San Sebastián is a place with character, style, passion.
Martin Berasategui was born here in the Basque Country.
He grew up in the dining room of the people's house, Casa Popular, which his parents ran.
Today, now 61, he is one of the best chefs in the world.
Twelve Michelin stars adorn his restaurants in Barcelona, Madrid, Tenerife and Mexico, among others.
And in Lasarte-Oria, a suburb of San Sebastián, where its roots lie.
His head office, which bears his name, is located there. Berasategui is a cooking genius. The reason he appears here is different. It's his love for Real Sociedad, one of the main arteries in the Basque Country, it's his love of sport. A world-class creative and football, how do they go together? When asked this, he says that his parents' little restaurant was just a stone's throw from the old Atocha stadium where Real Sociedad used to play. The magic that assumed it was never lost.
If he cut his finger in the kitchen today, he would bleed blue and white, in the colors of the club he worships. With its values, he says, he fully agrees. It's about being courageous, combative, about forming a team and promoting young people, and about keeping your feet on the ground. It's about work - and even more work. In Spanish there is the term “garrote”, which Berasategui rose to be a maxim as a young chef.
It could also be Jürgen Klopp's credo.
Garrote, says Berasategui, is courage, strength, poise, claim, perseverance and contagious drive.
Garrote is the conviction to live every day with the greatest passion, without ever being satisfied with what is or with what has been given to you.
Garrote is enthusiasm, the best fuel to get to the top, to transport happiness and satisfaction to the people, the guests, the fans.
Franck Ribéry would probably be surprised not to get a gold-plated steak at Berasategui in Lasarte, but rather traditional and stylistically perfect gems of regional cuisine.
Gold?
Well, the idea of wrapping a steak in gold and serving it to football players for $ 1200, as happens in Dubai, seems difficult to digest for Berasategui.
But he, who is still best met at home in Lasarte, where he has been going from table to table in the evening as it has for decades, is a friendly man.
Everyone should eat what they want, he says.
Everyone may cook what they want.
But he believed in nature, she was his best ally.
He believes in cooking with the greatest dedication and with both feet on the ground.