Four Seasons Hotel Madrid

Four Seasons Tenure

• Since 2021
• First Four Seasons Position: Pastry Sous Chef, Four Seasons Hotel Madrid

Employment History

• Riu Plaza España Hotel, Madrid; Grupo Club Allard, Madrid; Hotel Ritz, Madrid; Restaurante San Mames Jatetxea, Bilbao, Spain; Restaurante Aizian, Bilbao; Restaurante Erroak, Alicante, Spain; Gran Hotel Sol y Mar, Calpe, Spain; Azurmendi Restaurant, Bilbao; Hotel Lavante Club, Alicante; Restaurante La Llum Hotel AC, Alcoy, Spain; Panifidadora PANIBI, Ibi, Spain

Education

• Diploma in Patisserie, Estudio CDT School, Alicante, Spain; Continuing education through a wide range of technical courses including Chocolate Pastry, Thickeners in Pastry, Desserts for Events, Caramel Technique, and more

Birthplace

• Alcoy, Spain

Languages Spoken

• Spanish, Valencian, some English

“The most important ingredient in the pastry kitchen is creativity,” says Maria José Parra, musing on the myriad treats she fashions daily as Executive Pastry Chef of Four Seasons Hotel Madrid. With the Spanish capital now celebrated as a culinary hotspot of Europe, Maria José is tapping local inspirations, superb ingredients, and an innate talent for developing new techniques to create pastries that, paired with Four Seasons matchless service, stand out on the scene. “I don’t really have any secrets,” she says with a smile, “I just give our guests what they want.”

Maria José has a lot on her plate in her position, with oversight of two pastry teams in separate kitchens: one for the Hotel’s signature rooftop dining experience Dani Brasserie; the other for everything else. At the first, she supervises a team of eight pastry chefs crafting concepts from Spanish celebrity Chef Dani Garcia, who encourages Maria José to contribute ideas of her own, such as the in-room amenity she dreamt up shaped like the restaurant’s emblematic tower.

For ISA Restaurant & Cocktail Bar, Maria José layers desserts with Asian touches to match the outlet’s overall gastronomy, such as an oven-baked lemon-almond cheesecake with Szechuan pepper Yuzu Kosho. “It’s a little bit spicy, but it’s still dessert!” And for El Patio in the lobby, she showcases personalized desserts inspired by the Hotel, the city, and the country around it. A vanilla praline, hazelnut sponge cake with whipped chocolate cream that’s shaped like a golden ingot, for instance, recalls the Hotel’s history as a bank, while a classic Tarta de Santiago almond cake with a moist texture and rich almond flavour celebrates a Spanish classic. Her personal Maria José Cheesecake was an instant hit at El Patio. “Now people order them in advance. The acclaim has been exciting.”

Maria José also helps drive the Hotel’s extensive banqueting operation, regularly meeting with clients to satisfy desires for everything from sweet snacks for small meetings to towering wedding cakes. She further contributes to the in-room dining menu and creates special amenities for special occasions, such as a colourful rendition of Dani Brasserie’s iconic tower inspired by the Chinese New Year, with red and gold details and a snake to celebrate the occasion, and a white chocolate football for fans of the game that is served with a hammer to make eating all the more interesting.

Though busy overseeing every angle of pastry production, Maria José says her management style is “quite democratic.” She runs all her ideas by her teams and welcomes their critiques. She also enjoys working with suppliers, with whom she has developed trusting relationships. “They keep us posted on new trends and chefs coming to town, so we can send our team members out to learn new things.”

Hailing from Alcoy surrounded by the Serra Mariola Mountains in the province of Valencia, Maria José followed her mother’s footsteps into the family kitchen where she quickly developed a passion for pastry. She started making cakes when she was eight years old – “It was try, fail, try again” – typically dressed in her mother’s apron, which often ended up covered in chocolate. “Both of my parents work in the textile industry, so that wasn’t something she wanted to deal with.”

After studying pastry at a trade school, she landed positions in pastry kitchens first near her hometown, then in the north of Spain, before making her way to Madrid in 2017. There she led pastry kitchens for a few hotels and then joined Four Seasons Hotel Madrid as Pastry Sous Chef in 2021. All along, she kept studying with prominent pastry chefs, learning everything from the preparation of desserts for events to caramel technique. “That one took 25 hours!”

Maria José is still studying pastry technique as well as observing the work of pastry chefs throughout the city. Indeed, asked what she likes to do on her own time, she doesn’t hesitate: “I like to make pastry,” she says, adding that she often does competitions at home with her husband, who is an executive chef in Madrid. “We’re always busy and happy in the kitchen.”