Comes only, carefree and relaxed few minutes before starting the Evenings on Philosophy, Art and Gastronomy 2014, an event that has brought together artists, entrepreneurs and curious people to the building Baleària Port. Is Quique Dacosta. Eyes turn towards him when he enters the room but no one comes, it is too imposing, its three Michelin stars dazzle.
We do not have an appointment but we approach and please give us a few minutes and does. Llano, sympathetic, ready.
- Today art and philosophy, a couple of months ago Culinart, What is the relationship between art, philosophy and kitchen?
I'm not the most appropriate to make statements but support is what unites them: the table. The table is the place where the stage is given as the time for reflection and philosophy, where art and the kitchen is exposed, dialogue.
If you ask me if cooking is art, I have doubts. Depending on the kitchen, at some point I could be considered art.
- Is your "type" of cooking art?
I do not make art.
- Who do you cook for? Who are your dishes aimed at?
My kitchen is created trying to express what I feel at all times and products, technique and technology are tools I use to express my speech. I express myself through cooking. I try to satisfy myself.
- You will have tried countless flavors, textures and combinations, what is your favorite dish?
I do not have a favorite dish. I've learned not to pigeonhole anything. What's yours?
- I imagine a good paella.
You would eat it now - it's a Friday's 20.30.
- Clearly, no.
Exactly, I do not have a favorite dish, it is to eat what you want at all times and enjoy it.
- You started cleaning dishes and now you have 3 Michelin stars. Have you fulfilled the American dream?
I did not dream this. Platee goals, but it was not a dream. Poses a realistic goal knowing that the work we were doing was to be recognized.
- You have used in many dishes the Red Prawn of Dénia, what is your basic ingredient?
Salt for cooking salt and sugar for sweet cuisine. Prawn is not important in my kitchen, but I tried to make her an icon of sea and fish market Dénia honoring fishermen who do a great job and the culture of this town.
- We've seen you giving one Master class in Master Chef. What do you deserve these cooking shows that are experiencing tree television?
I do not watch television. I am not objective to talk about what they seem to me. In any case, it reassures me, if it makes me nervous that it is not the case, knowing that behind them there are very good professionals from the world of cooking: Jordi, Samanta, Susi, Carlos Arguiñano ...
- Is there a lot of rivalry in the world of cooking?
Of course, like everyone else, and we have also insisted on ordering it with rankins, with stars, ... It is a defect of the human being. It classifies, orders and values everything. The kitchen is subjective and can not value subjective things. Who is your favorite singer? Is that why it is the best?
After my interview with Quique Dacosta still stay clear what is really the relationship between philosophy and kitchen. I can imagine how it relates to art, in any case, seeing their dishes.
What I do know is that Quique Dacosta is a cook and has a philosophical part. He knows what he wants, how he wants it and what to do to achieve it. He has - or seems to have - clear ideas and, after our conversation, I have many more questions and questions that I would like to ask him, this time in front of a coffee.
Admired and respected Quique Dacosta, I can say and I say, that you can proudly boast having triumphed first for our Valencian lands and even more, you have managed to unite your just and extraordinary fame with your hectic and well-deserved promotion in 2013 to the very select list of the Best Restaurants in the World. And all this without forgetting our ancestral roots of the closest gastronomy based on «The ten agricultural books of the famous Columella, the Cookbook of the Roman Apicio, the Etymologies of San Isidoro (XNUMXth century), the Hispano-Maghreb Cookbook . Translated by Ambrosio Huici Miranda (XNUMXth century), including many metaphorical paragraphs of Andalusian Arabic poetry arising from the imagination of Ben al Talla and Cafar Ben Hutman, among other writers, in addition to the book Arte de Cozina by Valencian Diego Granado, Felipe's cook II, make up a gigantic cultural antecedent that in a direct or veiled way has a faithful reflection in many of the eating habits of our lands ». Therefore, the greatness of Quique Dacosta's cookbook is based on that stately Huerta cuisine that was made with those stately and old stoves, wisely combining current cuisine that will surely delight the most gourmet and demanding palates. Kind regards.
yes sir, well you say, LA GAMBA IS NOT IMPORTANT, the only thing that some are doing is that it is a product of a few and that the truth is that coming from a town hall that should defend everyone I think is not correct, of course I think the shrimp is delicious, but a city can not appropriate a thing that is from the sea and who tells us that for whatever it is tomorrow we no longer have prawns?