Ignacia Valdés, Executive Chef at Tokyo Record Bar in New York City
Chile and its products, fruits of so many different microclimates, made me love food because of the incredible diversity of products.
I moved to New York 4 and a half years ago. Marking a decade of living abroad. From Paris, to New York, more than 10 years working in restaurants.
I was born in Chile, where camping at the mouth of the Limari and in Los Vilos marked my love for seafood. My parents, nature lovers, took us on every holiday: New Year's Day, Labor Day, national holidays, etc.. In those uninhabited lands of Chile, where one does not cross paths with any other being for more than 30 km around, my father fished with a harpoon, set up crab boxes and caught sea urchins, locos, piures. We spent the whole day bathing in the sea and then cooking around the fire. My godfather, an agronomist who lived in La Serena, was the king organizer of the camping, he sang and drank wine, while he told us stories about fruits and harvests, making us taste the best grapes and cherries for export.
Chile and its products; fruits of so many different microclimates, made me love the food not so much for its traditional dishes (which are delicious), but more for the incredible diversity of products.
At the age of 19 I moved to Paris to study at a traditional French cooking school. My tears were of happiness when I received the acceptance email, I had never expected to be the only foreigner in the whole program.
My first experience in the kitchen was at Neva cuisine, with chef Beatriz Gonzales, a Mexican who, at the time, was leading an all-female team. A strict work environment, but with Shakira playing in the background, hard work and lots of laughter, it became an out-of-the-ordinary experience. The admiration I feel for her has not gone away over the years that I have worked with other chefs. Without a doubt, Chef Beatriz owning two restaurants in her 30s, from the line, taking out the trash or training interns, marked me forever. Little did I know that would be a gem of a first experience.
The following internships were the reality of the kitchen world. Accepted in two 1 Michelin star restaurants as an intern and after line cook to sous chef in three other restaurants from Paris to New York, the reality was different, a 99% composed of men, where stress and intense competition, set the pace of the kitchen. Learning new techniques and new ways of seeing the art of cooking, I fell in love with the manual work and the creativity that could be developed, but at the same time suffering what it meant to work in this field, with 70-hour workdays and leaders who were not such and where the constant was "having to prove".
Now, after 10 years of work, I am an executive chef at Tokyo Record Bar, where my main goal is to be a good leader/chef without having to repeat negative patterns that have so stigmatized the kitchen. From this perspective, I want to contribute by being a woman chef. Where sensitivity, companionship, welfare and good commitment in the kitchen are important and possible values to implement, under the conviction that we are cooking and not saving lives.
In addition to being a female chef, I am Chilean. There are few of us, especially here in New York. And I also want to contribute from my being Chilean. It's the pride of coming from a country that is small but known for its fruits, wines, seafood, truffles, etc. Where inspiration comes easy to me because of the great love for the product. When I can choose I look for Chilean products and I try to mix techniques that I have learned to show the best of those products.
