Not another day goes by without us commenting on the case of the fake ‘chef’ who has appeared on ‘Joc de cartes’ (TV-3). There was the ‘gourmet’ and ‘gourmand’ Marc Ribas introducing us to the four participants who aspired to ‘Best Young Chef of the Vallés Occidental’, when he began to realize that one of them, as a ‘chef’, was more false than a tough Sevillian. And the rest of the contestants also noticed.
It is about the young Sergio Cobaleda, who introduced himself as ‘chef’ and head chef at the Masía Can Sidro restaurant in Palau-Solità. “Look, your jalapeños are burnt”I was telling one of the fellow contestants, and it turns out it was burnt sugar, not jalapeños. “This ajoblanco tastes a lot like garlic, too much”, he warned with a disgusted face, and Marc Ribas he asked: “Do you know how ajoblanco is made?” And no, I didn’t know.
He also did not know what is called leche de tigre in gastronomy –the sauce of a good ceviche– and, in addition, he was about to send another of the contestants to the hospital, allergic to milk and beef protein, whom he served a sauce made with beef marrow and they had to give him a truckload of antihistamines quickly to keep him from getting a rash on the spot. Or is it that everyone was realizing that Sergio was a fraud as ‘chef’, and even his own Marc Ribas he had to face him and let him go: “You have fooled us! You are not a cook!”
But the program continued and the good part came 48 hours later, when on ‘Tot es mou’ they interviewed Sergio. oh! It was very illustrative. “I don’t see any problem with having gone to the program without being a ‘chef’. It’s just a reality show. Does anyone remember who won the previous edition? No one. Instead, with what I’ve done, everyone talks about me and the restaurant I represent.” Effectively. Sergio as a ‘chef’ he will be a birria, but he knows how the TV works, and how to take advantage of it perfectly.
I don’t know how it would have sat Mark Ribas, that he is a serious cook, that a fraudulent ‘chef’ tries to trick him. And on top of that the program continues with that fake contestant, all the time, calmly. But of course, who expels an impostor who achieves a colossal 23.5% audience share and more than 470,000 viewers for ‘Joc de cartes’? Great lesson of what TV is: the more cheating, the more successful.