He smiles, he clicks his elbow, he has a kind word for everyone … Carlos Maldonado placeholder image it is a torrent of good vibes. And they have not changed neither his time at MasterChef nor the Michelin star that they have just granted to their restaurant Raíces. He is still down to earth.
You opened it in 2017 and the pandemic and restrictions almost wiped it out …
We have lived through a difficult time. Every year we make renovations in the restaurant and that of 2020 was the most important because we considered that both gastronomically and at the room level we were at an adequate level to take a leap: we bought the warehouse next door, we studied all the processes of the mud and ceramics to conceptually redefine the proposal, we wanted to adapt tables in apartments to make pairings. The reform began on March 2 and we were going to reopen on the 19th, with a three-month waiting list, but on March 14 they confined us all. And what was going to be a month passed to two and it is already going on for a year or so, and we are still weighed down.
And everything was saved thanks to El Círculo, the burger joint with ‘delivery’ that was born in the heat of Raíces.
After a month and another and another closed, and with the work in between, I said to the kids: «Guys, we’re screwed. We cannot borrow more ». And it occurred to me: ‘Burgers. Who dares to shoot with me? ». They all went out of their way and Talavera responded in a wonderful way. That gave us the strength to hold on.
A return to the origin, to the ‘food truck’
It is that that is my root. The image of Carlos Maldonado is part of MasterChef and once I left the program I set up a food truck with which we toured all of Spain and it was phenomenal. To serve the food truck we needed a central kitchen to produce, and that kitchen was going to be where Raíces is now.
But you have a child and everything turns upside down …
Yes, my Charly (his face lights up). Enconces we decided to turn that central kitchen into a restaurant to spend more time at home. And, what a coincidence, when we have seen ourselves with the water around our necks, it has been the hamburgers that have saved us again. Because Roots is a big and strong monster, but he is delicate and not very docile, and any setback can bring him down.
And El Círculo allowed you to reach December, when the Michelin star changes everything …
Totally.
How did you live that moment?
We were in production at the restaurant and it took us a bit longer. And we stayed having a few beers because we didn’t have time to go home to see him. When they said the name it was incredible. “That? What did they say? We are?”. Everything was blown up. Suddenly a lot of people started calling and family and friends arrived at the restaurant … It was a magnificent chaos. Reservations shot up that same night and in two weeks, with the vouchers we got to come to Raíces, we billed the same as in all the previous months.
Have you already assimilated it?
I think not yet. Or maybe it is that we have assimilated it and the star is this: to continue working exactly the same but with enormous recognition thanks to being in the best guide in the world.
Was having a Michelin star one of your goals?
I don’t like to set goals for myself because when you achieve them, what? It is done? This was? You should always be walking your way, without setting many goals, because the final goal is happiness and that is determined on a day-to-day basis.
I imagine that the Michelin star should not have come by surprise because, since the previous edition, Raíces was already one of the Bib Gourmand of Castilla-La Mancha.
On the contrary! They told me that with a Bib Gourmand it would cost me more, because they had conceptualized me as a restaurant with a great menu at an affordable price. That’s why I didn’t think they were going to give it to us. But if we have it now, it is because I have a team that leaves its skin and because the restaurant, the food and the proposal are worth it. Fuck false humility! We have done something right for these French gentlemen from the Michelin Guide to come and give us a star.
In six years, since you won MasterChef in 2015, you have gone from being an amateur chef to hanging a Michelin star in Raíces. Do you feel vertigo?
We are just cooks, but if the best guide in the world says that we have a level, that is because we have done a good job. And that can’t make you dizzy.
Your hitch with the kitchen came almost by chance, for a specific nutritional need
It was very difficult for me to work (laughs). As I am very nervous, to get rid of that anxiety I trained a lot: I did crossfit, boxed, I started running … Then I was a security guard and I carried my stove and prepared my little things.
And how do you jump from there to the kitchen?
My friend Iván Serrano, who was head chef at the Tierra restaurant, at the Valdepalacios Hotel, with José Carlos Fuentes, told me: “Come over here for a weekend and see what we’re doing.” I went and I really liked it. You could see that there was energy, movement, tension, rock & roll. And I felt like I could do it right.
