The well-known metaphor dialogues with one of the most resistant mechanisms of this culture and which is closely linked to Noma: the idea that suffering is a kind of test, a sorting between those who can handle it and those who cannot. “But that doesn’t justify what’s happening”says the chef. “It can be hard in terms of work, it can be hard in terms of rigor, it can be hard in terms of discipline, but it does not justify abuse, bullyingthe insults, sometimes the pushing, the bullying. It doesn’t justify any of this.”.
“Protection” for restaurants
Another point commented by both is what it means for a young person chef having a place like Noma on your CV. The problem, of course, is that this seal is not only valid internally, it is validated by an entire ecosystem – press, investors, employers, customers – which continues to reward prestige without asking how it was produced: a romanticization of haute cuisine.
Another piece that plays into this fetishism of military cuisine is gastronomic entertainment on television. Over the past two decades, chefs They went from relatively discreet figures to central characters in popular culture. Cooking became a spectacle, the harshness of the kitchen became content. And, along the way, a lot of things got confused, as Marlene Vieira exemplifies using the most famous case on television.
“When we talk, for example, about Hell’s Kitchen, there is no physical abuse, but there is psychological abuse that is put on television for everyone to see, to normalize these behaviors. And this behavior is not normal, nor can it be”, he emphasizes. Loureiro limits his opinion to a few words: “I don’t think [programas assim] be so funny”he thinks.
João Viegas, who worked in kitchens in Portugal and abroad and today leads Mesa Farta, in the Algarve, represents a generation of chefs which has already grown under another public exposure, another discourse about work and another sensitivity towards authority. To DN, he talks about the different way he sees working in the kitchen.
“I don’t like shouting at my employees, at my collaborators. Because I don’t think that’s going to get them anywhere. It’s not a way of working“, says the chefwho experienced the most delicate moments in the kitchen outside of Portugal. “I’ve been through more complicated, more aggressive moments. Not to the point of physical aggression, but very close”reveals.
Leave a Reply