He took his first steps in the family restaurant near San Sebastián, but his family’s know-how mixed with the innovation he learned from great chefs in France, such as Alain Ducasse, prompted him to remodel the old tavern where he grew up and transform it into a restaurant that quickly caught the attention of the Michelin Guide. He earned one, two, and three stars in a few years and today he is one of the great names in world gastronomy and the Spanish chef with the most accumulated Michelin stars throughout his career. No less than twelve.
Read more Gentlemen, to the drawing-room, as General Primo de Rivera is coming
From his base camp at Martín Berasategui in Lasarte, he now leads eight more restaurants (Ola in Bilbao; Lasarte, Bera and Fonda España in Barcelona; MB, Txoko MB and Melvin in Tenerife; and Jara in Dubai) with nine stars. But his technique does not shine ostentatiously; he works it in the shadows, with a respect for the origin of the product and an almost surgical precision that borders on perfection. “The best-written book in life in the kitchen,” he assures, “was not written by a female or male chef, it was written by nature.”
We see you in top form, Martín, opening new restaurants, receiving awards, publishing books, and giving training courses. You don’t stop! How are you?
I feel great, only asking for health, because anyone who asks for more than health is already overindulging. All my life I have been a chef with passion, a transporter of happiness, and I believe that today our profession is in a state of grace, surpassing itself and breaking records. There are young people with training, talent, and discipline, and the challenge is to build a future that lives up to the wonderful heritage we receive.
I deduce that the inheritance of knowledge and values you received has marked you…
Without a doubt! My memories, sensations, and so many small and great things are and will be for life. The wisdom accumulated in the walls of the family tavern, the enormous vocation my parents and aunt had, the enthusiasm and superhuman effort to achieve their goals, is what they gave us and what we will have until the last second of our lives.
Tell me one of those pieces of knowledge they passed on to you when you were a child…
You can’t be luckier than having wonderful parents and an aunt with a restaurant next to the market. It was called Bodegón Alejandro and it was an eating house located in the old part of San Sebastián. In the market, they made it clear to you from a young age that the best-written book in life in the kitchen was not written by a female or male chef, it was written by nature. That’s where you have to work with reflection, with depth, and with everything we know. I have always been shy and working has served me much more than talking. I have studied every day of my life and that’s why I consider myself an eternal apprentice at 51 years old. I always tell my students that listening will bear more fruit than talking.
Nowadays, not all children and young people want to listen to what their parents tell them. Precisely in adolescence, there is a distancing…
When my father was up and down, my mother and my aunt were my first teachers. When I was fifteen, they sat me down at a table and told me: “Martín, at 8 am you come with us” and since then they are the ones who have helped me the most and who have enjoyed everything that has happened afterward the most. At twenty, we sat down again and I told them: “You have worked like a lioness and a tigress. Now we have the drive to run this tavern.”
My mother and my aunt were my first teachers; they are the ones who have helped me the most and who have enjoyed everything that has happened afterward the most
Martín Berasategui
Drive?
Drive is nothing more than attitude, courage, desire, strength, passion, impetus, nonconformity, always adding and never subtracting, always multiplying and never dividing. That has been my whole life.
And with that drive, what did you do?
I took out my first loan with a family friend because I didn’t want to bother them, we emptied the entire tavern, we put in technology… And that’s where it all began! While we were doing the renovations, they brought me some beautiful letters for the corporate image, “Martín Berasategui.” They couldn’t have brought me more beautiful ones! But I asked them if they wouldn’t mind if I made a signature and, without saying anything to anyone, not even my wife, I made my father’s signature, exactly as he did it, in homage to him. It was the message to my father, who is the only one who hasn’t seen anything of what we have achieved since.
Read more The White House reacts to Ferran Torres’s cap: “Everyone wants to get on the wave”
What he would really see is a brilliant career! Six months after opening, you got your first Michelin star, two and a bit years later the second, and in the ninth year, the third. How do you manage to keep your feet on the ground when everything around you is praise?
I don’t understand ego. In the world of gastronomy, there is a lot of it, and I believe it is the biggest disease there is, not only in this but in all professions. You have to get out of there because you lose a lot of energy. The more apples a tree has, the more rooted to the earth it must be. Otherwise, a little wind blows, your apples are gone… And you too! Being a champion and a good person is the perfect combination. I am the best apprentice I can be or the one I would like to call, and I am still the same Martín who used to get lost in the streets of the old part of San Sebastián when no one knew me.
Read also
What is that anchor for you? What or who keeps you rooted?
I really have to confess that for me it has been easy. Although I always say there are four easy things: eating, drinking, talking… And keeping! I had such a good education at home that I haven’t had to do absolutely anything more than what they taught me. My friends say that whoever wants to speak ill of me has to lie, and it fills me with pride that the people who love and know me most say that.
You told me that listening bears more fruit than talking. What would you like to convey to younger people, those who are now learning and listening to you?
When I was young, I listened to my grandparents, to people who had the wisdom that life gives you. Now I listen a lot to young people. They are super studious, infinitely more technologically strong than we were, and they know more languages. They have had the bad luck of living through the pandemic, but in the kitchen, they have gained in depth, daring, reflection, and they have all my admiration, affection, and friendship. I listen to them a lot. It is a unique generation and we must help them, teach them, and listen to them. They have us for whatever they want… Multiplied by a thousand!
What would you tell this well-prepared generation that they must keep in mind and never lose sight of?
The first and most important thing in life is health. Health is like the sponge of kitchen wisdom, which must be watered every day by adding know-how. It is super important to be disciplined and rigorous: to have health, you have to help it.
How do you take care of your health, Martín?
Now I walk. When I was a child, I liked to play pelota, I liked to row, and when I was fourteen, I won a bronze medal in the Spanish Rowing Championship. All that has served me a lot because I am in love with attitude, with knowing how to do things, and I am always looking for new stimuli. I pay a lot of attention to the great lessons given to me by the athletes we have in this country, such as not thinking about yourself, but about the team, that everyone has to row in the same direction. The masterful lessons that sport gives you are very good for any profession. I use the world of sport a lot for cooking!
I am in love with attitude and with knowing how to do things; I am always looking for new stimuli
Martín Berasategui
Martín, athletes retire. At a certain point, they take stock and decide that it’s time to put on the brakes. Have you thought about that moment too?
Fifty years ago, my schedule was full because I worked six days a week in the family tavern and on my weekly day off, I went to learn somewhere else. Now my schedule is exactly the same. The day they take me to the farmhouse, I don’t want to know how I’m going to quit. I have what I want, where I want, and with whom I want, and my great teams are family too.
