They'd drink Cola and hate wine while pretending to love it: according to one of the most renowned chefs, chefs are hypocrites and wine "disgusts" them! Gualtiero Marchesi reportedly said exactly that, adding: "I haven't drunk wine since I was 17 years old."
The hypocrisy would be driven by the need to sell wine in order to inflate prices enormously and boost margins; food, according to the chef, doesn't yield as much profit as wine.
«At Erbusco I wouldn't let the dishes leave the kitchen until the waiters had made the glasses disappear. At most I allowed it to be served in a way that wouldn't disturb, between one course and the next».
A TV host of the programme "Il pranzo della Domenica" airing on Canale 5, he also criticises Masterchef: "Can I say it bluntly? Watching Masterchef you learn rubbish. You don't look for essence, quality, the ingredient. Everything is made complicated - says the chef about the programme - when instead art is simplicity. You must exalt the ingredient, not yourself."
He doesn't spare his colleague Massimo Bottura either: "You have to look at how these rankings are put together (50 Best Restaurants, ed.). Just think that Bottura is always in the top three. A friend who has just been to the Osteria Francescana showed me a series of dishes, and I couldn't make head or tail of them. My cooks went there, and they didn't like it."
"I don't like to show off, I'm not like those who – no names – are always in the spotlight, driven by a craving for success. When I was young I didn't even leave the kitchen, I was embarrassed"; and yet he can't manage to stay away from the limelight and journalists' pens: he's on TV; he's in the papers like Panorama, which published this interview of his that caused such a stir.
He is a great communicator who, at this moment, is not pleased to have gone out of fashion as a chef and public figure, and returns to making people talk about him in this way.
It is right to respect other people's tastes, so if Marchesi doesn't drink wine and doesn't like it, frankly, that's fine by us and we're not particularly interested (it's like a celebrity declaring "I don't like chickpeas"); the manner is criticisable and lacking in refinement, which, in our view, does not befit a chef. That kind of language is more McDonald's territory… the very company for which the great chef had actually created a sandwich, proving himself a true professional!!! Of course, I wouldn't drink a Barolo with a McChicken either – evidently Gualtiero wanted to stay consistent!
What do you think?
Log in to leave a comment