The chef Carles Gaig, who has just turned 75, stars in the new chapter of the podcast Quédate a Comer. During the conversation he describes a childhood of scarcity but also of the tremendous desire to work that his parents had so that their children lacked as little as possible. Gaig explains what his mother has represented in his life and evokes early memories of him in a kitchen where all technology was reduced to an economical coal stove and icebox.
Gaig recalls the lack of social recognition of his trade when he started working, explains his fascination with those French chefs who were treated as influential figures in his country when he and his friends, who used to drive away to try their dishes, felt a bit like the flintstones. From the memory of those visits he recovers the Sunday afternoon when at the end of the service he took the car with his ex-wife and Ferran Adrià and they went to El Racó de Can Fabes, where Santi Santamaria and his wife were waiting for them, to go to the Monte Carlo and dinner at Alain Ducasse's Louis XV. Gaig explains the complicity that existed in the kitchens, "that opening of doors and heart was the beginning of the evolution that took place in the kitchens" and analyzes the conflict that arose between Santi Santamaria and Ferran Adrià as a result of the publication of the book from the first, The Naked Kitchen, and which over the years he sees as a child's tantrum.
Gaig also explains his relationship with a profession that he is passionate about, talks about the egos and the desire to appear among those who mistakenly believe that the white jacket provides success and those who only seek media noise. "There are those who are 22 years old and already appear on TV, something I did for the first time when I had been working for 22 years."
The chef also explains why some time ago he lost the Michelin star that he had held for 27 years by moving his business and trusting those who had to set up the space where he would work and says he regrets having chosen a bad travel companion. “I advise being as self-sufficient as possible and not getting carried away by illusions. When there is business, the heart is not worth it: the brain and the cold mind are worth it”.
Gaig assures that he is very grateful to life, because he can dedicate himself to what he likes the most and because he has a good family situation and explains that he is still in love like the first day of the woman for whom his life took a radical turn when he was 48 years. "What you think can only happen when you are very young or that only happens in the movies happened: the crush."
