Santi Santamaria
Santi Santamaria said that it dwelt the god of the kitchen. Maybe that's why he exercised his office with the joy that comes to shared leisure. This last expression belongs. He used one of his newspaper articles included in this marvelous book that is Cook Word (Salsa Books, Barcelona, \u200b\u200b2005) and made to give us the best evidence possible of a sacred vocation. It happened like this: Santi Santamaria arrives at his home in Sant Celoni, after an exhausting day at the Raco de Can Fabes. Have guests that night. It's Sunday, but no matter. At once begins to cut onions. Even his closest friends are surprised of why this place home, which seem not have dented the many hours of professional work. Prepare salad dressing, the potato gratin and rabbit with snails. For dessert available at this time of good honey and fresh killed. When guests arrive have everything almost ready. Just a pinch of seasoning and now. The atmosphere of the kitchen, which boasts some of the visitors, is the perfect appetizer: it was really cooked. The smells, silva several lessons and sight of the trays, suggest the festival ahead. How was this miracle possible? Should anything else to the experience a well-known chef and his skills? Undoubtedly influenced the culinary skills, but something else that is not sold in a drugstore or is acquired on the job, let alone in Salamanca, if any, on the issue (now available). It is something beyond the manuals and techniques and explains this apparent miracle: it turns out at the pleasure of the "shared entertainment", the host "never feels lazy" and enjoy smelling the pot, "living step by step the evolution of a stew or a roast, "because what you love in life is cooking. Period.
Although more than a nuisance to harsh and self-critical statements, no one left, now or ever, to recognize their teaching and their honesty in office. If anyone wanted proof of the above statement, it needed only to see the photo of Ferran Adria, distraught and weeping, the day of the funeral of the great chef in the Montseny. When it was learned last week that he had died in Singapore a duel unanimous crossed from one end to the world of gastronomy. Then came to my mind the image of Vázquez Montalbán, who died in Bangkok seven years ago, also from a heart attack. Both Catalan and devotees of the old kitchen of their elders. The Bangkok-based writer one of his best novels and the cook had a restaurant in Singapore. Traveled, met the melancholy of certain airports and the splendor of many tables. Were famous, but not part of the footlights. The land belonged to Catalan. One, the novelist and poet, to the city. The other, the universe peasant Montseny. The two waved the pa amb tomàquet as a hallmark of indomitable. A quote from Santi Santamaria, said in a book with a foreword by Manolo Vázquez, eloquently states that common banner:
" I argue that what is really not cease to be sublime and, moreover, is lucky not have to be fashionable . "
Luck not have to be fashionable. Nothing in addition to the clear wisdom. Read more to his beloved poets, to Guerau of Liost, for example, writes his lares and landscapes or Miquel Marti i Pol, his friend and guest. A verse of the first, then:
" sure in the next world will a good job."
