My High-School reunion MAD7 part 2/3
Expectations ran high for this MAD7, as we unknowingly gathered for the high school reunion that none of us knew we needed. In all honesty, I was doubting the whole point of this event to begin with. Had the world not moved past this? Did we really need another round of self-absorbed, “lets-save-the-world-chefs” event, now, 7 years since the last edition? As it shows, we did. Or maybe I should say, I did.
I used to live the modern life of the high-profile chef. I used to travel the world four to five times a year, which was on the low side compared with what many of my colleagues did. Those trips would bring me to cook dinners in New York, attend events in Australia, visit friends cooking in Mexico, and be a part of what many criticized as the traveling circus of the World’s 50 best.
I thoroughly enjoyed my life. The fun, the attention, the sense of community. I must say, looking back, I was in a different place. Shortly after a breakup, I was a free man, and I intended to enjoy my newfound freedom. My family situation today wouldn’t allow me to travel even close to the same amount. I say that with no remorse. I say it with the simple understanding that my priorities have changed now. But back then, a small, exclusive group would live the same life I did, experience the same problems, and face the same challenges. And I enjoyed the traveling lifestyle as much as I enjoyed meeting them, my peers, all over the world.
I met friends that I staged with at El Bulli in cooking events in Singapore. I met chefs who cooked dinners with me in Mexico for another event in Melbourne. I had parties in New York with former colleagues from Paris or Copenhagen. That’s a great life to live. This was, to me, the golden decade of the internationally renowned chef. Between 2010 and 2020 - we lived an intense and great life, with its pitfalls, yes, but I am extremely grateful that I was granted the possibility. Then came Covid, and for many coinciding factors, my traveling was reduced to almost none.
As I closed off Relæ and Manfred’s in 2020 and my focus became Bæst and Mirabelle, I was also gifted with love and the opportunity to re-establish a family, and I had my second son in 2021, further slowing down my traveling activity.
Gone were the gala parties and cooking events, and my life was “reduced” to operating the restaurants I had and living a more mundane life.
MAD7
As my reluctance thawed at the first little picnic event before the actual event, I just realized how much I had missed this. Ah yes, if you are already mad about MAD being too exclusive, let me just enrage you with the picture of me enjoying the turbot Josh Niland cooked over the fire, while I was chatting with the likes of Matty Matheson and Yves Chounard. Did I miss all this out of vanity? Was I feeling that a good stroking of my ego was long overdue? Possibly true. But while skepticism, critical thinking, and keeping my eyes open have always been ingrained in me, I also revere and admire people with competence, vision, and purpose. Feeling recognized as a part of a small group where everyone has gained their spot because they tried really hard, because they worked their asses off, and because they achieved very special things, is admittedly exhilarating, and while it is humbling, it also fills me with pride, and joy.
I have myself had many conflicting views and thoughts about this “flying circus”. Before COVID, I was already feeling some resistance towards it. It could feel like a private and exclusive club, and my gut feeling would make me hesitant at best and at times distance myself from it. My choice to close Relæ was, de facto, opting out of that club, and I felt that closing on my own terms, finishing while everything was still fun and games, was imperative at the time. But 5-7 years of distancing myself from it have given me some clarity about my role in it and how, as an individual, you can unapologetically be part of a flawed community. And at times, even enjoy it.
This year, I felt free of any responsibility, having sold my restaurants, Bæst and Mirabelle, just a few months ago. Clearly affecting my engagement with both the community and the group, and with the event itself, from the very beginning. So after a long series of hugs and kisses and chit chatting over Coffee Collective, Tim Wendelbo or La Cabra coffees with a backdrop of Spanish, English, Danish, danish and some French, the darkness of the big red tent was again embracing us.
Music pounding, huge green balloons floating around, still recognizing more faces in the darkness, I found a little uncomfortable spot to the side, behind a bearded winebar owner, and in front of a Finnish knifesmith. As the suspense was building, a quiet lady appeared at just the right moment. She did not speak, but the simple movement of her hands quieted the room in respect. Craft is what is at the foundation of everything we do, and if you want to silence a group of chatty chefs just about anywhere, just show them the movement of a great crafts(wo)man. MAD knows this, and has repeatedly shown it.
“Le geste” - Christine Schauflinger, Schauflingers Landgasthaus. Credit: Emily Wilson