While some ventures take years to come to fruition, Miguel Camacho opened the doors to Cultura just four weeks after coming up with the concept, as Natasha Baluchi explains
BOOKING a new place to eat can be somewhat of a gamble. With no knowledge of the menu, the atmosphere or, crucially, whether the food will live up to expectations, there is always a small element of uncertainty attached to finding a new restaurant you can make “your norm”.
Perhaps that is part of the fun.
Occasionally, walking through the door of an unfamiliar restaurant can be exhilarating, and you discover food that will make you want to come back for more.
Cultura, a newly established restaurant in Beresford Street, is hoping customers experience that sense of discovery.
The “brains” behind the intimate dining area is owner and head chef Miguel Camacho, whose own culinary journey has taken him from his home in Venezuela to Madrid and, ultimately, Jersey, where he has spent the past three years “perfecting his craft”, while working on his desire to open a new restaurant.
Transformed from the former pizza and gelato venue, Miguel describes the restaurant as a “neighbourhood bistro”, bringing together food, wine and influences from across the world.
“I really think the ‘neighbourhood bistro’ in Jersey is something that doesn’t quite exist,” said Miguel. “There are bistros under the French concept, which are very pure, but not a neighbourhood bistro. My cuisine also really reflects my origins from Venezuela.”
The plan may sound as if it was carefully curated over a few years, but the reality of getting Cultura to open was anything but leisurely.
“It was a sprint of four weeks,” Miguel said with a chuckle.
Indeed, within those four weeks, he explains, he negotiated the acquisition, developed the concept, changed the interiors and created the menu before opening the doors to the public.
“Building the concept is probably one of my favourite things to do within my career. I love coming up with concepts and menus,” said Miguel. “It didn’t take me very long to come up with the business plan, using the leverage of the same name, but reframing the branding.”
With a decade of experience working within the hospitality industry, Miguel says he had a plethora of knowledge to draw upon.
Originally from Venezuela, with a mother from Tenerife, his career began in his home country before he relocated to Madrid, where his determination was tested almost immediately.
“I started my career in Madrid, knocking on the back door of a two-Michelin-star restaurant every day for a week, handing my CV to them every day until they took me in for a trial.
“That’s how you start,” he laughs. “Knocking on the door until they say yes.”
His career then took him to Jersey, where he spent three years working at the Atlantic Hotel as a sous chef, before he moved full-time to Viva.je, a subscription-based healthy meal delivery service, where he helped build the operation.
However, the idea of opening somewhere of his own never disappeared entirely.
Miguel had been an avid visitor of the site where Cultura now stands when it operated as The Merchants, a coffee shop, and had formed an attachment to the place.
“I loved the coffee they used to make, and it was my place for this connection when I came into town,” he said.
Later, after the premises had become Cultura, and he noticed the site was for sale, he began to see an opportunity.
“My reaction was ‘what if?’, or ‘only if I could,” he explained. “At that point, I couldn’t do it; it wasn’t a possibility.”
However, months later, the opportunity eventually surfaced and Miguel was ready to start his new venture.
Rather than simply taking on the existing pizzeria and gelateria, he decided to retain the Cultura name but reframe its identity.
“The name is the exact same as it used to be for the pizza place as in Spanish it means exactly the same as in Italian – culture,” he explained. “It’s a concept you can play around with a little bit. Adding the concept of the wine and bistro, and changing the menu, was my add-on.”
While he changed the menu and the branding to reframe what he had envisioned for the restaurant, Miguel is quick to stress that he does not want Cultura to simply be “labelled as fine dining”, but as a “bridge between casual dining and something that feels special to the customer”.
“Even though my background is in fine dining, and Cultura has got elements of that, I want Cultura to be a place that everyone can enjoy,” Miguel said.
Portrayed as somewhere that is “comfortable” and can accommodate either a celebration or an impromptu drink, Miguel strives to make it a place where you can simply “pop in”.
“You can come for anything – any special occasion, a birthday treat, or even just to sit with a glass of nice wine and a snack,” he said.
This ideology, Miguel says, is demonstrated within the menu, which he says features “handpicked and carefully selected” dishes.
“The menu is not a long menu, and the wine selection is a selection, not a list,” he highlighted.
While he draws heavily on his Venezuelan roots and Spanish heritage to shape his menu, he stresses that he also tries to give it a local “twang”, using Jersey produce when possible.
From “chilled mussels and pardina lentils, to steak frites”, the menu covers all aspects of food.
“Cultura has recipes from Venezuela, such as with the brisket made with Jersey produce,” he explained. “It’s a Venezuelan recipe, but I execute it with French and Japanese techniques and then play it in the most rustic way possible while staying elegant.”
The balance between rusticity and refinement is, Miguel says, arguably the restaurant’s defining characteristic, alongside the use of local produce.
“We use a majority of Jersey produce,” Miguel stated. “I always insist on calling Homefields to use local produce, so most of our vegetables come from the Island.”
The restaurant also works with Fin and Feather for fish, Woodlands Farm for meat and Love Wine.
“Everything here is intentional in terms of food and drink,” he said. “I like to go and talk to the suppliers and get the best.”
Wine, he says, is more than an accompaniment at Cultura; it is a central part of the concept and something in which Miguel is genuinely interested.
“I’m not a big connoisseur,” Miguel admits, “but I am really passionate about the world of wine.”
His relationship with Love Wine started during a Spanish dinner at the Atlantic Hotel, and eventually developed into a partnership when Cultura launched.
“Love Wine has been so helpful; the team has supported me so much with visibility, and they love the concept we’re doing,” Miguel said. “To achieve this selection of wine wouldn’t be possible without them.”
While opening a restaurant always comes with challenges, Miguel highlights the people around him who have “helped turn the concept into a reality”, particularly his employee Oscar and his partner, Magdalena.
“Oscar has been here, helping with the shifts, organising, cleaning, everything and my partner, Magdalena, has helped me throughout this too,” he said.
Having now lived in Jersey for a few years and watched the food scene transform before his eyes, Miguel is eager to share his own expertise with Islanders.
When asked to sum up the restaurant in a short sentence, he said: “Hospitality, wine and good food.”
They are three simple ideas, but ones that Miguel hopes will transform a four-week sprint into something much more enduring.
The gamble of choosing a new dining experience might remain indeterminate but Miguel is hoping that the reward for the guest is simple: good food, a good experience and a reason to come back.
