The summer edition of Joc de cartes kicked off with an intensity worthy of the high temperatures. A kitchen melodrama that hooked us to the show. In the Lleida Pyrenees, Marc Ribas was looking for "the best informal restaurant", a concept that, once we saw the show, seemed more like a euphemism to justify what we saw.The chapter had the most potent ingredients for conflict to erupt. Firstly, and as a determining factor, a dirty kitchen. Nothing causes more fascination than discovering a disgusting workspace. The spectators' morbid spirit is activated. Television facilitates a prudential distance so that we feel far enough away from the eatery and have the peace of mind of not having to taste any dish. But detecting dirty cutlery, rusty pans, and grease-filled extractors on screen provokes that kind of guilty pleasure similar to those successful Instagram videos where they remove earwax plugs or unblock shit pipes. The viewer enjoys in an exacerbated way looking at refrigerators full of junk and poorly preserved food. And, in addition, there is a certain degree of sadism when it is intuited that the presenter and the rest of the contestants will have to eat a meal cooked in that space. On Wednesday, moreover, we reached unsuspected levels of tragedy when one of the participants refused to eat anything cooked in that establishment, and she stood with her arms folded while watching the others devour. Her husband finished it off by asking for some "courtesy" patatas bravas, which he didn't even touch afterwards. It would have been interesting to analyze what he understood by "courtesy", considering the bad vibes he poured onto the table.The other essential ingredient for drama is the family bond between participants. In this case, a triple helping. Two mothers with their children and a married couple. The closer the level of kinship, the better. Faced with criticism, in the case of mothers with their offspring, a mama bear or just daughter effect occurs that becomes wonderfully epic. They develop an extreme defense of their loved one that accelerates the conflict exponentially. In the case of married couples, there is usually one who takes on a leading role, while the other silently suffers their partner's eccentricities. The gastronomic program also becomes a kind of reality show to test the affective cracks in the sentimental union.Another indispensable requirement is that the chef Marc Ribas play a bit of the whore and the "Ramoneta": on the one hand, encourage the contestant not to ask for anything if she doesn't want to and, on the other hand, embrace the people responsible for the dirty kitchen as a sign of solidarity to alleviate their displeasure.Finally, there is another explosive factor: put an Italian chef on the show. The intensity, the swagger, the bad temper, and the lack of inhibition of those we have seen so far have increased the adrenaline in the game. If we are to endure the high summer temperatures, it's good that sparks fly on Joc de cartes.
