Today's cooks? They have huge egos and can't cook. The rankings? They are the worst lie, a gastronomic coup. Erick Jacquin, a French-Brazilian celebrity chef, removes a few pebbles from his shoes as he defends television.
Opinion
Erick Jacquin is an old acquaintance of Brazilian gourmet: long before he donned the judge´s robe on Masterchef, when the TV scene was not yet overflowing with food, he came from France to Brazil to take over the helm of Le Coq Hardy restaurant in São Paulo. It was 1995 and owner Vincenzo Ondei personally went to pick him up in Paris, promising to make him rich.
@ Rogério Vital
It was only the first in a series of professional adventures. In 2004, in his forties, Jacquin said “either I make a restaurant now or I will have to change," and ended up opening Brasserie with two partners, an architect and a businessman. When the latter moved away, however, financial problems began, and by the time the rent tripled due to a change in ownership, the boxes became unbreakable. "I still avoid that street. If I pass there, I feel sick," he says in a melancholic tone. Then came, among others, Café Antique and Le Vin.
La Brasserie Erick Jacquin
Today Jacquin runs six restaurants in partnership, he signs their menus, and keeps the pulse of Brazilian gastronomy as few do. "Every chef is cocky. I don't know one who isn't. You can be if you can cook. But there are many chefs with huge egos who are not capable. Cooking is mastering the fire, the stove. Cooking must have fragrance, texture, beauty. The sense of smell is very important. Because if cooking is an act, it is the only one that disappears, but you can still look, eat, smell, and sometimes feel it. If cooking is an act, there is nothing similar to it."
"Today the Internet allows people to learn without having to travel. They are more interested in discovering different things. No one orders a tomato salad or rice in my restaurant, which is proof of the evolution taking place. The cook's job has gained fame. In the past if you said you were one, people wouldn't even talk to you. Girls wouldn't look at you; today it's all the opposite, even too much."
"There is a cooking school on every corner and, what's worse, it says you are a chef. But there is no such thing as a chef school. I went to cooking school to learn the basics. That's why most cooks today can't cook. I would like to know who can make a roast in the oven, without a vacuum. Leaving a roast in a plastic bag for fifteen hours is within everyone's reach. Low temperature is not cooking. I'd like to see how many can make a consommé clarified twice, flavorful and with a nice bright translucent color."
"The World's 50 Best list is the most shameless lie, a coup d'état of world gastronomy. The worst thing is that there are idiots who believe in this award. The British don't know how to eat, they don't know what food is, they have no gastronomic culture, and they must tell us what the best restaurants in the world are? Those who are honest, those who know gastronomy, know very well that here in Brazil there are not the best restaurants in the world." And Masterchef? "I owe everything to television; I appreciate it very much. What it did that was extraordinary was changing the way people eat at home. People play Masterchef, they cook, they give grades. Many people have bought pans and different ingredients."
Source: Metropoles
