In the most recent edition of Junior Masterchef (11), one of the most charismatic and promising faces was Marcelo’s, a just 9 -year chef with an unwavering love for his Cuban roots. With his passage through the contest, Marce, as he is known, showed that age does not prevent having a great passion for the kitchen and an overwhelming personality.
Originally from Havana, he made it clear from his presentation that his Cuban identity is something he is proud. “I am happily Cuban,” he said with a smile that radiated confidence. Two years ago, he moved with his family to Valencia, where he continues to develop his culinary skills, always with his eyes in his native country.
“I have the true Cuban flavor in my blood,” said the Minichef in an interview with Oncuba.
You say it with a lot of conviction, why?
Because it comes from two roots: hospitality and artistic. The hospitality part comes mostly for my family. My uncle is one of the best chefs I know; My grandmother is a great pastry; My dad has always worked on gastronomy, especially in the bar and kitchen; And my paternal grandfather is a super chef.
On the other hand, the artistic part is very inspired by my maternal grandfather, José Amador López Santander, better known as Pepe López. He is a great very famous musician in Cuba.
In my family we have two restaurants: one in Havana and one in Trinidad. In the Havana restaurant there was a super big stage. I was always among the kitchen, the bar or ended at night on stage. If they didn’t let me enter the kitchen, I cried; If they didn’t let me be in the bar, I cried; And if I didn’t take the stage, I also cried. I loved all that, and I still love it!
Is there any typical Cuban dish that inspires you in the kitchen?
My Cuban meal is my Cuban meal! I love the congrí rice, the fried cow, the roasted pig and, above all, the old clothes.
One of the dishes that inspires me most is old clothes, because I can ride it on a banana base and make a delicious toast. As God commands! Is that old clothes have many possibilities.
You always mention how much you enjoy traveling to Cuba … What culinary dreams would you like to fulfill there?
Being sincere, I am forming a very beautiful life here in Spain. And it is not that I never go to Cuba; In fact, every summer and in all the holidays I have, I want to go to Cuba to see family businesses, be with my family, tell them about my progress in Junior Masterchefto give advice to the restaurant teams … for me it would be an honor to do all that.
One of the things that inspire me at this time is to be able to go to Cuba to share everything I have lived and learned thanks to that program.
In Junior Masterchef You discovered that you had a connection with Judge Pepe Rodríguez for the Cuban roots they share. How was that moment for you? Did they talk more about it?
Oh, my Pepito, my dear Pepito, my judge of the heart! Well, Pepe and I never had a very deep conversation about the subject, but he always highlighted my cubania, my sauce. We were talking about that. In fact, he is very proud of his restaurant, which is called El Bohío.
I think he is super proud of his Cuban roots, just like me. In fact, when I could, he told me: “Can I dedicate this little dance to Cuba?” And we did it, almost everything we did dedicated it to Cuba, the two.
Participate in a program like Junior Masterchef It must be exciting and challenging. What was the biggest challenge you faced during the contest?
Imagine the adrenaline I experienced every time a casting, another cASTING, other casting … ¡Junior Masterchef It’s an impressive thing! At first I thought “I’m not going to enter”, but then the spirits uploaded to a level that you don’t imagine. It is true that it is a bit difficult, because in the end you face very good dishes and very good people. As competition, it is true that it is complicated, you have to be honest.
The most challenging thing for me, even though I raised between restaurants, I never imagined that I was going to participate in such a professional level. It is very difficult to cook in front of those great masters of culinary art. On the exterior, we cooked for 100, 120, 180 people … Imagine! If my mother at first did not let me take a knife … and, in addition, there were many ingredients that I did not know, because they are not achieved in Cuba.
What cost me the most was to enter. Because the castings They are difficult, but if you do things well, you can enter. Between 14 thousand children or something, I entered! I still don’t believe it!
In your first cooking, a hard rice, it became a resilience lesson. What did you learn from that moment and how did it help you grow as a little chef?
UF, that rice … that rice I never want to remember in my life! Well, better if I remember, because that rice was the one that gave me strength where I didn’t have to continue one more week.
There were so many emotions that I felt fear, pain for having to go. It was, emotionally, the toughest week of the competition for me, but it was also the one that gave me strength to move forward. Because none of the greats has started up, everyone has started down, as I told Jordi Cruz that day. I can start with a hard rice, but end a Michelin star.
And I tell you a secret … the one that best makes rice in my whole family, practically, it is me. That made me overcome so much that, in a moment, I said: “I can no longer. I have to be the best doing rice in my family. ”
What memories do you keep from the judges? Any special advice from Pepe, Jordi or Samantha that will mark you?
