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Daring and intense, Walter El Nagar has been shaking Los Angeles gastro scene for the past 4 years with his pop-up restaurant Barbershop. At Barbershop Chef El Nagar displays a cooking style defined as an exciting mix of Italian roots and flavours, Californian formats and subtle international influences.
Barbershop was born for the need of El Nagar expressing the things he learned as a young chef and has been created in numerous neighbourhoods of Los Angeles, always evolving and adapting to every situation; growing in popularity while grabing all influences it could in a melting pot of tasty cultures.
Now, as the West Coast has enjoyed Barbershop for many years, this Italian-Californian nomad restaurant turns to Southern Europe to indulge the palates of experienced eaters at and around the Mediterranean Sea.
Walter El Nagar – an art curator turned chef by chance – has been in Los Angeles for the past 10 years, first working and apprehending the West Coast cuisine style at some of the finest Italian kitchens in the city – La Botte, Picolo, Il Grano – and then with his own pop up concept restaurant, being one of the first on choosing this way of reaching out to people.
His almost every sold out editions speak for themselves.
Walter’s personality defines his way of life, and therefore, Barbershop; his love for traveling and his eternal young soul have kept him from settling down in just one venue or restaurant.
The culinary nomad way of life seduces him and has become his lifestyle. For him, changing venues running a pop up restaurant every other week has many challenges, as it would for any other chef; but the difference is he draws inspiration and strength from it and builds his own culinary style, in which he has to constantly renovate the structure of the kitchen, recipes and dish displays.
From the latest pop up dinner in Los Angeles.
Irreverent and surprising, as Walter describes it, his way of cooking is an expression of three factors: His Italian origin that makes him love and use Mediterranean flavours above all others – citrus, olive oil, sun vegetables and sea food -, his Californian raising that makes him come up with quick, light and trendy dishes,- and his international influence and inspirations as he has cooked along many fellow chefs from all over the world, which gives his dishes small trace of exotic and varied cuisines.
Barbershop touring in the Mediterranean Europe also counts with the unparallel talent of two other core members that, along Walter, run Barbershop.
Dubai-based certified sommelier Eleonora Caso is in charge of the cellar; she picks wines for every pop up based on knowledge and intuition. Working side by side with Walter in the kitchen you’ll find Hen Sagi, a young and driven chef that, like Walter, has the Mediterranean culture in her veins, born and raised in Israel. This unusual trifecta forms a team of talent and international insight.
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Barbershop in Europe, back to Walter’s origin, is both a joy and a challenge as El Nagar comes back to a culture he already knows and loves, but also needs to prove himself in and around the land that saw him grow up, and he left when he was still a very young man.
This next chapter for Barbershop begins in Barcelona June 2016 and hasn’t got a fixed end yet. Barbershop, for sure, will be setting up in Ibiza and Milan as well, but only Walter knows if Barbershop will continue popping up in Europe or if it will go back to the States. Being a nomad chef is a culinary adventure.
In case of interest or/and press, please contact Kristian Brask Thomsen at:
ambassador@bon-vivant.dk
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Bon Vivant Communication is a culinary embassy representing star chefs and restaurants, chateaux and high-end wineries as well as working close together with various luxury hotels, gourmets festivals and bespoke concierges services.
The diplomacy speaks to a strong network of 500 journalists, bloggers and writers, as well as 2000+ luxury diners around the globe.
Hungry for more? View Barbershop’s Menu in Barcelona.
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SELECTED LINKS
WEBSITE: BARBERSHOP RISTORANTE
Walter El Nagar leaves Los Angeles, home of his pop up restaurant Barbershop for the past 7 years, to start a European tour through three of its most vibrant cities: Barcelona, Ibiza and Milan.
LAIST: GET A TASTE OF THIS LA POP UP BEFORE IT HEADS TO EUROPE
Los Angeles pop-up Barbershop Ristorante, set in an actual barbershop, heads to Europe and it need to be tasted before it leaves.
ATERIET: CHEF Q&A WITH WALTER EL NAGAR
Walter El Nagar talks about why he is coming back to Europe, how he became a Chef and how it feels to open his restaurant in his birth city.
HONEST COOKING: BRINGING TRENDY LA POP-UPS TO EUROPE
Interview with El Nagar about why is he leaving Los Angeles, packing chef knives and going on a European mini-tour.
FACEBOOK: BARBERSHOP
Follow the culinary adventures of Barbershop.
