'A trattoria as Restaurant of the Year? It’s right to reward quality, it’s not a given'

Awarding a trattoria as Restaurant of the Year, as Gambero Rosso has done, is an important signal for the world of dining. This is highlighted by Ferran Adrià, the Catalan chef who revolutionised contemporary cuisine with El Bulli and who today reflects on the future of the cooking profession and on the evolution of taste.

“It’s important to reward good trattorias because with that type of venue the issue is precisely quality — and that is not a given,” explains Adrià in an interview with Il Gusto di Repubblica. An Italian recognition that for the Spanish chef touches a crucial point: the necessity of maintaining high quality even in more popular forms of restaurant.

“In Spain we are going through difficulties with tapas: a widespread phenomenon, but the food must be good otherwise that kind of model is pointless.”

According to the chef, eating out is above all an economic and social issue.

“95% of the population in Spain earn less than 60,000 euros a year and only 5% are willing to spend 60 euros for a dinner, and so trattorias have a strategic role,” continues Adrià.

But he warns: passion alone is not enough, one needs method.

“The real problem today is that 90% of restaurants don’t do a business plan, cost estimates and budget management. In a word, they don’t do business.”

For the chef, then, the future of dining passes through a new awareness: cooking well is no longer sufficient, one must know how to manage a company. A vision that extends even to another growing phenomenon, that of pizzerias.

“The main reason why the pizzeria works is because it is economical. If pizza cost 200 euros, it wouldn’t be so popular.”