From one day to the next, Ángela Gimeno (Valencia, 29 years old) decided to leave her office job, where she lived “comfortably and calmly,” and opt for a much less achievable dream. She wanted to get in Masterchef and try to dedicate yourself to the hospitality industry. She wasn’t new to him. The business was something she had learned about since she was little. Her childhood was spent in her family’s restaurant. And, of course, to her mother, Verónica, after a lifetime of breaking her back, her decision seemed crazy. “As a child I would fall asleep at the bar waiting for it to close. This is the life of someone’s son with a place. And she knew how tough she was, so she didn’t want that for me,” Gimeno recalls the day after being crowned winner of Masterchef 12. But She had already decided, she was going to leave advertising and her job as a headhunter: “I’m not good enough to be in an office for eight hours, every day doing the same thing. I really like a slightly creative life and doing what I want, thinking about things and having fun. “It’s what I want to look for.”
But what about the pressure of a restaurant then? “My dream is hospitality, but I want to find a middle ground between advertising and cooking, unite them in some fun concept that doesn’t make me unhappy either. I want to dedicate myself to cooking, and also be happy. Cooking has many fun branches that are not about spending eight hours there,” he tells EL PAÍS in the round of interviews in Torrespaña one day after the final, the least seen in the history of the format, in which he was awarded the trophy of the program, as well as a 100,000 euro prize and a master’s degree at the Basque Culinary Center, which is what you most want to try. “I’m very impulsive, and normally I would have spent the money already,” she admits affably, dressed in the program’s jacket: “But this is the most important project of my life and, for once, I’m going to be calm. I’m going to think carefully, I’m going to study, train as a chef and then I will decide what project to launch. What I am clear about is that it will be something gastronomic.” Of course, she doesn’t even want to think about how much the Treasury is going to take from the prize: “I want to enjoy my victory a little more.”
This monetary impulsiveness is the same one that also helped him make a definitive change in his life: “I called my coworkers directly and told them: ‘Guys, I’m not going tomorrow.’ And my boss yelled at me: ‘but we have a campaign going!’ I told them I was sorry, but that I had to jump into the pool, since they already know what I am like. They laughed a lot, but they hated me at times. It was an unexpected decision, but they have supported me a lot and now they are amazed that I have won.” She says, however, that Masterchef It was an idea that had already been in his head since the final of the fifth edition, which Jorge Brazález won in 2017.
Her work as a publicist has helped her, at least, adapt to the program: “I’m used to living under pressure. And I am very competitive in everything. In Masterchef They have been very demanding, but, in the end, if they are not, you don’t learn. I found it very fun and I have not noticed excessive pressure, as they say,” she says when asked about the criticized way of working of the jury projected by Jordi Cruz, Pepe Rodríguez and Samantha Vallejo-Nájera. The trigger for the controversy of this edition was the abandonment of Tamara (who was not present in the final), a candidate chosen by the format itself on social networks who decided to withdraw, she explained, due to her emotional stability, which was followed by a jury reprimand.
Controversy on set
The incident and the viral stir that the images caused led RTVE to provisionally remove them. Gimeno experienced the controversy very differently on set and watching it at his house: “There we see it very normalized, a contestant decided something and told us that she was happy with that decision. We were happy for her. It seemed to me that changing my mind was normal. But then I was surprised by the response seen from the outside, although everyone has their own opinion and reflects it, and that’s it. I understand it, but there are people who suddenly realize that their dreams were not what they thought in the process. I, however, have reconfirmed them.” He also does not feel that mental health has been attacked since the program: “Before the contest, in fact, I distrusted myself more. But these have been the happiest months of my life, it has been a boost of energy, and I have reconnected. I have regained confidence. Furthermore, we have taken great care of ourselves, because being stuck there without a phone was a gift. You were on a retreat where you know yourself better. Leaving was like escaping from a dream island to return to the problems of adult life.”
![Ángela and María face each other in the final of 'Masterchef 12'.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/PQDBY5SBFBFOVJRJ7HRKZIF6BU.jpg?auth=7c2548b447bf00391ceb11dd12fe80298ec725655463d99cce742d0ea05c67dc&width=414)
Today she recognizes that she is enjoying this moment of media attention: “I’m embarrassing, but I like it.” Because she wants to take advantage of all the opportunities that this victory will give her, but not just to get into the kitchen: “For me, cooking is not just cooking, it is a form of art and telling a story. “I think I can unite the two facets.” That was her goal in the menu that gave her victory, to tell a story about her and Valencia’s origins, with each dish dedicated to a member of her family. She began with a petrichor starter that she named Scented with tar, inspired by Serrat, with squid roe, seaweed pickle and smoked butter. The principal called him Albufera in sequence, with black garlic bread and eel with paprika butter. And the dessert was the triple somersault, Amanda’s perfume, inspired by the smell of his girlfriend with bitter orange ice cream: “I’m a big fan of Jordi Roca and I read everything he puts out. And he has a collection of desserts that are perfumes. I liked to wink at him. And this was a very real scent.”
Nor does it escape Gimeno that, from the beginning, she was seen as a favorite by the jury: “I felt that they saw talent in me, and they wanted to highlight it and bring out the best in me.” She had a profile with a story to take advantage of and tell live in this edition that has been the least seen in the history of the anonymous format. Now what she wants most is to continue studying, and share her studies with the semi-finalist, María Álvarez, for whom she promised to pay for her master’s degree in Cooking: Technique, Product and Creativity in San Sebastián, so they can do it together: “We start in October. Then I have to get all nerdy. I am super studious, and I wanted to learn again, I missed it. At home studying for Masterchef, I got up at six to read, watch YouTube videos and learn. It’s a bit disgusting to be a nerd, but yes, I am a bit,” she says, laughing. And she emphasizes: “It’s my dream. I am very constant, very hard-working and I usually achieve everything I set my mind to.”
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