Jaime Ortolá

The Path

CdT Benidorm gave Jaime Ortol the base that shows up in the rest of his work: discipline, repetition, and technique before improvisation. His route then moved into live-fire cooking, where the demands are more direct — heat, weight, timing, and control under pressure. That shift from formal training to coal and flame defines the shape of his career. Time as stoker and coalman at Fireside added another layer of practical knowledge, keeping him close to the material reality of fire rather than the distance of theory. He is now Head Chef of Fireside, carrying that experience into daily service.

The Work Today

The room is built around fire, so the job requires more than management; it asks for a steady read on timing, pace, and the point at which a dish moves from kitchen to guest. Ortol’s earlier work with coal and heat remains visible in that approach. The pass, the last adjustments, and the handoff all depend on the same practical understanding. At Fireside, the kitchen and the dining room meet in the final reaction, and that response is the standard he works to.

Signature

Chicken Paella is one of Jaime Ortol’s signature dishes. It sits in the lane of food that rewards control more than complication: the kind of plate where timing, heat, and steadiness decide the outcome. In relation to his live-fire background, it makes sense as a signature — direct, generous, and dependent on managing the cook without losing clarity.

In Their Words “The best result for me as a chef is when I see people smiling with my food. That’s the reward.” “I live to make people like my food.” Taken together, those lines are plain about the purpose of the work. For Ortol, the measure is the guest’s response at the end of service, when the dish has done its job and the room tells you so.