The truth about cooking

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By TP

Aduriz points out that today everything is content creation, creative strategies and influencer sympathies. Image inspired by a painting by René Magritte.Juana Mari Moya (Getty Images)The age difference counted. The first impression that configures the security with which they spoke, too. And, of course, the presumption that is granted to someone who spends time gossiping in the sector, even when working on something else. I had been cooking professionally for fewer years than they had been sucking on the boat, living in the heat of the efforts of third parties who do their own thing, without time to lift my head from the stove and the reservation book. It is disgusting today, and it was astonishing then, to see how every individual who sympathizes with gastronomy feels with the power to review the work of others and even to put the piggy bank into a hospitality project. It is shocking because, no matter how enthusiastic someone is about technological trends, theater or elite sports, it is difficult to imagine a stranger to the sector qualifying skills, straightening programs or founding an artificial intelligence company, a sports equipment factory or producing theater, although there is everything in this world of mobile applications. It saddens me to admit the treadmills that the chefs of my generation have swallowed; the number of scoundrels who ended up in the hospitality industry looking to live a second life. Figures grown by overcoming the egos of subjects as relevant as they are insecure, yes, with the power to misconceptify. The maneuver was often the same: one or two respectable chefs short on self-esteem or long on self-love are flattered and the door is opened to judge the rest. And the merchants of other people's suffering sneaked in, eager to enjoy life camouflaged in a magistrate's spiritual dress code. It seemed that only they were qualified to decide how things should be. In addition, there was a whole entourage of newcomers who picked at the crumbs they dropped. A mess of characters wrapped in a paternalistic business vision and opinions fueled by the complicity of generalized silences. It is not surprising that the term rogue, which derived from the person in charge of chopping in the kitchen, has mutated into an astute hunter of profits and sponsorships. Freeloaders, freeloaders and fortune hunters of the Golden Age have given way to drivers, promoters and those responsible for all kinds of episodes designed to attract interest, to generate visibility where profit abounds and the goings-on to gain power. I feel that in a At this point, the kitchen of use, or rather, the use of the kitchen, is outside of it. The same in manuals, directories, guides, catalogs and databases of companies outside the field of food run by individuals of whom we do not even know if they like to eat. I mentally relive the theatrum mundi that I had to experience from my kitchen. I review the procedures that those who sponsored the heartbeat of the stoves used to deploy and I realize that everything has evolved at the rhythm of clicks. What then were culinary tours through publications, newspapers and local radio stations, today is content creation, creative strategies and influencer sympathies. Where there were conferences, contests, exhibitions and championships, today there are segmented audiences, viralization of strategies and channeling of traffic on the Internet. Connoisseurs, palmers and opportunists who guess the place and time, and push to appear in the center of the photo, There were and there will be. To the extent that human nature is as remote as the hidden internet, it would be convenient to reformulate how we act in this fishing ground of gastronomy where so many people work. Rethink what is considered legitimate fishing and what is considered abusive profit. If after an action or commercial maneuver a solid initiative is presented that promotes progress in the field, giving visibility to the protagonists and their work. If commercial objectives are combined with an effort soaked in insight, mastery and knowledge that takes into account the needs of the profession and producers. Or, on the contrary, one relapses into predilection and partiality; in the looting of sponsors and institutions, in the return of favors or in quarrels and the settling of accounts to subdue those who are different. Objective reading in complex performances such as outstanding cuisine does not exist; It is subjective in nature and has different voices. But the correct intermediation, that which clearly explains a style and its reasons, yes.