‘The “democratisation of pastry” would be like a very strong headline, but that's kind of the idea, isn't it?’, Lucila Canero wondered with a laugh during the interview.
Lucila was part of one of the first generation of CIBers, graduated in 2020 in the ECD · Executive Chef Diploma, and currently teaches in the specialisation programmes of the Culinary Institute of Barcelona. In 2021 she founded La Luciérnaga, a pastry shop specialised and certified in plant-based and gluten-free.
If we had to find a way to define Lucila, it would be enough to reproduce her own words, as throughout the interview she shows how confident, convinced and satisfied she is with the direction her life has taken, her commitment to plant-based pastry and her contribution to change the current world into a more sustainable and environmentally friendly place.
La Luciérnaga is named like that because my mum used to call me that affectionately. From Luci, 'luciérnaga' (firefly). Besides, fireflies are part of nature, they are in extinction - if we don't change the way we consume, we won't have summer nights with fireflies - and the ones that emit their own light are women.
‘Plant-based is not a niche thing. My pastry is really much more universal’. It is undeniable that Lucila's pastries comply with the principles of transversality and universality. As she says, ‘plant-based and gluten-free cuisine is for everyone, it is much more democratic’.
Lucila explains that her proposal has fitted in very well. Whether out of necessity —there is very little quality and safe offer for coeliacs—, out of principle —there is a very uncompromising offer in terms of vegetables, fats and sugars—, because of allergies and intolerances, or simply because some people decide to eat differently, Lucila's bakery is designed for all those who, when they visited a traditional bakery, could not take anything home with them.
‘Let's not forget that there are coeliacs who are vegans. The truth is that they have us on a pedestal’, laughs Lucila as she recalls some of the stories of her most regular customers, who have found in La Luciérnaga a sweet paradise that is both healthy and adapted to their diet. The result of this commitment to gluten-free and plant-based pastry is that every day Lucila manages to help more and more people, not only because of allergies or intolerances, but also because of religion, ideology or respect for the environment.
A restaurant menu is not inclusive or complete if it cannot be adapted to all audiences. I don't do something niche, my pastry is much more universal.
In addition to the good acceptance from her customers, Lucila tells us that she has had a lot of support from colleagues in the world of gastronomy and also from the CIB, both for the opportunity to give classes and for the visibility. At first she thought that many of her colleagues would not see this type of pastry as technical or polished enough, and definitely not as top-notch as what Lucila was doing before. However, she quickly found that she was wrong, and now she is very proud to be recommended or consulted.
I started the business with a lot of fear because I thought it was very niche and that very few people would understand it. But of course I was wrong, I got myself out of this prejudice.
A few months before the covid-19 pandemic hit, Lucila had her second child. At that time, she was head pastry chef at a 5-star luxury hotel and she used her maternity leave to come and study at the CIB. Lucila was looking for a change in her lifestyle, she wanted to do something completely different. And at the CIB she discovered what she defines as ‘a lot of things that have nothing to do with cooking or knowing how to lead, but which are vital for anyone's professional development’.
I loved the concept, it was something different. I was going back to school after many years. The Executive Chef Diploma programme ignited my entrepreneurial spirit. I understood that what I wanted could only be generated by me.
Many may wonder how you can take the risk of leaving a job like hers to start a project of your own, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic. ‘I am clear about my goal’ is the answer. Everything seems simpler when Lucila explains it:
For me La Luciérnaga is a dream come true. It is a project 100% mine, with all my whims. I was looking for a change in my lifestyle. And that has to do with the location, the production, the business model. I don't know if it's a successful business model. Or if it is very scalable. But I don't care either, because it's not the goal. It's not the objective of my model. And it's important to be very clear about that because a lot of the decisions come out by themselves when I remember why I'm doing this. I don't need much to live.
I already know who makes the best croissant, who is the best in chocolate. Those places were already taken, but I found mine: there is everything to be done in the plant-based and gluten-free world, and I am doing my bit to change the world.