She made salads, helped with weddings and above all she washed pots, lots of pots. Iván and José Carlos took great care of me, but since they couldn’t call me continuously, I also started having weddings at the Talavera golf course.
But in those days your mother arrives and points you to the MasterChef casting.
He sent a photo of me making bread in which a square boy with a loaf appeared as if to say: “I have made bread, so as not to get fat.”
How much do you owe him for that decision?
More than for that decision, I owe him for putting up with me. For supporting that person who, the truth, alegrías has given the fair … But my parents have always been there and have trusted. Yes, they are your parents, but they don’t have to put up with the nonsense of a bastard as a child.
And if it hadn’t occurred to him, what?
Who knows? One way or another I’m sure I would have ended up dedicating myself to cooking, because it’s the only thing that calms me down. Going into a kitchen is therapy for me. I like that tension, have an idea, execute it and carry it forward.
Winning MasterChef would have been useless without further training at the Basque Culinary Center. I imagine that you will feel like a fish out of water there.
What a bastard! (looks at me nodding). Well, yes: you come from a cooking program where you have learned something and have a foundation, but you get to do a master’s degree with people who have a milk curriculum. You introduce yourself and say: “Hi, I’m Carlos Maldonado, from MasterChef.” And everyone thinks: “Come on kid …”. I admit that it was not easy. And I fully understand that the teachers doubted my ability (he stops). But hey, that already happened. Throwing the balls out.
In this job, training must be constant. What are you up to now?
Today’s gastronomy has so many ramifications that you cannot and should not know all of them. First you have to know yourself and then know the path you want to take, and learn and evolve with an open mind to all the concepts and techniques that can help you do that. To be different, you first have to be yourself in the kitchen, because the only thing that distinguishes one chef from another is being yourself.
Define your kitchen for me.
Very personal, with traditional bases, well-known techniques and a homemade product.
Of kilometer zero?
No. I also use products from other places. I think, like José Andrés, that kilometer zero is bullshit, because today we are what we are thanks to globalization, because we have absorbed products and techniques from other countries and made them our own. So my cuisine is tradition, avant-garde and world!
What chefs do you have as references?
Both Jarillo, who is my neighbor and has a bar, and Martintxo (Martín Berasategui). You can learn from everyone. Anyone who goes into a kitchen, fights for their work, creates a path and enjoys it is worthy of us learning from it.
To celebrate the star, in this new post-covid stage, Raíces offers two menus: Raíces and #hechosdebarro in which you have even designed the dishes. What does each offer?
What differentiates one menu from another is the number of dishes. It is the same menu because we cannot freeze, so we produce daily: all dishes are prepared to the minute and are taken out to the minute. You are satisfied with both, but the one who represents us is #hechosdebarro, because of the story it tells.
What makes you sleepy?
Let that monster that is covid-19 catch us, and I have experienced it first-hand at home because my wife is a nurse.
How do you see the future of the hospitality industry?
It has hit us very hard and there has been no real planning aimed at hospitality and tourism. They have put us all in the same bag: they have valued a bar the same as a food house or a haute cuisine restaurant. But I am optimistic: society wants to go out and enjoy. When all this happens there will be a rematch, and fat. I trust society a lot, and I trust people.
And in the politicians?
Hospitality and tourism account for 12% of Spanish GDP. I do not understand that they have overlooked something so important.
And in the sector? Do you trust
The future of the hospitality industry is touched, but not sunk. We have the best chefs in the world, the best professionals and the best minds. With these wickers, how can we not be reinforced?
How many times a day do they stop you on the street? Because in Talavera you are a celebrity.
No way! In Talavera, as everyone knows me, they never stop me. I am the one who is stopping people. They try to run away, but I won’t let them (laughs).
What’s been the weirdest place you’ve been asked for a selfie?
In the cemetery. And in a ladies’ bathroom that I entered by mistake and when I left, everyone who was there wanted to take a selfie with me. It was fun.
Tell us an idea to give you something? With what would we not fail?
A beer, accompanied by whoever is going to give it to me and a good talk.
Do they see you a lot at the gym or are you one of those who pay and never go?
Ugh, it has been very complicated for me, but before I was a lot.
But you have had a whole pandemic to crush you!
They were all closed! (Serie). Sometimes I take pictures of myself pretending to lift weights to say: “Come on, kids, you have to train and eat healthy.” And then I’m the first one who doesn’t.
