Ángel León has taken Puerto de Santa María to gastronomic heaven
We know (almost) everything about the chef he has taken to Andalusia and its Puerto de Santa María to touch the sky of the gastronomy planet, but: who is the man behind the chef?
We speak without heart about his his family, the origin of his love for the sea, his relationship with his father, Marta Girón and the responsibility of being a father.
Ángel León has taken Puerto de Santa María to gastronomic heaven
Why did I start in this gastronomy? It seems that we live in a society in which one must always lead a clear path, right? Well, in my house neither my grandmother cooked, nor did my mother cook nor did I fall in love with cooking because of someone who transmitted their love for gastronomy to me.
I have always had a very special relationship with my father. When I was little I used to go fishing with him and I was the one who cleaned the fish; but not because I liked it, but because of the important information when opening it, because only then did he know what he ate and therefore the bait for the next day's catch. From then on, I began to play with the kitchen: cleaning, descaling… and I began to fall in love after caressing the fish for so many days.
"That's the only way I knew what I was eating"
the sea got that a father who was quite demanding with me (because I was a very bad student), I wasn't so bad on a cover; because that father whom I had so much respect for when we got on a boat became my friend and there we spent hours together, without further ado. Then of course we would return to land and he would be the demanding father again , but that connection and that affection that taught me towards the sea, to take care of it and to love it... I always remember my daddy on the bow singing the 'Oh My Sole' as a gesture of freedom and expression.
When you have a son you no longer think about yourself, you think: I don't want to leave him any brown so 'now you can sell croquettes, daddy' so that when he grows up he can only say about his father that he was art guy, that he discovered many beautiful things about the sea and he unveiled ingredients that his father first put on the table.
Marta is the woman I hope will be by my side until she dies, paddling together ; with good and bad seas, because after all life is like the sea...
Ángel León, Chef of the Sea