The Lagarde Brothers
Jacques and Mathieu Lagarde grew up in Paris. Cooking wasn't something they discovered later — it came from their Portuguese grandmother, who taught them both long before either one set foot in a professional kitchen.
They trained separately in Paris, then left together for Australia in their early twenties, chasing a different kind of food culture. From there, they moved to New Zealand, where they ended up side by side again — Mathieu as executive chef and Jacques as sous-chef at Amisfield, voted the best restaurant in the country. After several years, the brothers went their separate ways: Jacques came to Spain, Mathieu stayed on in New Zealand a while longer.
In 2020, Jacques moved to Spain without speaking a word of the language, and found Cascada — abandoned, overlooked, and exactly the kind of project he wanted. Max Marion Renard and Benjamin Jennes were lucky enough to meet him early on, and trusted him with the project almost immediately. He became a partner within the year and made the kitchen his own. Mathieu joined him later, moving to Marbella to be closer to family, and the two have run the kitchen together ever since.
In between, they competed together on Top Chef France — a rare thing, two brothers in the same season. Mathieu made it all the way to the final three.
Ask anyone on the team and they'll tell you the same thing: the brothers are serious cooks and easy people to work for. Their favourite running joke with guests is claiming it's their first day at Cascada — after years of running the place daily.
Charcuterie became one of their specialties — they got so good at it that they put together their own e-cookbook to share the recipes. At Cascada, their cured meats are served alongside the 6-course tasting menu as a charcuterie tasting of their own — a real signature of both Cascada and the brothers. Their hands are in everything else too: the food menu, the wine list, the cocktails. Nothing gets finalized without both of their palates weighing in.
Cascada is their main project, but not their only one. Through Aru by Lagarde, Jacques and Mathieu also offer a private chef experience — sometimes cooking in person at your event or home, sometimes sending over a selection of their specialties, prepared at Cascada. Either way, it's their touch, just brought to you instead of the other way around.
Off the pass, they're just as entertaining. Follow them on social media and you'll find two brothers constantly cooking up new projects, teasing each other, and clearly having a good time doing it.