I think that instead of being called judges they should be called teachers. More than evaluating the dishes, they taught us. They have given me so many criticisms, especially constructive, that they have helped free the mini chef that I carry inside.
I will never forget the words Samantha told me one day. She told me that with 16 years I was going to work in a restaurant, and that made me feel that Samantha had admiration for me. For me, that was a huge pride.
My Pepe is my Pepe, both for having a super connection and for its charisma. We got along very well and we were always very playful! And Jordi is an example of what I want to be when he is older. He is a centered person, who knows how to do what he really does, and of the greats, of those who really know.
If I had to summarize what they mean for me, in a word, I would say teaching or learning.
What was the funniest thing you lived with your classmates? Any anecdote that you will always remember?
Well, Junior Masterchef It is fun. But you have fun only if you don’t see it as a competition, but as a game. It is an experience to enjoy and get to where you get.
Although there are moments that are super fun. For example, one of my favorites, as you know that I am a little crazy, was to throw myself to the chocolate pool and that I fell on all the jam – as we tell him in Cuba. No, and also see the judges there, all stained, sliding down the platform as if they were us! It was super fun.
You mention that one of your dreams is to return to Cuba and help in your family’s restaurants. What would you like to change or innovate in Cuban cuisine?
Let’s see, as I told you before, one of the things that inspire me most is to go to the family restaurants of Cuba and teach chefs everything I have learned. One of the things that I would love to show them is molecular cuisine, also known as avant -garde cuisine.
For example, I would like to innovate traditional dishes such as old clothes, but doing it with spherifications of its own juice, very rich, and its broth. Or also a roasted piglet, but that is not traditional roasted, but vacuum cooking in the roner, with its typical adobito. And then accompany it with a Creole mojo jelly. More or less, that would be my idea.
How do you think Junior Masterchef Has it helped you become a better person and chef?
First, it has helped me believe in myself. I mean, I trusted me before, but not as much as now. Now I think: if I propose it, I do it well. I have also realized that dreams are not fulfilled alone; You have to fight them, as my mother says.
In addition, I have learned the true value of work. There we spent hours and hours working. For example, in the Walt Disney Studios Park test we were many hours between kitchens and recordings. But when you really like something, as happened to me, the hours become minutes. For me, everything happened so fast that I felt as if it were another day.
Another important thing is the process. I learned to enjoy it a lot. And, even if I won’t win, I feel like a winner just for enjoying the process. It was such a beautiful experience, that I feel that I won inside to live it and learn both from the greats.
As for the kitchen, MAnd I have obsessed, so much, that my mother is even worried! He tells me that the kitchen is not my responsibility, that I take it as a game. But I take everything with a lot of desire.
At 9 years, you have already achieved a lot. Where do you imagine in 10 years? Would you like to open your own restaurant?
I think I have achieved a lot to my 9 years, but obviously I have not achieved it alone. I have an incredible support network: great parents, a wonderful family that supports me in all my training and in my daily life. I am 9 years old, but soon I will turn 10, and then I will reach 19 or 20, I’m on the way!
I would like, with the help of my parents, open a restaurant. That this restaurant grows little by little, becomes known and ends up being one of the good, and recognized by all!
How is your day to day? What other passions do you have in addition to the kitchen?
I have many passions, it is true, but right now I am obsessed with the kitchen. I spend the day watching cooking videos, cooking, reading and looking for books on the subject. But I have other activities that are passionate about. For example, I love painting and I go to Taekwondo classes, which are very important to me.
Another thing that I consider super important is English, because it is practically the language of the future. If I don’t learn English, I couldn’t study cooking abroad. For example, if I want to go to a kitchen school in New York, I have to speak English.
Besides, I really like music. In fact, I have a small talent to sing super good with an incredible voice, dance and do theater. But of course, they are activities that I have to do little by little, because my parents don’t always have time. Well, it’s not that they don’t have time, but you have to distribute it for everything, and that is sometimes difficult.
Even so, I keep fighting and striving to develop in everything I like.
Finally, what message would you give to children who follow you and dream of participating in programs such as Junior Masterchef?
That they fight for their dreams, that they never stop loving what they like and that, even if they fall one day, get up to the next, or even lift themselves at the same time. Because you never have to surrender in life. It happened to me with the rice: first I fell, but then I got up and moved on.
In addition, discipline is very important for our training. We have to study, we have to train and, above all, we must know that all that is what helps us to get away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPQ4WK5id70
The little chef said goodbye to the competition in the semifinal, but won not only the heart of the spectators in Spain, but also that of his beloved Cuba, a place that Marce always carries in his memory and his kitchen.
