The kitchen as a tool for social transformation
The Peruvian chef Gaston Acurio explains how the kitchen contributes to the development of countries and communities in the Foundation RBA to an audience of over 800 people. With food journalist Cristina Jolonch presenting the event and leading the conversation with Acurio, the Auditorium RBA Foundation convened a hearing full of personalities, many of the gastronomic field as chefs Joan Roca, Sergi Arola, Oscar Manresa, Ever Cubilla Carles Tejedor and Oriol Castro.
Titled “The revolution of Peruvian cuisine,” Gaston returned from Euskadi, which was presenting the first edition of the Basque Culinary World Prize, to be one of the most important prizes in the world gastronomy. Acurio is part, along with other chefs like Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal, Massimo Bottura, Michel Bras and René Redzepi, the International Council of the Basque Culinary Center, chaired by Joan Roca. The award will recognize chefs using gastronomy as an engine of change.
Gaston explained that the germ of this award was conceived five years ago in Lima, where several chefs signed the “Charter of the cooks of the future”, it tried to encourage young people to understand that the kitchen hides a power that now begins to be used in its real dimension, it is not just a recreational area it can become a very powerful tool to generate a lot of good things. ” He added that “it is time to recognize professionals who are working and generating a huge impact, social, technological, environmental or economic environment right now.”
The humanist commitment Acurio involves understanding its privileged position with responsibility and commitment to values such as health, education, nutrition, sustainability and social and economic progress. On her way to generate learning spaces and return to Peruvian society how it has given Gaston Acurio he explained how Pachacutec Cooking School, located in one of the poorest areas of Lima, has excited a professional future for young people with risk of social exclusion. He said another major project that hopes to carry out: a large university of hospitality in Lima forming from a technical and humanistic future leaders in the hospitality, catering and tourism perspective.
The career of one of the most recognized worldwide Peruvian personalities was reviewed by Cristina Jolonch, who wanted to know whether there had been a trigger to explain his particular vision of the kitchen. Acurio said his childhood dream was to have a restaurant that render homage to classic French cuisine. That meant necessarily represent a culture that was not their own and that, over time, the initial project was becoming a necessity to find a sense of identity its holding the grounds of what had always been the most important joys of life Peruvian daily “yellow pepper, rocoto the shrimp soup, potatoes cause the picantico ceviche …; We stop dreaming with foreign and discovered biodiversity, products, history, heritage and were articulating a movement called Peruvian cuisine “.
In 2005, the chef was proposed that the world fall in love ceviche. Ten years later, with fully universalized and become an icon of Peru ceviche, Gaston feels that “much remains to share: products, recipes, concepts.” And he believes that “the opportunity is to continue to surprise and generating joy.”
The chef, who owns 45 restaurants scattered around the world and employs more than 3,000 people, has made headlines recently after announcing he will return to captain the creativity and team flag in Lima restaurant Astrid & Gaston. Last night at RBA Foundation, shared three visions for the new stage of the restaurant. The first is to get the best producers crave to provide the restaurant; second, that all the kids want to learn to cook passionate behind the stove of Astrid & Gaston; and third, that the guests who come to know the gastronomic restaurant, wish to return the next day and repeat.
Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Prize in Literature 2010, Gaston has referred to as the man who has done most in teaching Peruvians to appreciate the great value has the culinary heritage of their land. “No one has done as much as he for the world to discover that Peru, a country that has so many shortcomings and limitations, has one of the most varied cuisines refined, inventive and the world, one that can compete without any limitations with most famous as the Chinese and the French. ” With this act, the RBA Foundation joins global recognitions received Acurio for its commitment to gastronomy as an engine of social, cultural and economic transformation.
“The revolution of Peruvian cuisine” is part of a series of lectures with personalities from various fields which aim at promoting dialogue, promote the ideas and disseminate culture in all its aspects.
Source: RBA
