Experience You were the female chef with the most Michelin people are interested in seasonal produce, in having stars in the world. Apart from cooking, what else that connection, that communion, with what is growing does it take to get there? outside. This is also what we are interested in. One person alone can achieve nothing; they must be able to bring together a team that shares the same Is cooking an ally of nutrition and fast food an philosophy and be committed to working hard. Being enemy? Who is winning? professional means feeling committed to your customer, Look, fast food can be really interesting. your supp e eole ou work with. If you work Pa amb tomàquet (a catalan dish) is fast food. All you rigorously and hard every day, success will come. need is some good bread, some good tomatoes, rub them on top, some good oil and a pinch of salt. This is fast 2025 is the year of Catalonia as World Region of food. We must fight against fast food with a label full Gastronomy. What does Catalan cuisine contribute of E numbers, which is more like medicine than food. to the world? This is where we must be able to educate consumers to Catalan cuisine reflects the sensitivity of a people who are demand more from the agri-food industry; if it can do capable of accepting and embracing other cultures. We do better, it should do better. things the Arab, Greek and Roman way. Soon we will be offering Maghreb cuisine, as we will also feel it is part of Juan Roig, the founder of Mercadona, says that our heritage, as well as Asian and South American cuisine. in 20 years there will be no kitchens in homes. We are a people who first observe, then taste, then Do you agree? embrace, and finally include dishes in popular cookbooks. I constantly encourage people to cook at home, but Catalan cuisine is eclectic, varied and diverse, reflecting at the same time, I also believe that if you don’t like all the cultures that have passed through here. cooking, you don’t have to cook. What you do have to do is choose who cooks for you. Not cooking does not In a globalised world, what role does cuisine excuse you for being ignorant about nutrition. play in positioning and differentiating a country like Spain? The photographs taken of top chefs continue In a globalised world, we must pay particular attention to predominantly feature men. Are there too to the primary sector. Spain has a cuisine that never gets few female role models? boring; simply by changing region, you change cuisine. When I started out more than 30 years ago, there were This means that each of these places has preserved still companies that were reluctant to hire women and defended their cuisine. We must defend this basic because they had a male staff and felt that bringing commodity, our farmers, our fishers, our livestock a woman into the mix would be a problem. Women breeders, and the people who produce free-range have earned this space for themselves by educating products. If we lose it, we would lose our character. themselves and submitting impressive CVs that could You can carve out a niche for yourself in international not be rejected. But we have only just begun, and this cuisine, that is both global and highly publicised, when is a long-distance race. you maintain your uniqueness. And our uniqueness is full of character. What advice would you give to the new generation of chefs and entrepreneurs who are looking to make Japan, a country with which it has a great their mark on the world? relationship, has a special fascination for Spanish If they are already chefs, they will already have fallen culture and cuisine. Why is this? in love with the profession. I would tell them that they The Japanese are fascinated by our food when they should feel committed to the local culinary culture and discover how different it is. If you had to describe their the primary sector, and that they should ensure that cuisine, you would say it is raw or almost raw, marinated, their team enjoys their work, performs well and has a or almost transparent, but it is tasty and has a natural good quality of life. Because this will translate into the flavour. Ours, although thicker and denser, contains quality of their work for their consumers, and that is ingredients that we could not do without: bread, oil and unstoppable. We have a message to share with the world, wine, three products that are exotic to them. Japanese and we are going to win over even the most demanding. 74