. “I was born in ‘42 and as you can imagine, I grew up between these four walls and my childhood was somewhat different from the rest”. “My parents opened their business cooking my mother’s recipes, she was self-taught and a very good home cook” Juan tells us, and claims that many years later he ended up marrying a woman “who was also a brilliant cook and thanks to her we continue the tradition of serving authentic Ibizan cuisine, making our mark with local cooking or “grandmother’s home cooking” as we like to call it”.
With this in mind we ask him what exactly it is about “Juanito de Ca n’Alfredo” that has made him an island institution, and he replies that “despite the fact that I never really wanted to get into the restaurant business, my father taught me to be honest and competitive, two unique values that led me to put my efforts into the family business and that is how I became quite a PR specialist, something that I would never have imagined myself doing” he emphasises. Throughout our interview, friends and acquaintances pass by the terrace and greet him, and he explains how “most of our clients always ask for “Juanito” so I like to be around”
Ca n’Alfredo is a prestigious restaurant that has welcomed famous politicians, national and international actors and stars and even royalty through its doors, although when asked who hasn’t visited the restaurant yet, he doesn’t skip a beat as he mentions the Majorcan tennis player Rafa Nadal “I believe that he is a decent sportsman, an unassuming person who never gives up and whom I deeply respect”, he states, affirming that “I like to welcome people who know how to do things right.”
We take the opportunity to talk about new trends in food products and gastronomic techniques that have reached the island in recent years and Juan Riera emphasises that “I have great friends like Ferran Adrià, Albert Adrià or the Torres brothers among others, who have raised this type of cuisine to an art form and I believe that it is a great incentive for Ibiza to have restaurants of this calibre run by these great artists, but what I don’t like is imitators coming here who don’t have the head for it and just want to take advantage and make a quick buck”. In addition, “Juanito” tells us that “if something satisfies me personally, it is that we have fought to maintain the roots of Ibizan cuisine, if they told me to do modern cooking, I wouldn’t know how, I belong to the old school, something I share with great friends like Juan Mari Arzak”.
Juan Riera gazes at the walls of Ca n’Alfredo, replete with photographs of famous faces and the awards that he has won over this career, and he makes his goodbyes with a wish: ” I would love it if we could set aside egos and envy and if all who love Ibizan cuisine and products could create a huge event together, and each of us would do what they do best in praise of Ibizan cuisine and all its ingredients”. We certainly give that our vote.