The world lives in duality. The world of gastronomy is no different.
On the one hand: collapsing chefs, closed restaurants, inadequate wages, violence, and excess. On the other: more restaurants than ever, glamour, money, fame, and success...
Is it possible for some to have so much without the subjugation of others?
Most kitchens are not the idyllic places as we see in some reality shows or TV series, where chefs work creatively and harmoniously to deliver excellent service. Often, more than they should, kitchens can be a nightmare where yelling, harsh words, and authoritarian commands infiltrate daily life.
The famous "Yes, chef!"—a manner inherited from the military, with its uniforms and stripes—grates in a world that is increasingly global, diverse, empathetic, and sustainable. That’s why, at the Culinary Institute of Barcelona, we clearly say "NO, CHEF!", to collaboratively build a new paradigm.
As a culinary school, we feel forced to inform our students about the reality of what happens in most kitchens today. But as an educational institution, our purpose is to share values, skills, and tools that prepare them to lead the changes needed to transform the future.
Students from all over the world, with a great passion for gastronomy, who want to convey or change something through their own projects beyond just cooking. Our mission is to train them to achieve this, so that they build their destiny with values and ethics that make them, their teams, and the world better.
This made us question many things, which is why we launched “NO, CHEF!”, with the aim of challenging the status quo still entrenched in the sector and starting to turn over the dry soil to let new ways of understanding and dedicating oneself to this profession grow.
From the moment a student steps into the CIB, our goal is to transform them as a person. Here, we don’t teach cooking recipes—you can go to YouTube or another school for that. Here, we teach them to acquire judgment, to be critical, to question, to take on challenges. We teach them humility, but we also teach them to lead. We teach them that to go further, they need to do so with a team that trusts them. We teach them that for everyone to succeed, success must be collective.
Leaving behind what has been learned to learn anew is sometimes not easy, but it is the only way to move forward. Otherwise, we will only repeat the mistakes of the past.
NO, CHEF!
