Carlos Maldonado, the only winner of 'MasterChef' with a Michelin star: "I'm insecure and the stove heals my fears"

Carlos Maldonado (Talavera de la Reina, Toledo, 31 years old) had never tried barnacles or scallops when he participated in the third edition of

in 2015. He came from his hometown without training or experience but with attitude and vocation, he learned quickly and won the culinary contest.

So he continued training and returned to his city, despite being the fourth municipality in Spain with the most unemployment, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

There he set up a restaurant that at the end of 2020 made him the first contestant in this format in the world to be awarded a Michelin star.

The RTVE documentary Play

, directed by the journalist Hernán Zin and which takes its name from the gastronomic project of its protagonist, delves into the secret of a success that seemed improbable.

"I already have the barnacles under control," says the chef by phone days before the opening of the space.

“I entered the program with nothing to lose.

And now in the restaurant we have had to give it a lot of cane to get to the required level.

And, if there is another product that is difficult for me, I put it on the menu.

We all have to learn and I love doing it”, he assures.

If something defines Maldonado in this audiovisual portrait, it is his ability to keep an open gaze on the world without having to leave his surroundings.

More information

Raíces, the non-conformist cuisine of Carlos Maldonado

For Zin, a reporter and writer accustomed to covering conflict zones and following music stars such as Bebe and Belako, reviewing the chef's life has been an opportunity to tell a "great aspirational story," he also comments by phone.

“It's the passionate circular journey of a very chaotic guy, very rocker, who has things of genius and an exquisite sensitivity to create his dishes and treat people.

Carlos is a living example that you can achieve everything in life, even when you don't have things going for you”, he continues.

Zin says that Maldonado never asked him to turn off the camera while they were recording.

Throughout the two chapters that make up

both

They tell how the chef's parents built a house in the middle of the field, near the river, where he grew up.

And how life changed for Carlos, who had been a somewhat problematic teenager, from one night to the next, when he had a motorcycle accident.

That near-fatal experience connects him to Zin, who experienced something similar in his youth.

“He is a very brave guy.

When he is passionate about something, he always goes all the way with it.

And he also knows how to learn from his mistakes, ”says the director of the documentary.

Carlos Maldonado in the kitchen of his restaurant.

The chef is accompanied by his family and friends on screen and, despite having also shown weaknesses and past pains, he feels that it has not been difficult to show himself as he is.

"I'm not proud of everything I've done in my life, but in the end it's been nice to review everything that has built me," he confesses.

“I am an insecure person.

And when I'm in the kitchen I feel healed of those fears and anxieties.

It makes me feel useful,” he continues.

His mother, who had already sensed that the kitchen channeled his unbridled torrent of energy, was the one who signed him up for the contest.

After winning it, he became what he calls a

, the protagonist of other television spots on TVE

and a regular figure in advertising and the media.

The producer of the documentary, Shine Iberia, is the same as that of

.

With this tour of Maldonado's life, he enhances the greatest success story from his program, after chaining several controversies in recent months.

To the suicide of the actress Verónica Forqué shortly after participating in the last edition of

criticism arose from some former contestants, such as the singer Xuso Jones and the gymnast Almudena Cid.

Both claim not to keep a good memory of her time on the program.

Maldonado explains that, in his case, he found some wings on the set with which he later had to "learn to fly."

But his media success was about to truncate his professional progression.

His numerous commitments were incompatible with the strict training of the prestigious Master of the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián, one of the

awards .

“I understand that it was hard for professionals who have been in a kitchen for 40 years that the attention was focused on a kid like me, whose resume was to have won a television contest and who did not know how to do the o with a joint.

I felt like an ant among giants, but I thought I couldn't give up,” she says.

There he learned to be a storyteller.

“They taught me to think;

to look at gastronomy in a more transversal way.

They climb you to the top of a tree and tell you: 'Look at all those branches.

You can choose any of those paths and take with you what we have taught you.'

It's the best thing you can say to a hyperactive nut like me;

that his talent is valid and that his way of seeing things can work”, he recalls.

“The more I learn, the more I question things and the more I doubt that I know how to cook.

The infinity of concepts, ideas and expressions that gastronomy has is the host”, admits a platonic Maldonado.

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