Carbone, a Venezuelan barely 18 years old, is already dreaming big in London, near the kitchen where she has already gained recognition. She wants to learn various cuisines and even open a restaurant in Venezuela. María Victoria won the team award of the prestigious Country Range Student Chef Challenge 2022
The “duende” —of which the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca spoke— is present in each one of us and it is up to us how to awaken it. Some take a little longer than others, but it is when you find something that you really love and that you feel enormous happiness when doing it, when he wakes up and brings you very close to your full potential.
So is the case with Maria Victoria Carbone, a Venezuelan of only 18 years old who is already beginning to shine in foreign lands. This cooking student at New City College London won a team award in the competition Craft Guild of Chefs when facing seven other institutions.
The challenge of the prestigious Country Range Student Chef Challenge 2022, in which eight universities from across the United Kingdom participated in the last week of March, involved María Victoria and her two teammates, Sam Paoli and Paulo Dela Cruz, under the supervision of the Chef Jeff Mason. The final involved a live preparation for 90 minutes in front of the public.
Mason said he was impressed for the result and predicted a great career for young people in the world of hospitality.
The winning menu consisted of:
Canapes
- Texas, mashed avocado and spinach and smoked salmon.
- Teriyaki marinated smoked eel sushi roll.
- Farl potato, chive mousse, smoked trout and cucumber pearls.
Major
- Muslin poached guinea fowl breast, braised leg and leek croquette, braised mushrooms and barley, shallot puree, pea puree, crispy shallots, buttered petit pois, mushrooms and guinea fowl juice.
Dessert
- Chocolate and orange tartlet, orange streusel, vanilla and orange ice cream, poached orange, orange and Cointreau sauce.
The story of the Carbones is similar to that of many other families who left Venezuela in search of a better quality of life. Maria Victoria told SuchWhich that his family’s migration began “in stages” since 2015, when his father went to London to try his luck.
«He lasted here for about six months working, he worked in restaurants, in pizzerias and yes, he was here for six months. He then went to Venezuela in 2016; he was there for a few months and then he brought my older brother. They were alone until 2017 and that year my uncle Victor, who had planned to come, asked my mom if I could come with them, because my mom still couldn’t travel because my little brother didn’t have his passport ready, “he said. .
Carbone, when he arrived in England, was alone with his father and brother for three months and by December of that same year his entire family was able to gather under one roof.
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But it is interesting to know how the “duende” of this young woman, a native of Turén, Portuguesa state, was awakened through the kitchen. Her first influences came from her grandmother and her aunts, who in the warmth of the home were always preparing both savory and sweet recipes. That, of course, motivated her to approach the stove, the ingredients and her own creativity, although at first she had her bitter encounters with the kitchen.
«Since I was little I started cooking when I was 10 or 11 years old. I remember exactly the first time I cooked, it was rice that burned. I did super bad. But after all that, my mom always told me to help her make salads and things like that, so I was always like there in the kitchen, but it wasn’t until I was about 13 years old and I moved here (London) that I had I had to start cooking, because since my mom wasn’t there and my dad was working and my brother too, I had to make my own food and make food for them,” she recalled.
And the opportunity to study cooking, beyond the amateur, came. He explained that in London schools there is the possibility of choosing optional subjects and one of the ones he chose when he studied fourth and fifth year was, precisely, cooking and nutrition; both subjects in which she is very interested in deepening.
When making a comparison of cooking from an academic point of view with that passion, if you will, empirical, María Virginia Carbone says that there are quite marked differences between one trend and the other. Although in one the food is made with basic techniques, when you enter a specialization you want to try out what the recipes are like under that new approach and that is what she did at her house when she got home from school. That is, her family tried the culinary experiments that she wanted to cook.
He even thinks that if cooking can be compared to any other art, it would be to music; he feels the simile is entirely appropriate and, although he states that he does not play an instrument, he supposes that it must be the same feeling of a musician when expressed through the notes.
*Also read: Sociologist Tomás Páez estimates that 7.2 million people have emigrated from the country
«I would compare it with music and dance, but it also depends on each person, because for me cooking is peace. This year was a bit stressful, but I have this thing that when I feel stressed, I look for the kitchen. The kitchen is like my refuge where I always like to be, where I always enjoy being”, confesses María Victoria.
He says that what they say about feelings being transmitted through food is very true. For example, she recalls, when she is sad, what provokes her is to make cookies and when she is happy, what she does is create and invent in that culinary laboratory. “Once it happened to me that I was super upset and I made the food very spicy.”
María Virginia Carbone already has plans outlined to fulfill and continue fulfilling her path within the art of preparing food; she, although she will also seek to touch other edges. She plans to take a course to learn how to manage a restaurant; the administrative part; the coordination of waiters and bar.
He commented that once that is over, he would like to go to university to study nutrition because “it fascinates me” and thus complement his training. She also wants to go on cooking courses in other countries.
«My favorite gastronomy is Italian and I would very much like to do a cooking course in Italy because I feel that it is the perfect place to learn about it, as well as French food and all that kind of thing (…) I would then like to do courses of cuisine from different gastronomies and having the opportunity to open a restaurant, either here or in Venezuela, it has been my dream to open one there».
Another thing he has experimented with is merging that Latin flavor of American food with what he is learning in Europe. However, she was surprised because she says that people in the UK “are very curious” and like to learn and try new things.
For this reason, he points out that when he had any opportunity to create a dish, he always appeals to include something from Venezuela in whatever it is. “The dessert that sells the most in my school restaurant is tres leches,” he asserted.
In this restaurant project he would like to include a little of everything he has learned and adds to his experience and believes that merging cultures within the kitchen has not been so complicated, in addition to the fact that he has his friends – with whom he won the competition—who are of different nationalities: One is Filipino and the other is British; with whom they converse, share and create together, letting her creativity fly and materializing it into something tangible, beautiful and succulent.
“Always believe in your talent and what you think you can do,” he concluded.
* Also read: Rubby Cobain: “I try to make the bills I want to see in the new Venezuela”
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