And I certainly learned all this here at the CIB.
CIBers are professionals who are ready to challenge the status quo. And this is so true in Lucila's case that even today's plant-based industry has many shortcomings that Lucila is always trying to convey to everyone else. As she says, there are ‘a lot of very dark places’ in the plant-based industry. The difference between an ultra-processed plant-based product that you can buy in a supermarket and a seasonal, local product is abysmal. ‘You get the input that something ultra-processed plant-based is super-healthy, but then it is a flavoured starch that is charged at the price of a Basque steak’. Lucila even acknowledges that there are protein substitute products that may not be well balanced and therefore cause protein deficiencies in the consumer.
As consumers we also have a responsibility, because by consuming we are making a choice. I choose the best raw material, which is in harmony with many requirements for me. The idea is that there are other ways of consuming and cooking.
It is in this way, in people who look at the responsibility we have as consumers, where the key to changing the world lies.
Even so, Lucila is 100% convinced that the future is plant-based, both in terms of sustainability, technique and flavour. In a world where mass consumption is not interested in talking about plant-based, Lucila has created in La Luciérnaga an oasis where the technical specifications of the products leave no room for doubt. With this, she has managed to transfer this rigorous (and necessary) healthy filter to her suppliers, who now also understand what type of product Lucila works with.
On a global level, Lucila believes that ‘by necessity, everyone is going to fall’. In her opinion, in this change that is going to happen in the future, the reasons will be multiple: whether it is a matter of cost or exhaustion of the system, we will stop eating meat, dairy and gluten products. On the other hand, seasonal produce is much more profitable, much cheaper and can be very good. According to Lucila, ‘chefs who enter the plant-based world do it for the flavour’, because by avoiding interference with animal fats or butter, the flavour we find is ‘pure flavour’.
Lucila believes that ‘pastry in 2040 is going to change the way we look at it’, and that means that a great deal of haute pastry will have to be plant-based or, at least, much more respectful of the environment; that it will seek to transform the environment, to look inwards and to look at closer producers (or even be its own producers). ‘And, for reasons of quality, health and ecology, plant-based is going to have to be much more normal, much broader’.
This is her bit in this David versus Goliath battle. Lucila understood that to be alternative was not to listen to certain music or dress in a certain way, as it was considered in the 90s, but to be alternative is to look at things from a different point of view, to go down other paths and contemplate other possibilities. That is why Lucila believes in gastronomy as an engine for change.
Nobody is interested in talking about plant-based. The mass consumption is not interested, because if they think in terms of production volume, it is not profitable enough. But I, because I have principles, I still do it. I believe in gastronomy as an engine for change.
And, of course, we at the CIB are extremely proud to have Lucila on our teaching staff. And we know that Lucila is proud of it too. Lucila fulfilled a longing she had, which was to be on the other side and to be part of a faculty that she defines as ‘multidisciplinary’. We learn from Lucila and she also appreciates that ‘pedagogically the CIB is different and I really like how they train me and how they make me understand how I should teach’. Our relationship is a win-win in every sense of the word.
Lucila Canero currently teaches on the CIB's specialisation programmes, with three very different profiles: she gives classes in the PECH · Integrative Healthy Cooking on how to make desserts adapted to a healthier world; she also teaches in the PECT · Advanced Culinary Techniques, with a more technical, more academic profile, where she shares her knowledge on the functionality of ingredients; and finally, our students in the PECD2 · Advanced Pastry and Chocolate learn with Lucila about plant-based and gluten-free pastry making.
Her aim here is to ‘sow a seed’, to sow curiosity for a universe that Lucila knows they will need, because what today is alternative, tomorrow will be the only way and an ever stronger reality. But above all, Lucila enjoys sharing. And we would like that it never stops happening.
In the world of alternative, everything is still to be done. And if you can go one step further, or help someone else to do other things, that's what we're here for, because that's how we all benefit. If I can share all the R&D hours I have, all the better. I think like that, in a very cooperative way.