Συνέντευξη με τον σεφ Carles Mampel! Ο Chef Carlos μας μιλάει για το πως ξεκίνησε την καριέρα του, το όραμά του για μια πιο υγιεινή γαστρονομία, τις συμβουλές του στους επαγγελματίες σεφ, την εμπειρία του στο MGA και για πολλά ακόμη… Διαβάστε τη συνέντευξη παρακάτω ή δείτε το βίντεο στο Youtube!
Συνέντευξη από το MGA!
Your mentality the last few years is less sugar and less fat in desserts and you believe that this is the future in pastry. Tell us a bit more about this.
Yes, this is the future, it started some years ago but it’s the future for the gastronomy, because the restaurants are working this way the pastries started to work in this way because pastry needs to stay healthy.
How long do you think it is going to take to retrain people’s minds and change the way they think about desserts and accept those new flavors?
The people is demanding this but you need to communicate more when the chefs make at home “is my dessert less sweet, with less fat, more fruits, more fresh”, but this is to communicate to advance in this way.
Pastry chefs and of course pastry shops and marketing needs to focus on how much healthier this is.
Yes, but you see the chefs in restaurants, the doctors too, the demand you see in the gastronomy all is focusing on healthy food but not only in pastry, you see “eat more vegetables and less bad products, no synthetic products”, all the gastronomy is focusing on this way.
So tell us a little bit how you started.
When I was 13, I started working in a pastry shop of a friend of the family. I started for three years because I went to a school too. I started only the weekends and some holidays or some free days working just to get started and started to understand what is the pastry world.
What did you like and said this is what I want to do for the rest of my life?
Because the pastry is a lot of different things, you know, it’s artistic, it’s creative, it’s organized, it’s technical, for me it’s a lot of different things inside this world.
What’s your favorite technique in pastry, your favorite trend?
I don’t have only one because I’m very surprised with all techniques. For example puff pastry or croissant, laminated doughs. Who is the chef that created this to arrive at this idea, at this final product these are all moves and simple techniques that one people thinks and I have a lot of respect for the technique. Today is traditional, it’s easy, but someone created this,
I need to have a lot of respect for this and the new techniques too. But, the last new techniques, it’s much easier because they have more machines or more people it’s much easier to advance. I remember a lot of years ago it was much difficult.
What’s your favorite ingredient, what you love to work with?
For me it’s the amazing chocolate, because it’s not incorporated in another product. It’s exclusive, not something to replace it. It’s possible to compare something like fruits, like nuts, but chocolate doesn’t exist in another product.
What’s your favorite dessert?
My favorite dessert… For me I love croissants.
What advice would you give to young professionals that want to become chefs?
When you start taking this work, I like it, because it’s nonstop. Every day you meet some new problem or some new technique, or some new decoration or something new and this is to advance today, tomorrow, after tomorrow and in your life, in your work this is the feedback in this work.
You do masterclasses all over the world. How’s your 2019 calendar looking?
I think it’s a little bit the same for this year and last year, it’s full of masterclasses the most, but I will take more time for investigation to work on this idea of the best gastronomy and healthy gastronomy and to see new techniques and new presentations too, because the presentation in pastry is very important because the people go to the shop and they say “this is nice, I take this” but they need to see nice and healthy and it’s not easy to communicate this, when it’s only for the vision. It needs to start from this to see this combination but it needs to be explained in one view but it is not easy to explain healthy food.
So… this is your second time in Crete. We didn’t have a masterclass together. What happened was… in November you said as a joke “When Antonio Bachour comes in April, maybe I come just for a joke” and we said “That’s great, let’s book the tickets!”, so we surprised him by booking the flight and you just “puuh”, rocked up in the lesson and then for the next two days you did chocolate bonbons with Antonio!!
Yes, I am very happy to do Masterclasses with Antonio, because with Antonio we make a lot of Masterclasses and this is work, but not only work. Because we are friends and with Pepe and all the other chefs, it’s very important because after is the work, but first is this friendship.
How is it like working with Antonio? I know he’s a very good friend of yours but how is he as a partner in a masterclass?
Antonio likes to advance every day and sometimes every day it’s a surprise “Wow” and “Wow” and return another time and “Wow”. It is nice to work with that because every time it’s a surprise. We do a lot of classes with Antonio and every time is the same. “Wow he is better”. And tomorrow if we go for another class “It’s better!” and it’s better and better, it’s non stop!
But I’m sure that every pastry chef at that level -and you included of course- every time you learn something new and you want to share that knowledge with the audience with the professionals that come to to watch you. What’s the feeling to share that knowledge? What do you feel in a masterclass?
The feeling is to explain and translate this hard work in my life or in the life of young people too, and explain this is no stop today, this is the start and it continues every day. You’re just waking up every day and you need to study every day, to go to the classes, because this work doesn’t stop ever.
Do you think that someone is born to be a chef or one can become a chef with hard work?
It’s a little bit these two items. Because it’s hard work, not all the people resist in this work but the people that resist, advance. They need to advance every day. It’s no stopping one day you start the next. In pastry for example, it’s not for one year or two years or three years, you need to advance in your life.
Would you like to share your experience with MGA?
It’s very nice because the team is amazing! It’s for this that I like to see all the team from MGA and it’s very friendly people because it’s not only the work, you know it’s laughing, it’s going to dinner, it’s life, not only work. This is really nice.