To speak with him is to jump from the singular to the plural, and vice versa. The Petersens (Robert, Lucas and Christian) are a registered trademark but Christian has been outlining his own professional identity based on his media positioning. After twenty years at El Gourmet, teaming up with Roberto, he was part of “The great prize of the kitchen” and of “The hotel of the famous” (both from El Trece). “It doesn’t bother me to play a bit of a ‘showman’ because I know that behind me there is a background of employing more than 200 people. I get up first and close last, we do a lot of divine things, the bakeries, the restaurants, I’m a cattle breeder. TV is like a hobby, an entertainment for which they pay me well”, he maintains.
News: How do you go about expanding commercially without getting lost?
Christian Peterson: I have a very good team, people who have worked with us for more than 25 years, who are the ones who direct each area of the place a little. We are always the same number of people, we are changing work, migrating. In the pandemic, my entire team of 50 people who did events transformed into bakeries (La Valiente Bakery and La Valiente Patisserie and Cafeteria) and the handling of meat with milanese (P_Milas) and then, in the end, we are the same as before doing different things. It is transforming and having a team behind.
News: Did you feel like ending that partnership of brothers at some point?
Peterson: No, the truth is that the three of us are very similar and also very different. There is a lot of communication between us and a lot of synergy, but each of us has been running his business for years, we have a nice singularity and we are very good when we are together. We are not the Campanelli either, eh, we are very Danish. Did you know that the best Danish invention is the thermostat? Neither too cold nor too hot. We are quite like that, we are not close friends, we get along very well, we take care of each other, we respect each other, we empower each other and each one does his crazy thing.
News: What was proposed with “Al bone” (Editorial Planeta)?
Peterson: It is a manual for daily use, quite pleasant. I want that when the meat consumer goes to buy, he can choose and demand a bit of quality, because when one demands quality, the entire chain improves; and knowing how to ask the butcher where it comes from, what it is, what attributes it has. I am very happy because for more than 20 years I have dedicated myself to selling meat, processing it and cooking it, and this proposal from Editorial Planeta arrived and the truth is that in the field work there is a lot of information and a lot of desire to share it. And something very nice happened to me with the book: ranchers, people from the UBA, pasture field production engineers and those from the geographical areas, and several butchers from the interior of the country have seen it and they all liked it.
News: There is more awareness of eating quality food but, in an economic crisis, many times you eat what you can rather than what you want.
Peterson: To those two concepts, It is added that eating meat today is a little more complex than before. There is a whole reason to eat more vegetables, more vegetables and less meat. I believe that the path is not to stop eating meat, but rather to choose producers who do sustainable things, sustainable and of better quality, with better rodeo management and with more commitment to the environment. You have to go for less meat, of better quality, knowing where it comes from and if it is well prepared.
News: The annual consumption of meat per capita has been falling and this is attributed more to an economic factor than a cultural one.
Peterson: Yes, but I think we have to take advantage of the fact that this budget adjustment also leads us to something more philosophical, which is that we have to eat a little less meat, vary the meats and look for quality and that our producers continue to be at the forefront. I would tell you that 70 or 80% of those who raise cattle do so out of passion and vocation. If it were for budget, everyone would have migrated to make feedlot or leave livestock a little aside. There is a great passion among Argentine ranchers to continue being the best meat breeders in the world. Livestock was able to adapt and today we have a creation of meat that is 70 or 80% grass-fed, finished with a grain-based corral, which makes Argentine meat highly sought after in the world today and we are all proud of it.
News: Knowing how to adapt also seems to describe it personally and professionally.
Peterson: The truth is that I think so, that as a family, as a company, as brothers and also as a breeder, as an entrepreneur or businessman, our motto is always to be on the move and constantly adapting. Both in the kitchen and in the field, whoever does not change in Argentina is left out of the system. It’s sad because we’d all like to be a little calmer, but it’s also that flexibility that gives us the chance to move forward, provide work, create new things. My father was a great athlete, who taught us to work as a team and to be flexible and to work in adversity. And my mother was a warrior who always loved going to work. Every day I get up and try to convey to the people who are with me that luck that I had. I think that is my role as an entrepreneur, to continue educating, changing and giving opportunities. We try every day to be a little better and to be a little better people.
News: You have said that your employees had to miss the communion of their children, for example, because they could not miss their posts, and that the same rod was also valid for you. Until he realized that this was against the result.
Peterson: You get bigger and thanks to so much work, to the exposure on TV, to our ability to adapt and have more quality, you want that quality to also be reflected in having more time and putting together better teams, in working with a smile . The difference is made by the treatment, the service, the price-quality, all those things that are details. Many people cook well, the challenge is how one changes from the human to the other person.
News: Have you ever failed?
Peterson: Like any Argentine SME, we melted down about five times. We suffer every shake in the country, in Argentina everything is tied with wire. We have had enough mistakes, many failures, but luckily we reinvented ourselves. And we always cook well and I think that, in the end, it saves you. I always told my mother: “Last, I’ll put on a stall of choripanes in the Panamericana and I know I’m going to do well”. Of course I work every day not to repeat the mistakes of previous generations that, from one day to the next, the country made them go bankrupt and disappear. I work to be a better person, to be a better cook, to invest better, to take care of resources, to be intelligent. But I have no problem ending up doing the same thing as when I started, cooking all day and selling choripán. It could be a hippie, a hippie with Osde (laughs).
News: He started very young, to help his mother after the death of his father.
Peterson: We are fortunate because my mother, despite being bankrupt, a widow, etc., always had relationships and those contacts, in this unfair Argentina, sometimes help you get ahead.
News: We do not all start from the same place.
Peterson: No, it’s all very unfair. The other day I was chatting with one of my children, who laughed but deep down he was left, that today the future of 70% of Argentines depends on where they were born and that is terrible. Those of us who are lucky enough to have had another education or opportunities, we have to give something back so that others can get ahead.
News: Have scary chefs gone out of style?
Peterson: It goes no further, being demanding and competitive does not have to stop you from getting a smile and being polite and asking for things in a good way.
News: Another change was that the chefs became celebrities.
Peterson: Yes, it confuses young people, they think that’s what it is. And it is unfair because in Argentina, there are 32 million barbecuers better than me and they are not lucky enough to be on TV. People think that TV is everything and, in reality, what is everything is the daily work. That they come to eat at your restaurant, that’s the most beautiful.
