The most important quality is the desire to learn. If you don’t have the humility of knowing Martina “Titi” Siegristthat something knows of transformations.
Titi studied communication at the Universidad Austral and then information sciences at the Complutense of Madrid. “I chose to go alone and it was very enriching. I traveled like crazy, it was fantastic and I have many friends of those years, ”he says.
He also worked at the Indian Embassy in Argentina, at the Duhau Palace, in Chandón, at the Nomade Hotel de Tulum and studied gastronomy at the IAG. The kitchen is part of its DNA. Today is a recognized cook, creator of Chef at homewhich also makes catering for important companies and conscious food workshops.
Her curiosity led her to venture, in addition, holistic therapies, yoga, meditation, tibetan bowls, astrology and tennis, among other disciplines. “The roads arrive and you have to have a little courage, courage to make changes,” he says.
And he adds: “I had worked at the Austral University five years and a friend told me that there was a warning to work in an embassy, that it would apply for me, which was for me. It was a very rare job, there were many applicants and I was chosen. It was a fabulous experience. The best and worst of my whole life. I spent five years. ”
News: How exactly was that experience in the Indian embassy?
Titi Siegrist: India is a separate world. In the embassy there were ranks and divisions between Indians and Argentines, diplomats and administrative, and there was also division by caste. The ambassador was a Dalit, an untouchable. I was Argentina, young and wife, the last orejón of the jar. At first I hated the ambassador, but within a few weeks we adopted a relationship of father – daughter, half a mentor. Today is like my guru.
News: Were you in the area of communication and public relations?
Siegrist: Yes, and I ended up doing things in the cultural, commercial and political area, even with Uruguay and Paraguay. I had meetings with Boudou and with Lugo I had a small question of harassment from which I left airy. Being so girl, he was in charge of a delegation of forty people.
News: And he traveled a lot to India
Siegrist: Yes, I was traveling so much that a tourism agency began to hire me to take groups to India, Nepal, Dubai on my vacation.
News: What did you learn on those trips?
Siegrist: I was always very structured and in India the worst thing that can happen to you is to go with a plan. He taught me to let me flow, which cost me a lot, to release already enjoy the process, because nothing depends on one.
News: How did he get to work at the Duhau Palace?
Siegrist: The ambassador retired and threw me out of the embassy with other people. At the touch a Duhau proposal appeared to make a substitution and eventually I was a marketing and communication manager. They were fantastic years, very funny. In hotel we must anticipate the wishes of the other, to the needs of the guest, surprise, go a little further, be empathic. He also organized gastronomic festivals, chefs suit around the world. I had already studied kitchen at the IAG when I worked at the embassy because I liked it.
News: Then he worked in the sparkling world
Siegrist: Yes, I worked in communication and press of Chandón. Another enjoyment and celebration industry. I was traveling to Mendoza, I met the wineries in France, I visited Don Perignon in a Rolls Royce, we put together the prix Cuisine Barón B. It is a company and a world that I love.
News: How did your tour continued?
Siegrist: I had already begun with a deep average transformation with holistic therapies, yoga, meditation. I felt a vacuum. He told me: “I still organize fiestitas and take pictures. I don’t know if I am leaving my daughter on this earth. ” I had that concern. One day they called me from Tulum’s nomad because they needed a director of experiences to watch over the hotel’s curatorship and had several more hotels projected. It was a huge jump.
News: And the kitchen was always present
Siegrist: Yes, in my family they are chefs and gourmets. It was always a language of love. Every Monday we went to the grandchildren to eat my grandfather and he took care of everything. Mom’s side were a group of women, they had a newspaper in Bahía Blanca and at one point they closed and were left without work. Then, my great -grandmother and my grandmother decided to open a kitchen school and my great -grandmother’s father had been the executive chef of George Sand in Paris. In addition, we grew a lot in the field, with the earth, Dad is producer of pecan nuts.
News: How did it become a professional cook?
Siegrist: I started cooking for friends and acquaintances. At first, he did as he continued working at the Nomade Office in Buenos Aires.
News: And how was the passage of corporate life to be an entrepreneur?
Siegrist: It was abrupt. At one time the tulum story was put half and then I fixed my exit. When Chandon learned they called me and offered me gold and Moor. I did not know what to do, I was already cooking, I had two or three events per week, but suddenly I had to take care of the social work, the cell phone, the maintenance of the bank, the costs of the car, things that in twenty years of life Corporate had not paid. Finally, I threw myself into the pool with the security of having a plan B, which was to be able to return to Chandón if I was doing badly.
News: What challenges did you find?
Siegrist: Learn to administer budgets, seek efficiency in the purchase of merchandise, organize production, face it as something more professional. Then understand the seasonality of the service. The first January and February billed zero pesos and thought I meant.
News: What is the experience of going to cook to other people’s house?
Siegrist: Now I get to people from people who have no idea. I carry all the pre -production of what we are going to eat that day and in the vast majority I use the dishes of the house. But it has also come to me and that the oven did not turn on or that the pans were defective. I do not lose calm, we will somehow solve it. In general, I will cook for special occasions.
News: It also makes catering for corporate events
Siegrist: Yes, work for Google, Mercado Libre, Amex, Hermes and others for events in their offices or at the house of a director.
News: How does all this live?
Siegrist: It’s a pleasure. How nice to give that enjoyment, that reason for the meeting, of celebration. In addition, the adrenaline of not knowing where I get in many cases. I am quite daring, I open all the closets of the kitchens and see what they have. They tell me where they bought this or that ingredient, they show me the stored vajilla of the grandmother, the silverware. I tell you to take out and turn the kitchen, and it is great, because if not one never uses those stored things.
News: Your dishes is varied. No?
Siegrist: When I separated, I went with it and every time friends came to my house, I asked them to bring me a dish. In addition, at that time I was studying Kintsugi, Japanese art to fix fractures of the ceramics and put them in value. Then, my dishes and the catering are composed of different dishes and each dish has behind the name of the person who gave it to me and a story to tell. I like people to take stories. Also tell the story of a product, of a producer, of the social impact that such a person generates with his work.
News: A few years ago he discovered his gluten intolerance, sugar and dairy and changed his way of feeding.
Siegrist: This started with my ex the daughter, who was autistic. I started investigating the food with a lot of effort. The results were immediate and I realized that this was very powerful. Thus, I studied I discovered what I had. He had been with traditional medicine for five years and could not solve it. I made this food change and the cure was immediate. Thus I was carrying a good percentage of this diet to the houses and the catering, and I was writing a manual that today has 300 pages of recipes. In addition, I teach at home and in cooking schools and do conscious food workshops. I like the kitchen to be playful. At the tables I put wood paper, I throw all the food and write and sometimes we put markers and the guests themselves write and draw.
News: Does your daughter Francisca also feed in this way?
Siegrist: Francisca has ADHD, attention deficit, and was treated with pediatrician, neurologist, psychoopharmaceuticals. At one point we changed the food and the result was huge, so much that last year it was escort at school. She loves cooking, trying recipes and wants to be a cook. It is very crazy, because of little girl I told him recipes to sleep her.
News: It is then the phrase “we are what we eat”
Siegrist: Yes, it is a choice. Food is a very powerful tool and we can transform ourselves through food.
