Miguel Sánchez Romera: "Modern humans will lose their teeth if they eat food without chewing."

BarcelonaI interview Miguel Sánchez Romera (Córdoba, Argentina), a neurologist who also cooks, in Barcelona. He has many stories to tell. The first is that, after many years, he has returned to live in Catalonia, specifically in the Maresme region, where he ran the restaurant L'Esguard from 1996 to 2008, which was awarded a Michelin star just two years after opening. The second is that he has just published a book Neurogastronomy: The Brain-Kitchen Universe (Planeta Gastro). He says he has never taken so long to write a book as this one, and in the volume he precisely explains the passion of two disciplines to which he has dedicated his life: neurology and gastronomy.

The third story: he is about to open the Blau i Verd restaurant (c. Consell de Cent, 288) where he will serve cuisine from all over the Mediterranean at very competitive prices.

Miguel Sánchez Romera is a generous man when it comes to sharing his vast knowledge, and it's moving when he explains that he came to Catalonia because his mother told him to leave Argentina if he wanted to survive the country's dictatorship in the 1970s. He was 26 years old when he arrived in Catalonia on a medical scholarship. He learned to speak Catalan, the language he used with his patients when he worked as head of the neurology department at Granollers Hospital. And it's the language he's used to name his 200-square-meter restaurant.

What will the restaurant you're going to open in Barcelona be like?

— I will make global Mediterranean cuisine; hence the name Blue and greenBecause with these two colors as my emblem, I want to convey respect for nature: blue covers vast areas, the sea and the sky; and green includes plants. As a doctor, healthy, good cooking is what inspires me.

You invented the concept neurogastronomy?

— I didn't invent it, but I was the first to describe it. It all started in 1996 when I opened the restaurant L'Esguard in Sant Andreu de Llavaneres. At that time, I had already been practicing as a neurologist for two decades; I was the head of the neurology department at Granollers Hospital, and I always believed in the connection between cooking and neurology. Food is a sensory experience, with both physical and biological motivations; the brain captures all the sensations. In 2001, I wrote it all down in a book. The kitchen of the senses, in which I already explained what neurogastronomy was.

Then in 2001 you described for the first time what the concept means. neurogastronomy.

— Yes, I mentioned the idea of ​​linking neuroscience with culinary science. Years later, in 2007, I taught postgraduate courses for the Spanish Society of Neurology on the concept, and they published a book about it—not for sale—titled NeurogastronomyIn 2011, the concept was already being used by other scientists, such as the neurobiologist Gordon M. Shepherd, but he himself, in a joint interview with us, said that the definition of neurogastronomy It was mine, not his.

Neurogastronomy, then, is well defined, but is the concept of gastronomy itself?

— No, we're mixing the concepts of craftsmanship and art. I think art fits in, yes, because cooking is an artistic expression. In fact, when I was young, the fine arts appealed to me, I felt comfortable with them, but medicine captivated me.

In the book you write that the patients began to recognize you as a cook, and you avoided the conversation.

— I'll tell you the phrase I used to explain that I wasn't the cook they thought I was. I'd tell them I couldn't be who they imagined because I was at the hospital, and I was the head of the department. I kept it a secret because back then it wasn't well-received for a doctor to have another job; it was considered a distraction. And I didn't want it to be known because medicine is my life; it's sacrosanct. So I looked for ways to keep my cooking side of things less public.

But when you were awarded the Michelin star in 1998, it would be difficult.

— Then things got complicated, yes, because I started appearing in all the newspapers. During the first two years after opening, I got coverage in the foreign press, but from 1998 onwards, it was mostly in the local press. In any case, I've always presented myself as the neurologist who cooks, because that's how I feel.

In the book you talk about the importance of food colors.

— It's very important because we identify the product through its color, and then its origin. For example, when we see a bell pepper, we perceive its color, then its shape, and then its origin—the plant. If we're aware of this process, we'll try to protect the product. I say this because there's a tendency in the kitchen to degrade the characteristics of food.

What do you mean?

— We transform them, subject them to high temperatures and long cooking times, breaking them down and turning them into purées. For many years, we've been making purées and mousses in the kitchen, and this is what deteriorates the product. We didn't need to cook everything this way, just as the trend of turning ingredients into ice cream wasn't necessary. Humans evolved through chewing; modern humans will lose their teeth if they eat food without chewing.

Since closing L'Esguard in 2008, you've been traveling the world: New York, Japan, China, Latin America. Now that you're back in Barcelona, ​​what are your thoughts on the city and its restaurants?

— The movement that existed between 2003 and 2005, during the era of three-Michelin-starred restaurants like Can Fabes and El Bulli, hasn't lasted. It hasn't lasted because there was no theoretical foundation. When there isn't one, everything fades away over time. This happens in all disciplines, but if there's a field that theorizes it, then it endures. Concepts like molecular gastronomy remain, but nothing solid. That's my view.

I understand, from what you're saying, that you didn't like the food that was being prepared.

— In the kitchen, you're working with sensitive materials. In health, nutrition is fundamental, not a game, and you must have limits. There was an obsession with food textures, influenced by food technology and the food industry, but cooking is a sacred craft, because ultimately, food is not just a trivial matter. Therefore, one must always be mindful of food.

You're reminding me of the controversy between Santi Santamaria and Ferran Adrià, which, years later, Santi's son has said it was the result of a misunderstanding..

— Yes, that's what I mean. Santi Santamaria celebrated taste, and he was consistent with his reinterpretation of Catalan cuisine. I was never close friends with him, so I'm speaking frankly. Cuisine should be spectacular, and it's not a spectacle. Nor should cuisine play into the hands of the food industry.

Vegetables have always been your star dish and your passion.

— I once had a greenhouse in L'Esguard with thirty different varieties, and I would steam them and serve them with a vegetable sauce and an herb sauce. It was a dish eaten with a spoon. This dish is thirty years old, and even today I believe it's the most representative of my cooking.

Finally, if I ask you for a current definition of cooking, what do you say?

— A shared social emotion that should reach everyone. Otherwise, it's pointless. In my restaurant, you could always eat for a moderate price. I don't remember exactly how much, but it was always competitive.