The cook at La Salita, in Valencia, Begoña Rodrigo, stars in the new episode of the podcast Stay to eat. We spoke with her just after Barcelona hosted the gala to present the new distribution of stars in the Michelin guide. She, who was not invited to the party, explains that “everyone agrees with the guides and the lists the moment they appear in them. I have seen and heard tremendous things, and I myself have said things that I would not say now. The moment you enter and see the benefits they bring you or the doors they open for you, then you are incapable of denying them.”
Rodrigo explains that she has stopped understanding the parameters of those who decide the stars and that, although she thinks it is fantastic that they are given to her and she is not in the habit of comparing herself with others, she believes that rewarding restaurants that have only been open for six months can end up generating frustration in people who are already going for the second and third without going through a process. “If you open a restaurant and in a few months it has a Michelin star or a Repsol sun, you are going to have to fight for a second one very quickly, because you have that goal left, and a third. And after that? What have you done along the way? I wouldn’t take away a single year from what I’ve been through to be where I am. And I don’t care even if it takes a while, because it will come when it has to come. What I want is that while we are enjoying it.”
Rodrigo defends those restaurants that have been around for years, “that are truly sustainable, because they are not from today to tomorrow,” like the one run by his partner, the Galician Pepe Solla, “with a tremendous enthusiasm for creating new dishes and for take care of their clients.”
The Valencian chef talks about her relationship with her professional colleagues, with whom she assures that there is true camaraderie, about the learning she has experienced in the last year, as a result of a problem she had and that led her to separate from people she considered friends. and from which he did not receive any gesture of support. She also talks about her vision of gastronomy conferences, which she does not consider to be obsolete, but rather require a change to adapt to the needs of those who participate in these times.
As a businesswoman, Begoña Rodrigo explains that coming from a wealthy family that went bankrupt overnight has taught her to be prudent, also when asking for loans from banks, and highlights that it has nothing to do with resort to your own money than to open a restaurant with investors. “When you are not putting any of your money, when you are not risking your money and your capital, things are seen differently. You are also sold on the investor coming tomorrow and telling you, look at her, I don’t feel like it anymore.
The perception that others have of one and the concern to be liked, which she admits she does not have, or the difficulty she sees in having a different opinion from the other without being confronted (“it bothers me that in life it has to be with you or against you “) are some of the topics that are addressed in a conversation in which the social scourge of abuse also appears, which she has suffered from having an abusive father. Rodrigo expresses his concern about permissiveness, especially among very young people, regarding attitudes that restrict the freedom of others, whether men or women, and denounces the impunity of abusers.