Eat, you will eat healthy …
I try, but you know that in the hospitality industry, because of the schedules, we eat badly and we eat sandwiches.
When did you discover that you had a gift for cooking?
There are no gifts. The gift is doing what makes you happy. It is about finding your hole, and when you discover it, you will develop it with pleasure and the hours will fly by. I have no gift: everything is done by time, the joy you put into it, work, perseverance, effort and luck, which also influences a lot.
Take advantage and sell yourself! What is the best thing about Carlos Maldonado?
To be a chatterbox. I think I could sell ice to an Eskimo.
And the worst?
That I talk about more and I question everything. So much so that I seem to have problems with everyone. I try to reason everything and find a reason for it.
How are you dressing?
A disaster. A chaos of person.
It will be less!
Yes! If my wife and my mother buy the clothes for me! I am a character, a little left, but then the truth is that I like to look good.
The last thing you bought?
I don’t even know. This sweatshirt that I am wearing was given to me by my wife.
What is the most expensive whim you’ve ever indulged in?
My son (laughs). It is very expensive.
Define the status of your checking account with an adjective
To the pole.
In which restaurant would you kill to eat?
In many. I have a huge list. Especially from colleagues who I haven’t had time to visit yet. But if I could go back in time I would have liked to meet Santi SantamarÃía and share something with him. And go to El Bulli, have a beer with Adrià and he would have told me what he has on his mind. Can Roca, Tickets, the restaurant of José Carlos Fuentes… There are so many!
Which chef would you like to work with and haven’t done it yet?
I would like to see Jordi (Cruz) in action at his restaurant. Because you see him on television, as a showman, and he’s a crack. But in the kitchen it is impressive. You see Jordi on television and well, but Jordi the cook is stratospheric.
And with whom would you repeat?
With José Carlos Fuentes I would love to cook again. And with Pepito (Pepe Rodríguez). And it’s not because of the water dancing, but because I really like that guy and he’s nicer than anything. But beware of the sympathetic MasterChef, who is an ace in the kitchen and doesn’t miss one.
Spanish gastronomy is …
The best in the world.
Chef.
A young acquaintance tells you that he wants to be a cook. Would you encourage him or tell him to find another job?
To prove. I have wanted to be many things and when I have tried them I have said: “Well, better not, this does not suit me.” I was a security guard, but it wasn’t for me. I got the title of Technician in Animation of Physical and Sports Activities and I was training raid horses in the Cartuja del Alberche. And neither. Then I tried electromechanics, because I love cars and motorcycles. But I had a horrible accident and while I adore him and am still a biker, he flagged me to say that this was not my place. The relief that I used to have by taking the motorcycle and going a gazillion thousand an hour now I have it in the kitchen.
What traditional dish do you embroider?
Some carillitas, with his choricito and that. And I make some lentils that you can’t see; at home we freak them out.
And who really cooks at home?
(He smiles and lowers his voice) My wife! Or a container from my mother or my mother-in-law.
What title would you give your biography?
I would not know. Carlos and his crickets.
If I take a look at your phone, what music would I find?
(He takes his smartphone, enters Spotify and chooses a song) I’m going to put something for you, let’s see if you know it …
Robe Iniesta …
(He is surprised) Come on man! Well, yes: Extremoduro, Rosendo, who is immortal, Benito Kamelas, Loquillo … We were on tour with him with the food track and it was great.
And photos? Are you one of those who is photographing everything you eat?
I take photos, but only for my own purposes. If there is something interesting, I photograph it and take notes. But I don’t post anything.
The best compliment you have ever been told
(Blushes) I don’t know. Handsome?
And as a cook?
“This reminded me of when …”. When someone says something similar to me when trying one of my dishes, I really like it. We make a dish called Días de varea, which is a tribute to when I was a kid I went to shake the olive trees with my family and at midmorning, by the fire, we had a hot chocolate. The dish is a tribute to that environment of smoke, chocolate, olive trees and earth, and when you eat it it brings back memories of all that. Many of those who have eaten it say to me when they taste it: «Do you know that I also went to beach? This has reminded me. As a cook, that’s the best thing that can happen to you: that thanks to your kitchen they get a piece of your soul. And that, by itself, is already a success.