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José is a former student of the Postgraduate course in Fire Cooking and Low Temperature, with a vital and professional career that goes beyond professional stoves. He started a career in International Relations, but with one semester to graduate, he felt that he should make a profession of his gastronomic passion. His past and background with his grandmother's traditional cuisine, and his experiences for years in India, expanded his mind, completely changing his vision and perspective of international, local and traditional gastronomy.
Index
- Innovate with respect for the product, technique and culinary context.
- Respect for the past, to the future
- Understanding cultural cuisine, a global view.
- Specializing in cooking is vital for a professional chef
Innovate with respect for the product, technique and culinary context.
Before studying at the Culinary Institute of Barcelona, José worked for 3 years in one of the best restaurants in Ecuador, the Boca Valdivia restaurant, characterized by offering the diner a culinary experience inspired by the pre-Columbian culture "Valdivia" and the connection with the nature, where respect for sustainable products and ancestral techniques of fishing, harvesting and cultivation predominate.
At the CIB we call the CIBers those alumni who are worthy of representing our values, such as the initiative, the same initiative that led José to write to Rodrigo Pacheco, Head Chef of Boca Valdivia, expressing great respect and admiration for his cooking and interest in learning. This quality that we love so much at CIB, led José to obtain the professional opportunity as an intern and live a vital and professional experience for 3 years.
In those 3 years, he understood the importance of respect for the first value agent of any culinary preparation, the product and the farmer. José, proudly tells how with his colleagues they sowed and fished daily to obtain the raw material. With a 2-hectare orchard planted with more than 200 products, where every day half the team collected and the other half fished in order to create a fresh experience for its guests, a Zero Waste experience.
This approach and respect for traditional cuisine have made Boca Valdivia stand out for its innovation and value proposition, without a menu, with a menu based on fishing and daily harvesting with fresh local produce.
So much has been its uniqueness and innovative approach that the Valdivia team stood out in the finale of the Netflix series, "The Final Table", becoming a benchmark restaurant and a success story in its business model. This growth allowed the culinary team to travel the world to enrich their techniques and knowledge.
Respect from the past, to the future
It is no coincidence that José went through a professional experience in a restaurant with values and respect for the product, the technique and the cultural context. His childhood rooted in the eyes of his grandmother and in her small beach bar in Ecuador, the "Typical Restaurant". A small restaurant of those that we call traditional, lifelong, faithful to local cuisine, with a simple and cultural proposal, four dishes with a best seller "las cecinas", a traditional pork dish from Loja, from where comes your grandmother.
That respect for traditional cuisine and culture creates the current personal and professional values in José's kitchen, where at the age of seven he was already a waiter, and his love for cooking began and without knowing it, his professional career. Sometimes, to advance and innovate, you have to go backwards.
Understanding cultural cuisine, a global view.
Travel and understand. It has probably been one of the greatest learnings for José. The cultural and gastronomic shock that travel offers is undoubtedly a formative experience in itself.
He had the great opportunity to live two years in India with his family, meet people from other cultures where he could start a culinary and educational experience. In an Asian cooking course, she discovered her interest in gastronomy and reliving memories of her childhood. The gastronomic culture of the country, enriched his palate, gained new knowledge on the importance of traveling to understand and experience.
From an international setting, to a local context, as in the Boca Valdivia restaurant in Ecuador with its ancestral pre-Columbian cuisine. Today's cuisine is global.
Specializing in cooking is vital for a professional chef
With the reflection of his experiences in India, a look at the past of his own origins and his last experience as a cook at the Boca Valdivida restaurant. José was clear that to advance as a professional chef, he had to go further, specialize and differentiate himself. It is at that moment when he discovered the postgraduate degree in culinary specialization in Cooking with Fire and Low Temperature at the Culinary Institute of Barcelona.
A postgraduate course aligned with the most international and traditional vision of the product, fire techniques and the science of low-temperature cooking. José shows us the longing he felt when discovering the postgraduate degree:
"I knew that if I stayed in Ecuador, I would stay for a long time. I wanted to continue traveling and discover myself. In graduate school I have learned many techniques that have made my life easier. Besides at the CIB, everyone has classmates have some kind of experience, the level is high and participation even more so, so you always learn from everyone "- José Bastidas
Some of the things that José most valued about evolving as a chef specialized in Fire and Low Temperatures, have been:
- Study in a school with a non-traditional education system
Training in a school where the focus is on creativity and innovation has been one of the elements that have motivated him the most. Encouraging mistakes, making mistakes, to create things that nobody has done before, has been very valuable for his personal and professional experience.
I didn't think I was capable of reaching those levels until I got to CIB
- Learn by doing, with expert professionals in your area
Receiving Low Temperature classes with Salvador Brugués, or receiving classes from the chef at Celler de Can Roca, Nacho Baucells, were unique experiences for José's learning..
"Every day a teacher would come and we might not know who he was, but when he started teaching we realized that he was a genius, and that he had been doing that more than anyone in his life." - Jose Bastidas
- Learn from other kitchen areas
Despite studying Fire and Low Temperature, José received classes on Molecular Cooking and Healthy Integral Cooking, opening his mind to different techniques, technologies and applications that he can introduce to his cooking style.. - Learn from other culinary cultures
By studying at an international cooking school, contact with other cultures has been very enriching for their knowledge. In addition to creating new professional contacts and friendships for the rest of his life.
