Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1019057
16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 AUGUST 2018 INTERVIEW The job of a chef is reputed to be among the most stressful in the world. Is that true, in your experience... and if so, does the stress affect the way you work? Yes, it does. It is very, very stressful. It's partly the heat of the kitchen, and working in a busy environment; but it's also the pressure of having to bring everything out together at the same time. If you have a table of six, for example, and they've sat down, looked at the menu and placed their orders... from that point on, you're on the clock. You have about 10 to 15 minutes maximum to shoot out the starters. And they have to come out together: even if not all dishes have the same prepa- ration time. Some might take one minute, others might take 10 minutes, depending on the cooking procedure. Besides the time running out, you need to ensure that standards are kept as high as the expectations. So yes, it is very stressful, and very, very challenging. But it's also very rewarding. Another perception is that cooking is also an art-form in its right. Chefs of a certain calibre are regarded as master craftsmen more than mere professionals; and – in Malta as elsewhere – gastronomy is today more widely appreciated as an art than ever before. Do you agree? Nowadays, people are more into food than they might have been in previous years. You see this on the social media all the time. People buy books, cook at home, go to the supermar- ket, or their favourite butcher, in search of a particular ingre- dient for a dish they saw in a restaurant, and want to recre- ate in their own home. They'll take photos of the dish and post them online... so yes, there's a whole ethos surrounding gastronomy nowadays. Gas- tronomy is a culture; and in the Maltese islands it has grown drastically in recent years. For- tunately – or unfortunately – here in Malta we have been exposed to snippets of cultures from all over the world, that we have adapted and made our own. Why is that 'unfortunate' as well as 'fortunate'? The 'fortunate' part is that you have different tastes from every- where. The misfortune, howev- er, is that you can't say you have something that is your own. If you talk about Peruvian gas- tronomy, for example: there's an identity there. In fact, Peru arguably boasts one of the best national kitchens in the world. It may not be generally known, but many dishes served around the world actually originated in Peru. But when we talk about the major gastronomy cultures of the world – France, Italy, In- dia, China, etc. – they all have an identity of their own. Malta, on the other hand, doesn't re- ally have its own gastronomical identity... although we are in process of creating one. In this sense, we are perhaps closer to Spain. Until around 15 years ago, people didn't really talk about 'Spanish gastronomy', either. There is, and has always been, typical 'Spanish cuisine'; but not a national culture of gastronomy and fine dining, like there is today. But the peo- ple themselves created an ethos around food, and made their own national gastronomy cul- ture. Today, the restaurants in Spain are magnificent. There is one town, San Sebastián, which has the highest concentration of Michelin-star chefs in the world. Not everyone would agree that Malta entirely lacks a gastronomy culture. It has been argued that there is such a thing as 'traditional Maltese cuisine', but it has been overshadowed by a constant influx of foreign influences... I have no problem with other people's opinions. But I don't really see it that way myself. When we talk about Maltese cuisine, what are we actually talking about? 'Bebbux' [snails]? Don't the French have their 'escargot'? What else is there: 'bragioli'? 'Pulpetti'? They all have Italian origins. Same with 'Mqarrun' ('macaroni']. It's pasta: where did it come from? So what indigenous recipe can we really call our own? Rab- bit. That's the only thing we cook here to a local recipe. And that's because rabbit, in Malta, was the only wild game that could actually be caught and cooked locally. Everything else came from abroad... There is an irony in this, because today – unlike, perhaps, 20 years ago – there are more restaurants specialising in Maltese cuisine than ever before... Yes, that is what I meant by what happened in Spain over the past 15 years. We are now, over the last few years, in the process of recreating our own food culture. And in 10 years' time, it will be there. We will have restaurants, in 10 years' time that will go into great de- tail on the origin of the dishes they serve: going back to how people really ate in the past; digging up the original recipes, updating them to the present context.... and recreating some- thing that will give true identity to Maltese cuisine. That's your projection for the future... Yes, that's my projection for the very near future. What about the present? What's being done in this direction today? Malta is a unique place in a number of respects. It has its advantages, as well as its disad- vantages. The advantage is, for instance, if there's an ingredi- ent you need from the other side of the island... you just go and get it; within an hour, you'll be back. But size places certain restrictions. Who do restau- rants cater for here? There are locals, and there is also a wide variety of visitors, who bring with them a diversity of tastes and demands. But the numbers are limited. If I wanted to open a certain style of restaurant that may be different from what's al- ready on offer... there might not be enough volume of people to sustain that demand. So when you create something new, you need to create the medium first. What do you mean by 'medium', in this context? I'll make it simple. Take the restaurant we're in right now [Caviar and Bull, in St George's Bay]. Here, I have to create an atmosphere – a menu, a service – that caters for diners from a multitude of sectors both lo- cally and internationally. I need to attract all these people to my restaurant. How do you that? It's more than just the food you serve. It's the atmosphere, the concept underpinning the establishment. If you don't cre- ate a medium, you will not be competitive. I could create a dish that would cost 150 euro on the menu. But who's go- ing to buy it? Recently I was in the USA, for example. At a restaurant like this one in New York, you would expect to pay around $300 just for the food. So a dinner for two would come to $600 just for the food, and between $750 and $800 with a bottle of wine. If I created something like that over here, it wouldn't work. The market dynamics are different. So apart from creating the restaurant Malta's gastronomy culture is experiencing a dramatic revival, but is our restaurant scene up to the challenge of meeting higher expectations? For award-winning chef and restaurateur MARVIN GAUCI, Malta is on the brink of a culinary cultural revolution I think one of the main reasons for inconsistency is that people underestimate what's actually involved in running a restaurant Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt It's not just 'food'. It's culture