Work-life balance is no longer strictly a women's issue: even chefs are claiming the right to enjoy fatherhood, which defines their success before a rank in the guides.
The story
Franco Aliberti's choice to prioritize family over career after fatherhood has created a stir in Italy. But he is not the only chef to have made the case for the proper balance between a private and professional life, which until now was thought to be purely feminine. In Spain, for example, there is Nino Redruello, a chef who represents the fourth generation of a successful lineage of Madrid restaurateurs, the century-old Familia La Ancha, who now leads eight restaurants and one delivery business. Above all, he is the father of four children; Nia, Diego, Ninin, and Nicolas.
@Matias Uris
"I like to tell myself that I am a family man and a cook, in that order," he claims. "You can be very talented and successful at work, but for me family is first and foremost. Success does not depend on the number of restaurants, employees or turnover, but enjoying the balance of a full personal and emotional life and a profession that makes you feel fulfilled. If I have to choose, I keep family life, and that shows."
His aim is also to keep his children out of the media hype. "I don't tell them anything, I don't show interviews or newspaper articles. When we assembled the Armando escalope, they did an advertisement with my face all over Madrid. So I made a deal with my wife that the children would not see it. I didn't want them to develop a distorted perception of what we are: restaurateurs serving other people. I want them to stay that way, in simplicity and humility. We want to prevent them from growing up seeing a fame that isn’t so.”
@Flaminia Pelazzi
"I like it when I tell my children that I am going to work and they ask me not to go. I explain to them that it is my duty. That way, day after day they learn the value of hard work, that you can't just sit around and watch television. I learned this from my parents, and I believe that example is a gift to children, they do it right and save themselves future drama, because life is complicated. If it were not for the effort and perseverance of my father, my uncle, and my brother Santi, today I would be the cook in some taverna and nothing more. I would not have been able to open up anything."
@Fismuler Barcellona
Instead, the openings have followed each other at a rapid pace with the complicity of Santi, who is more vocated for business, so much so that today they own 8 restaurants. Nino is also a consultant for Mauro Colagreco's Carne project in Madrid, while the fifth generation is only beginning to play with toy pots and lids. 
Source: telva.com
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