Alberto Chicote (Madrid, 55 years old) doesn’t like noise. He vehemently asks for silence when he hears other people’s conversations while answering questions, in what seems like a fit of bad temper but then dissolves like sugar. There will be more of that vehemence in the conversation, inherent to this passionate Madrilenian who has plenty of street smarts. He knows how to get out of trouble, he is blunt but without going overboard, friendly but without falling into chumminess. On Tuesday he premiered a new season of Nightmare in the kitchen (La Sexta). The day the interview takes place, another season is starting, that of his restaurant Omeraki, in the Salamanca district. “Today we came a little early because with the summer we are degreased,” he says.
Ask. New season of the show and…
Answer. Ninth, almost nothing, more than a hundred restaurants.
P. Is there anything new nine seasons later?
R. I usually answer this with a question: Do you like football?
P. To me yes.
R. But it’s always the same, the same people always play, the time is 45 minutes long, there’s one ball, two goals, eleven guys on each side!… but in reality it’s never the same. Each programme is different, and when I talk to viewers I realise that each one has their favourite. It has an absolutely solid and credible structure. Someone has set up a restaurant with all the enthusiasm, but things don’t go as expected, so we do all the tests to find out what’s going on and from there we find solutions. We usually detect something that has to do with the business model, but there’s always the background of personal relationships. Because most of the restaurants we serve don’t want to appear in the best guides, they’re people who, like in ninety-something percent of cases in this country, what they want is to have a job, get a salary and support their family. That’s why when things go wrong, not only does the business break down, but everything else does.
P. In many cases, these people set up a restaurant as if it were something that anyone could do.
R. Let’s be clear that we don’t build airplanes in this business. We all know some gentlemen in our neighborhood who came from the village a long time ago and, as they didn’t know what to do, they set up a bar. The women used to be in the kitchen, the men at the bar, and that’s how many businesses in Spain have been successful. Without experience, without knowledge, but with a lot of effort and some common sense. That’s not entirely useful today. Because the hygienic-sanitary conditions with which a business must be maintained must be known, the trade has become professionalized and the public’s demands are increasing. What surprises me is that almost twelve years after the first program, with the number of things that can go wrong, there are still people who don’t have a clue who think it’s a good idea to invest the money from a dismissal or an inheritance in this.
P. There are issues that are always present when talking about the hospitality industry. Working hours, salaries, the lack of staff that business owners complain about…
R. Let’s start with the basics. There is no conversation between one cook and another in which, in less than three minutes, one of them doesn’t say: “Hey, do you know anyone?” We don’t have people to hire, it costs a lot. That’s what happens today with professionals trained in the sector. They earn more and more money and companies have to pass it on to their costs. Regarding schedules, I don’t know what it’s like in other types of establishments other than mine or those of the people around me, but when they tell me that people work 14 or 16 hours and have one day off, it sounds like Chinese to me. My people have two and a half days off a week, some weeks they work 42 hours and other weeks 38, and if one day we have to work harder, we all do it. I’m referring, of course, to these types of establishments. Are there labor abusers? Of course, but not all of them are hoteliers, which seems to be the germ of evil there. I don’t want to downplay this, because we are the first ones interested in our people being happy. If you ask me how many days I do the 40 hours a week, I’ll tell you that I do very few, but I don’t expect people to be like me. My two jobs require a lot of dedication: the restaurant and television. I come from Carabanchel Alto, and as my father says, everything I have now comes from the ribs. From the effort that he and my mother have instilled in me, which I’m not saying is the best way to do it. It’s just my way.
I think this whole anonymous recommendation bubble is going to collapse soon.
P. This holiday I have been looking for places to eat or dine on Tripadvisor…
R. Hahaha. Oh, I’m going to piss myself.
P. Look, after what I’ve read, I’ve come to empathize with some restaurant owners. How much cruelty, how much venting…
R. Just as there are establishments for one and the other, so are the guides. I remember a trip I made with my wife to Bangkok, I had planned a visit to some establishments that I really wanted to visit. We went and well, well, it wasn’t exactly something to die for, they offered you the same food you eat on the street but in a monkey style. But it occurred to me to look for the one that appeared as the best on Tripadvisor. What a time!
P. What happened?
R. It was a disaster, but it was a place where you could eat very cheaply, for four euros, and on top of that the owner was a photographer who gave you a photo he had taken of, for example, a lake. People thought this was hilarious, I suppose, which is why they gave it such good ratings. I don’t think it’s bad, and it’s not Tripadvisor that’s at fault, but me. Because the people who write there aren’t looking for the same thing as me. If you think about it, we’re guided by people we don’t know at all and we don’t know what they like. I think this whole bubble of anonymous recommendations is going to collapse soon.
P. Tell me, are you one of those people who gets nervous when there are audiences?
R. I always say that it’s like the reservation book. If you say you’re doing great, but you get a 2 or a 4, you have a problem. Before, there was a single audience rating, after the broadcast of the program, and everyone was so happy. Now there are other forms of consumption, a lot of data that we don’t know about. There are programs that have low audiences when broadcast on open television, but their audience consumes them through a platform. But let’s not get too big-headed. How could I not want to get 24% on the premiere? Of course. Me and everyone else. Do I know that’s not going to happen? Yes, too.
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