Narda It is curious, passionate, intense. She likes to talk, she is open and simple, and she doesn’t mince words. Cook, entrepreneur, businesswoman, gastronomic reference, it is a registered trademark that does not stop generating.
In addition to running her own business, she is an advisor to food companies and director of the School of Gastronomic Art. She is a member of the board of the Basque Culinary Center, based in San Sebastián, and the board of Nilus, a B company that develops technology to reduce costs through disintermediation, food recovery and community purchasing.
Narda herself created “Eat more plants” together with Microsoft. A free app that is in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay with projection to other countries. She also generated a scholarship for a cooking course for women that allows them to have a job.
As if that were not enough, she was the gastronomic advisor for the series “Nada”, starring Luis Brandoni – who plays a gastronomic critic – and with the participation of Robert de Niro. “With my team we made all the food that you see in the series. Four months of filming, crazy, we were exhausted, but it was spectacular,” she remembers.
The next opening of a cafe at the Ezeiza Airport and surely new projects are waiting for her. She is the mother of Leia (12), wife of filmmaker Alejo Rébora, and a friend of old and new friends.
News: Is being a cook your purpose in life?
Narda Lepes: It comes naturally to me, My relationship with food is a bond that matters a lot to me. Today my purpose is to reinforce, strengthen the bond between us and food.
News: When you were young, did you think about being a lawyer?
Lepes: Yes, I was 16, 17 years old, I liked to argue, debate, I had fun. But at that time the judgments were written, forget it, no way. In high school I didn’t study at all, I scratched for a year and went out every night until I got bored of going out and started taking a course with Francis (Mallmann). I had been cooking since before because everyone in my family cooked and ate delicious food. But in the course I realized that cooking interested me, that I could learn non-stop, travel and do everything.
News: Do you still like to argue?
Lepes: Yes, that’s why I get into each one. Now I choose a little better, but now everything is also a little strange. There is no debate, no exchange, there are people shouting. I like to exchange ideas, try to understand the other’s vision and there are very few things that I am not willing to change my mind. I don’t marry everything I think.
News: What topics would you not change your mind on?
Lepes: The right to choose. Taking care of friendship is something I give a lot of attention to. I have friends from many years ago and new ones too. But, although I chat a lot and I am outwardly, making friends, gaining trust and intimacy, takes me a little longer.
News: Do you get bored easily?
Lepes: It bores me when it becomes very routine, but when there is nothing routine it’s not good either. I need cycles, changing topics, starting new projects, things that motivate me. But, on the other hand, being bored is healthy, when you do nothing your brain makes connections and solves things. When you are stimulated and connected to something all the time, the brain does not stop to solve those things.
News: What other characteristics define it?
Lepes: Full and general curiosity. Also how things are related, that interests me a lot, detecting common patterns, it helps me a lot and I learned to use it. And my friends say that I am very vehement. But I also turn off and disconnect a lot. I love off mode and having fun in my pajamas, watching series, and when I go on vacation I don’t read emails, I don’t use the phone, nothing.
News: Did you ever imagine that it would become a registered trademark?
Lepes: No, in fact, many times I slow it down a little. I have many unsaid in that area. I could be doing it differently, but I couldn’t have as many off moments. There is a moment when one cannot regulate it anymore, and I like to regulate it and have control.
News: Do you like to be in control in general?
Lepes: Yes, but I learned that I cannot have control of everything. I have to set the limits for myself.
News: How did you learn to manage your ego?
Lepes: Have friends who have known me forever. Know that things come and go. If it hits you a lot that things go very well, it’s going to hit you a lot if things don’t go so well. You have to regulate that from the start. When TV was picking up a lot and I was in there all day, I went to therapy for a while because I didn’t want to become an idiot.
News: Do you have a slogan or heading phrase?
Lepes: Don’t sell anything that I wouldn’t buy.
News: And do you say a lot of no to what they offer you?
Lepes: Yes, a lot, I say no a lot. That’s why I don’t do much either.
News: What does it mean to eat rich and well today?
Lepes: That it is real food and that you can understand what it is. Fruits, vegetables, proteins, eggs, cheeses, meats, fish, cereals, legumes. That’s the bulk of what you eat, then eat whatever you want.
News: How do you eat richly and well in a country with more than 40% of the population below the poverty line?
Lepes: That happens now, but the problem with food dates back before. Beyond the current situation, the problem has existed especially since the late 1980s. The globalization of food began in the nineties and then it began to be a massive problem. The obesity of the eighties too. These are problems prior to economic crises, but crises complicate them terribly. How is it done? I have no idea.
News: If you had an impact on this issue in public policies, what would you propose?
Lepes: I asked for a labeling law and that we review the code, that the country’s dietary guidelines be clearer and more direct. They have to be very easy to interpret, whether you have gone to school or not. The labeling law was achieved, changing the code has not yet. Our food code says that anything is food. That would change it. And in school there should be a food subject, where basic tools are taught: what food is, how it is eaten, how it can be cooked.
News: You were part of La Mesa contra el Hambre, promoted by the current government. What specifically was done?
Lepes: I didn’t know what it was called. I went to a meeting and they told me what you have to say. This, this and this, everything I just told you. That was my only participation. Later I met with people I met there from the Catholic University, from the Rural Society, and I learned many things.
News: What do you eat?
Lepes: At home there are vegetables, tomato to die for, lots of lettuce, peas, fennel, cauliflower; fruit. Milanese, cakes, vegetable croquettes, potato omelette, lots of eggs, meat, potato cake, fish. I eat cheese, but not as much, and pasta as a last resort. There are also a lot of cans of fish that I bring back from trips. I make a lot of Chinese and Japanese foods.
News: In addition to being a cook, you are a businesswoman. How is your business currently diversified?
Lepes: There is Comedor, where you eat milanesas, empanadas, sandwiches, bibimbap, salads, sweet things, and it is open all day. Kōnā Corner is a contemporary Japanese restaurant without too much fusion, it has a bar, drinks are the protagonists, and now it is going to have karaoke. Inés de los Santos is in charge of the Kōnā bar. It’s more fancy. These two are in Bajo Belgrano. And Lepes, in Palermo, a pastry shop with a lot of technique and care for the product and classic twentieth century food.
News: There are also their products
Lepes: Yes, most are made in Mendoza, except for the jams that are made in El Hoyo, near Bolsón. There’s chili sauce, a sweet and sour cucumber relish, sauerkraut with turmeric, honey garlic, roasted Creole sauce, a spicy sauce, a mild kimchi.
News: Was it difficult to do this career as a woman?
Lepes: Yes and no. It’s more difficult because they don’t give you the ball, especially when you’re younger. You say something in a meeting and a train passes by and your colleague next to you says the same thing and he is great. That still happens. They touch your ass, they harass you, but that didn’t affect me personally because I have other tools around the house where I grew up. If you touch my ass, I’ll tell you something. That doesn’t paralyze me.
News: Are you a chronic traveler?
Lepes: Yes, I travel to discover, to disconnect, for work. On vacation I go with my family, either to Brazil, within Argentina or to a small area abroad to explore by car. Last year we did all of Puglia. If I travel alone I send a message to my friends. “I’m going to Paris. If anyone comes, let me know.” Someone always joins in. And I really like Asia, I had a great time in Vietnam and I already went to Japan three times. I learn a lot every time I go.
News: He seems to be having a good time.
Lepes: Yes, but that’s not all about showing, I never post where I am, I post when I get back. And it’s rare that I show personal things. I like to enjoy what I am experiencing in the moment and protect a little privacy. Many times I don’t have photos, I prefer to enjoy than take photos.
