Andalusian chef Begoña Rodrigo looks down on "easy success" in the restaurant industry. "What can a young person ever prove in six months?"
The opinion
Begoña Rodrigo is an Andalusian chef who has created an empire. How? With commitment and perseverance. The group is called Anarkia, and the name suggests the chef's passion for everything out of the box. Self-taught and lover of nature, Begoña Rodrigo lives in the city of Valencia because that’s where her MICHELIN Starred restaurant is located.
"I am a cook, but more importantly I consider myself an entrepreneur, and there are things that I do not think are feasible for people who want to make a living from hospitality. For example, a gourmet restaurant that does less than fifty covers a day is not profitable; someone like me, having a team of 32 people would go out of business. This is why my restaurant is located in an urban setting and not in the countryside, despite the fact that this is an increasingly popular choice in the industry. Rather, we have created an oasis in the center of Valencia; an 18th-century villa with a 400-square-meter terrace."
In Anarkia group, in addition to La Salita, there is also a space that the chef provides for staff to be able to earn extra money. It is called Farcit, which means "to fill" in Valencian (in this case, with dishes and products), and is a location used for multifunctional food-themed events, housing a communal kitchen. It is possible to attend classes to learn how to work the stove and take home the food prepared. In addition, the chef is launching a new project, Aceto (Vinegar).
"Some people told me that a characteristic of my cooking was the perfect handling of acidity. I started to explore and experiment with different kinds of vinegar. We started working with wine vinegar made from bottle residues. We use them for pickles, marinated fish, and root treatment. We started before the pandemic, and when we came back after the lockdown we found wonders, as many roots had been lying in the refrigerators for months. There were purple carrots that had turned into jellies. The sugars had reacted with the vinegar and the effect was fantastic. Nowadays everyone is working with vegetables, but the first gourmet vegetarian menu in Valencia was mine, fifteen years ago. I love that kitchen and seeing overcooked or super sweet vegetables gives me discomfort. There are vegetarian menus where dessert is the saltiest dish."
The Spanish chef is not reluctant to talk about her competitors: she says there are real "dictators" in fine dining, a dictatorship expressed through forced gastronomic paths and constraints even in hospitality. "Everything needs to be more fluid. Instead, the narrative weighs down the experience, and people are getting lost. You can't have a restaurant and devote yourself to repeating stuff like a parrot. People don't want you to self-praise and talk endlessly, they want you to remember how they want their coffee."
"There has been a loss of respect for consistency, for stability of results. I see chefs who have been around for many years and keep their restaurants in great shape, but it seems that this has no value. When the MICHELIN Guide gives stars to a place that has been open for six months, I wonder: in six months what has that place shown? Young chefs want everything, and they want it now. Sometimes they call me and say, “people still don´t recognize me if they see me on the streets. Guys, you just opened, it´s already a lot if you fill the tables!"
On the other hand, you always go back to where you were treated well. This is Begoña Rodrigo’s philosophy, she has achieved great things throughout her career, but not without immense effort. "We've been used to waiting for things to happen, but they don't. If you want to cross a finish line, go and act: this I say especially to women who seem to be almost ashamed when they reach the pinnacle, but ashamed of what? There are people without talent, so if you are good and capable, go and conquer the world."
Source: 7canibales
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Photos: @La Salita
