BASQUE LUXURY FIRM: BERASATEGUI
Writing about the future is always risky,but I would venture to put some ideas on the table that I would defend fervently. My kitchens have not yet become observatories,but I have been working for many years and,with those years,my personal and professional desires have become clearer and clearer:health and a long working life for those who will substitute us.
I always talk about specialization and the need for each expert to play in his or her league, to try to be the best, because clients will continue sitting down to eat. I understand that not all professionals were born to work in haute cuisine, nor to be consummate barbecuers or impeccable tavern chefs, for instance. But I want nothing more than for everyone to find their place – working with determination, discipline, and effort, focusing on their daily experience. I likewise do not have the slightest doubt that we will continue to build the pillars of cuisine with the best ingredients, respecting naturalness and seasonality, as I am very concerned by pollution and the disappearance or deterioration of many foods – something which will have an impact on the cooking of tomorrow. I want the future cooks to be more environmentally conscious than we are, as we are the children and grandchildren of people who fought under the smoke of the factories.
Lastly, I hope that the globalization of the markets and the incorporation of new techniques and foreign recipes will not cloud the originality of each of our regional cooking styles, which are a true heritage.and I hope that the inclusion of all of these new tendencies enrich our own style and that they serve to advance without annihilating our history –as we must be proud of our roots–, integrating with common sense and elegance. I hope that young people continue to be motivated by the profession, and that the future is built by involving new generations –with generosity and knowledge transmission as basic premises–, opening paths that bring about business opportunities and prosperity. Let us work unremittingly and with enthusiasm, because our trade will be dominated by those who are good people and able to look after the ingredients and the environment.