Arnau París: "After 'MasterChef' people told me: 'I hated you because I thought you were a pimp'"

BarcelonaArnau Paris was the winner of the ninth edition of MasterChef, but for the Catalan public it is, above all, the third face of the Kitchens, the chef who teaches how to make quick and attractive recipes. The chef has just published the book On low heat (Column), where he explains how he went from selling taps to working in the world of gastronomy.

Had it never occurred to you that cooking could be a way to make a living?

— Not in the way I am doing now. The truth is that it has been a path of pleasant and unpleasant surprises, but very cool to live. I studied business administration and followed in my father's footsteps. The idea was to work in the company that he had founded. In fact, I ended up working focused on the business management side.

Before entering MasterChef Did you work as a salesperson?

— Yes, when I worked with my father I was the sales manager. I had a sales team all over Spain and I sold taps and valves from Melilla to Andorra, from Galicia to Mallorca. This was my life.

In the book you explain that your professional future was already marked by family issues. Did the change of direction affect you psychologically?

— Nobody ever forces you to do anything, but it is true that you are entering into that game. You, freely, choose a type of training and then work in a series of environments that lead you to a place where they are already waiting for you [the family business]. Then comes a time when an opportunity appears [MasterChef] which makes you have to abandon other projects. It is a time of emotional upheaval.

How was the experience of participating in the program?

— In the end it is a positive experience, because it opens many doors, it launches you very quickly, and it gives you the opportunity to dedicate yourself to something you like. But it is also true that, on the other hand, you find a reality, which is the world of television, for which you are not prepared. It is a bit difficult. It is a cold and a hot one.

Do you think there are times in the programme when the television aspect is more important than the gastronomic aspect?

— Look, in the end it's a cooking show in which you also have to entertain. That's what TV is about, entertaining, knowing where you are and what you want to deliver. I knew that, as I am, I could captivate part of the audience and that, therefore, I had to play my cards to achieve it. I had that point of selling the bike, knowing how to negotiate things and do it with humor... There was also a point of cockiness, which I don't think is so, but that went a bit with the character. Also one thing is what you show and the other is how people perceive you, which sometimes changes.

Do you think people have created an image of you that does not correspond to reality?

— Yes. Once I left [the show], there were people who told me, "Damn, I hated you because I thought you were a jerk." Yes, at first the role may have seemed like that, but it's also what I'm telling you, you find yourself in a new situation. Sometimes, with the nerves and the tension, you don't know how to react. Sometimes I was maybe rude or cocky, but that was because I was overwhelmed at that moment.

In recent years MasterChef has received criticism for focusing more on the television side of things and the production company has been accused of not taking much care of the contestants' mental health. When you hear this criticism, what do you think?

— In my case, I didn't feel mistreated as such, or that my mental health was being abused. In the end, if there had been a limit that I didn't want to cross, I wouldn't have done it. There you can just take off and walk out the door. The people who stay also stay because there is an interest behind it. Yes, there is tension, yes, it's true that it's an extreme coexistence that comes to you new. What you see on TV, who seems like a character, is a real person of flesh and blood who has to run, who has to go here and there, and who has a team behind him that puts pressure on him over time. In my case, I did as much as I thought was appropriate. And I am very clear that there are red lines that I would not have crossed.

In the book you talk a lot about the day after winning the contest and its 100,000 Euro prize. Was it very difficult to find your way?

— When you leave the program, you are suddenly on top, but also suddenly you disappear. And you find yourself in a kitchen environment that is not exactly how you had imagined it. Then you think, "Now what do I do?" I came from having a salary, a projection and a stable life, and I wanted to continue having the life I had. So, you have to see how you approach all this and ask yourself, "Can I live off this?" or "Do I want to live off this?" You have doubts as if going back is a failure. Luckily, after four years, with work and time, I have been able to bring things back to my level a bit. And I am happy. But it is scary, I am serious. People think, "Wow, the money, the prize," but this does not last long. All this ends. It is a bit like having only one bullet and saying, "If I hit it, it can go very well, but if I miss it, I have no more bullets in the chamber."

You went from MasterChef to the Kitchens from TV3, which is the network's haystack. In the book you say that they called you without having seen you before in the book talent show.

— Yes, I think that reaching the Kitchens It is thanks to having gone through MasterChefBut it all started because I received a private message from the director of the program, Rosa Maria, who told me that they were doing a casting and that they would like to see me. I went crazy at that moment. When they send you this message it is because they have been following you, because they have seen how you communicate and how you move. Then you have to be up to par in front of the camera, because one thing is that you do one thing at home with your mobile phone and another is that you are smart on a set. All that experience had been given to me MasterChef, And if I had projection on networks it is thanks to the program.

The feedback you get now when you go out is very different. Kitchens that in MasterChef?

— Yes, of course. Now I play at home. It may sound a bit strange, but I play at home. MasterChef It was the Catalan. But that's what I am, I can't fool anyone and that's how it is. You can tell by my accent and I said it from the very beginning. I was talking about the territory, about Montsec, about Catalonia, Barcelona... For some parts of the audience I was a bit of an oddball. My mother tongue is Catalan and you will always communicate better in your mother tongue. I think it shows in how you develop the character: Arnau is not the same as MasterChef that Arnau de Kitchens. In the surveys that were made of the final of MasterChef I was the last favorite.

He talent show It also had an impact on your personal life because you met who is now your partner, the chef Rais Esteve.

— Right, but we started dating two years later. He didn't pay attention to me for two years, even though I tried. We've been dating for two years.

In fact, in the text she wrote for the book she explains quite a bit about the rejection that Arnau Chuleta caused her.

— In fact, it still comes up in conversations today. I tell her, "Imagine what we're experiencing now had been told to you four years ago," and she always says she wouldn't believe it. It's true that I made a very televised product, very histrionic and very over the top, and that has had to be reduced. You have to be more real. I'm a restless and active guy, but I also need my moments of peace.