Two brilliant minds of world gastronomy come together for a major project: Ferran Adrià and Aduriz jointly open the world's best culinary university: “You need a degree to be a great chef”
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Beyond being chefs, there is resourcefulness, a boundless creativity, which has sketched the stylistic mark of a generation and more, making culinary history without ever stopping: they are Ferran Adrià, undisputed genius in the field of world gastronomy and founder of a culinary temple like El Bulli, and Andoni Luis Aduriz, soul of Mugaritz, and among the most influential chefs in the contemporary restaurant scene.
Their fame precedes them, just like that thread of friendship and collaboration that has bound them together for years now. A thread that continues to remain strong, feeding on ideas and projects, but, above all, a common thinking and feeling that identifies education as the future for the chefs of tomorrow. Hence, the new creation that sees them as founders and promoters: the MACC, Madrid Culinary Campus, a high school created by the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, in collaboration with Vocento, a communications agency that deals with all the most important cooking congresses organized in Spain.
But what exactly is MACC? A university campus that provides students with a degree of globally recognized value - explains elcorreo.com - because, as Enrique Sanz, rector of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, puts it nicely, “gastronomy can act as an engine for economic and social growth.” "It's not just about teaching or transferring knowledge, but inspiring a desire to learn. You can give people a brick or generate the stimulus to want to know more." - Adrià and Aduriz explain - "This is a culinary college, not a cooking school. There are many of those and they do their job well. But here the level is higher. It is taught from business management to biology, agronomy and sustainability. For us it is a challenge, a long-term project."
The one followed is a methodology defined as 'Sapiens,' which combines more practical and theoretical training with gastronomic creation and exchange, by virtue of the involvement of professors and professionals from places such as Harvard and Mit. A space for thought and debate, because “the university must lead to thinking, reflecting and planning.” The great importance given to the organization and management aspect is no accident: “One needs basic knowledge. - Adrià emphasizes - Keep in mind that 90 percent of companies proceed without an annual budget. Fifty percent do not last more than five years. If there is no good management, they don't work. Then there will be time for poetry, the difference between something well done and something extraordinary are the hours of study behind it."
“We don't just need to feed ourselves ,” Aduriz concludes, “There is the cultural, sociological, emotional, creative dimension. In education, the same thing happens. You can have the basics and, from there, aspire to everything. That's why MACC was born, and that's why it will make a difference." Two newly constructed buildings near the Chamartín station, in northern Madrid, will make up the University's facility, which will start next September, while at the same time creating a significant urban development project. "A knowledge center like MACC confronts you with a very rich reality. It may be that you come thinking you want to be a great cook, and eventually the road leads you to a digital project that changes the world."
