Master Chef: "It takes a life to get to know Mexican food"

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Olvera, in this country, Mexican cuisine is often equated with corn and red beans. Do you know any other prejudices?

Enrique Olvera: Oh yes, she's always spicy, the food greasy - and heavy. And top comes always cheese and cream on it.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: A majority would probably come up with French cuisine or Italian cuisine when it comes to the world's best cuisine. Is the Mexican underestimated?

Olvera: The modern dilemma was this: Mexican food was at home on the street, in markets, in small fondas . The leap into the gourmet kitchen came only recently. I'm very happy about it. Because everything is there. Our kitchen: unique. We have a beautiful cultural heritage. Previously, Mexican food was simply not seen in the context of an upmarket restaurant or linked to a creative mindset.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: They do that now. They founded the Cosme restaurant in New York, and soon a new restaurant in Los Angeles follows, after gourmet fans from all over the world make their pilgrimage to their Pujol restaurant in Mexico City. Are you still cooking?

Olvera: Sure! But growth is really something that I always question. Our model is different.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What are you talking about?

Olvera: I do not want to adopt a foreign concept that works just to get more money. It's not about profit. But for wealth of joy. Of hospitality. The pride you feel when your own restaurant is a special place. I do not want to give up this feeling. All restaurants are part of a vibrant neighborhood, a local context.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Explain that please!

Olvera: I did not go to New York to copy the Mexican mole one to one. I lived there. I just had to feel how New York tastes! People understand. The ingredients. The dynamics. The soil is different, the bacteria in it. The sunlight ...

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So, rather a new start?

Olvera: The idea was: we take what we are to New York. Our principles. Our memories. Our tradition. And then we cook, with what is available. And celebrate it! The nice thing about a restaurant in New York is that we can make tamales with Brussels sprouts.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Ingredients, skills, creativity. What is important in cooking?

Olvera: Obviously good ingredients are the quintessence, not just in cooking. So, if you start with shit, shit comes out of it. That's a physical law. Execution and creativity are just as important. If you touch a tomato, be so good and make it better. Otherwise: Do not touch! Slice, sprinkle with salt, done.

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SPIEGEL ONLINE: What does cooking mean for you personally?

Olvera: It's about transformation. This magic! To this day, the material and physical changes in cooking fascinate me. The taste changes. Flavors are announced. Take the mole, for example. It is more than the result of its ingredients. She is not garlic. Not chili. Not tomato or chocolate. In the end, it's easy: Mole!

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mexican cuisine is the only traditional cuisine awarded by UNESCO. This includes the preparation of moles. A bite and it costs over a thousand years of tradition. How does this heritage affect you?

Olvera: Formerly in Mexico, a good cook, a cocinero , is a good machetero , a guy with a machete. A cook soldier who knows how to prepare a recipe. Cooking was nothing more than reproduction. And the more recipes you got, the more respected you were as a chef. Do not change the recipe! There was no room for creativity. Everything has changed drastically. Research has become a big part of cooking. Cooking is learning from each other. It also makes us understand the beauty of migration. And the importance of staying open.

"Migrating food, migrating people, migrating ideas"

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Encounter and exchange of cultures begins with food. What do you think?

Olvera: We have to create certain borders, but ideally the national border does not exist. Food migrated. Migrate people. Migrate ideas. The more you migrate, the more diverse you become. And stronger. The more you travel, the more you know. Not about cultures, but about yourself. We should encourage that. If you find that you have a beautiful culture, you will not lose it when it mixes up. We have a nice word for it in Mexico. Mestizaje , Mestification.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The hybrid of Mexican culture is ...

Olvera: ... so cool!

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What would you serve the US President? He's not sharing her idea of ​​migration.

Olvera: Oh, man. This person. I dont know.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Just dump?

Olvera: No, never. No discrimination! I cook for everyone.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: A reservation against mixing is yes, that thereby their own cultural identity is lost. How do you see that?

Olvera: I have been to Japan ten times. It was there, over travel, that I found my way into my own culture and understood how rich the Mexican tradition is. It is a constant exchange. In the past few years, I have attached great importance to creativity in cooking. Now I have to put more emphasis on repetition. Repetition makes you good in everything.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are you still learning?

OLVERA: Most of the great Mexican chefs are over 60 years old. It takes a life to get to know Mexican food. If someone in their thirties says he knows something about Mexican food - forget it! I am still young, there is a lot to learn.