Andrea and Joel
In gastronomy you never stop learning and Joel Baeza and Andrea Sertzen, the dream team behind Stagier, are well aware of this. The pair’s Latin American roots (Joel is Chilean and Andrea Peruvian) led them to open their own restaurant in Palma with Joel in the kitchen and Andrea front of house. El Celler de Can Roca, El Bulli, Azurmendi, Mugaritz and so on are just a few of the restaurants where Baeza honed his skills, hence the name Stagier (from the French, “stagiaire”, meaning trainee). Joel’s cooking is based on a blend of Latin American and Mediterranean flavours and is inspired by a whole collection of experiences from some of the finest gourmet establishments in Spain and abroad.
What brought you both to Mallorca?
Andrea: We decided to come here because Joel was offered a job at a restaurant that was about to open and in the end they offered work to both of us. We loved the island, although I was already familiar with it. We soon realised that we could start our own thing here, focusing on my experience front of house and his in the kitchen.
And so you opened Stagier...
Andrea: Yes, the year we moved here, without knowing anyone, we decided to open a restaurant. I always joke that at the time we knew five people and three of them we didn’t like. But we opened it and everything gradually turned out well. It’s been five years now (including two years of pandemic) and it’s gone really well. We have managed to create a concept that the island was lacking, because we are one of the few places in Mallorca that does Latin American food this way. We have also been able to arrange things well so we have a life outside of work, finding a work-life balance, a concept that is in fashion right now and is very difficult to find in the restaurant business.
Bao bacon
You have just become parents, what is your work-life balance like?
Andrea: Yes, we’ve just had a baby girl. We are incredibly happy with what we have achieved little by little, but it is very difficult to find a balance. We would love to have a bigger family, but it is becoming increasingly more complicated. It’s true that our views on the restaurant business are completely different. Joel comes from a background in which he worked very long hours, with lots of pressure. And I see things a bit differently. I think there are many ways to find a balance and it just depends on how much you want to earn. I don’t aspire to buy a yacht or have multiple houses. I want to work to be comfortable and that means different things for each person. We only open from Monday to Friday and the whole team is very happy to be able to rest on Saturdays and Sundays. We go away on holiday for a week every four months and in summer maybe just a bit longer. Because, of course, we are on an island and taking time off in summer would be crazy. But we all want to have summer holidays and we are getting there little by little. Closing for a week every four months helps us to disconnect and come back refreshed.
Why Stagier?
Joel: In fine-dining stagier means trainee or intern. At the beginning we wanted to open a bar where people could come without making a reservation. But then we realised that people here like to book and have their spot.
Andrea: I think this was due to a lack of knowledge, because we opened the restaurant uninformed about the needs of the area. That’s why our concept gradually changed and evolved until it found its own path. The name Stagier came up because Joel had a boss who told him that he should open a restaurant with that name, referring to all the different stages that he had undertaken. We didn’t know it would be so difficult to pronounce or if people would understand it. But we don’t care how they pronounce it as long as they come and pay us a visit.
Amberjack tiradito
What is the most important thing at Stagier?
Joel: For me it’s all about the produce, how it is prepared and the technique. And after that, good service, of course.
Andrea: I think that, besides that, which is important in a culinary sense, for me the most important thing is the taste, which is what stays with you when you visit a restaurant. That it’s tasty. Because sometimes you go to restaurants where you are amazed by the technique, you are surprised by how they did this or that, but you don’t go away with the memory of that dish being finger-licking good. These days, there are lots of technical restaurants that can afford to be that way because they have large teams. In our case, on the other hand, apart from taking care of all that, the important thing is that the dishes are tasty. We’re always changing the menu; we make lots of suggestions of the day. We have a lot of regular customers and although our menu has many dishes, we try to change it here and there so that they don’t get bored.
For me the most important thing is the taste
How many diners do you have at Stagier?
Andrea: We have room for around 16 to 18 diners, but we do different seatings. We serve between 28 and 32 people every evening and at lunchtime we just do one seating. This isn’t the type of business that is going to make us millionaires, but it allows us to do what we like and live an easy life.
What does the future look like for Stagier?
Andrea: We would love Stagier to have a long future ahead of it. But we also want to evolve and become known in other ways. We want people to come back again and again, to have regular customers. At the moment we have no plans to relocate. We would like to enjoy the stability that we have at the moment, because it has not been easy to get here. When we opened we didn’t know anyone. We never invested in any kind of advertising because we had other priorities. First we wanted everything to turn out well. That was our priority. The year after, we were recommended in the Michelin Guide and then in the Repsol Guide and that brought us a lot of customers. But priorities keep on changing and we want to continue improving. I really want to shine a spotlight on Joel’s amazing experience. Mallorca can be quite complicated, because there is a lot of emphasis on the Mallorcan language, but we are not complaining.
Chocolate dessert
