Fernando Trocca. In his house, the cook reveals to us his lesser-known artistic passion: “It is a moment of intimacy”

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He is one of the greatest references of Argentine cuisine and, with several restaurants around the world, his talent has long known no borders. However, today Fernando Trocca receive HELLO! Argentina at Vicente López’s house to reveal his lesser-known passion: painting. In his workshop, between pencils, brushes and watercolors, he moves comfortably while he enthusiastically tells that he is participating in the “Lateral” art exhibition (until today, Friday the 7th, at Espinosa Estudio, Paternal) and that he started painting more than three decades. “I always had many friends in the art world and through them I started playing at painting. first with Irene Singer and Leonel Luna, with whom he took classes. Later I returned with another couple of artist friends, Nessy Cohen and Claudia Mazzucchelli, who became my teachers. But it was always a hobby, something for recreational purposes. In 2017 I had an accident that made me begin to dedicate myself more deeply, and I would tell you that today I paint every day,” he says.

–What type of accident did you have?

–I fell in the restaurant. It was a stupid fall, but I fractured a very complicated bone, the calcaneus. I had two years of recovery, with crutches, a cane, a lot of pain and two complex operations. That accident occupied a very intense part of my life for a long time and painting was the escape. Today I no longer escape the pain, but I feel the same: that painting helps me fly, to not think about anything.

–Do you have a work routine?

–It depends, because I don’t have a life routine. When I’m here or in London, which are the two places where I paint, I have a desk set up as a workshop. And I usually paint when I’m alone, it’s a moment of intimacy. Of course, I do it every day. I can spend four hours painting.

–It’s a hobby, but it’s the second time you’re exhibiting. How it happened?

–Last year, a very dear friend, Horacio Dabbah, who had an art gallery (Dabbah-Torrejón) proposed to me to show what I did after he saw something I uploaded to Instagram. Almost no one knew that he painted. At first I didn’t want to, I’m not an artist. But he insisted a lot and assured me that no one was going to present me as such, but rather as Fernando Trocca, a chef who also paints. Gabriela Van Riel He became interested, opened the doors of his gallery, Van Riel, and in September I did the exhibition “La Línea Central”. He was great. I usually see how my artist friends get nervous before an exhibition, maybe it’s the same nervousness I have when I have to give an important meal. But in my case, being an art outsider, it was like a birthday party. And twelve works were sold. Now I showed again why April Bellati, whom I have known for years, put together “Lateral” with the idea of ​​bringing together artists who have side projects. I insist, I do not consider myself an artist or even as a cook, I paint because I like it, it amuses me and it does me very good.

-How is a day in your life?

–In Argentina I practically no longer live, I only spend two months. Then I spent six months in London, where we opened a Sucre [uno de sus restaurantes]. I live in a rented apartment in Hampstead Heath, in the north, next to the park of the same name, the most beautiful in the city in my opinion. And with the same company – because it’s not like I did it alone – which is very big, we opened another Sucre in Dubai, because they have their hub there, so I also spend some time there. Then I spend a month or a month and a half in the United States and the same in Uruguay, all for work.

-Foreign?

-No. I miss the people, my family, my children: Pedro (27) is a barista and lives in Madrid, so I see him a lot, and Joaquina (18) lives here and is finishing high school online, so she travels with me a lot. She really likes cooking, but she is going to study Architecture. I also miss my house, which I enjoy a lot and when I am there I receive many friends.

–You came to the kitchen because of your grandmother Serafina, right?

-Yeah. Mom got sick and died very young, when I was 11 years old. There we moved with dad and my brothers from Barrio Norte to San Telmo, where my grandmother had a boarding house, so every noon we left school and she cooked for us, I loved it. Since we had a very special relationship, I would ask her what she wanted to eat and she would spoil me. Without a doubt she was the one who brought me to the kitchen.

–When did you realize that you wanted to dedicate yourself professionally?

–My adolescence was different from that of most kids because I didn’t have fun going dancing. So, I cooked for friends and we stayed at home playing cards. I was doing very poorly in school, I had bad experiences in all the institutions I went through and that caused me many fights with my father. My sister, who is a psychoanalyst and had a brilliant career, went to Carlos Pellegrini; They sent my brother to the Nacional Buenos Aires; and with me it was very difficult… In the end I went to night school and I left six months before finishing school. I worked as a cadet, also with my uncle, who had an advertising agency, and when I was 20, a friend’s mother told me about a school that was opening in Bariloche (it was for hotels and cooking), because there was nowhere to study. Dad supported me and promised to help me until I found a job. I started working in the bathroom at the Cerebro nightclub, but several months passed and classes didn’t start. Finally, the director, I suppose because he saw me so insistent, told me that it had opened for a political reason, but there were no students or teachers. And if he wanted to learn to cook he would go to work in a restaurant. I came back and started in La Tartine, Paul Azemaand I did an internship with Francis (Mallmann) in the restaurant he had in Honduras and Serrano. A year and a half later I went to offer myself for a project that was going to start on Dumas Cat.

-How was it working with him?

–Very nice, for me he was “the” Argentine cook. I worked for a year and a half, it was a spectacular experience. Then I went to work with Francis and the Cat was offended, he didn’t speak to me for a year. But at some point he got over it, we got closer and we had an incredible relationship. In fact, we did a television show together, with his daughter Olivia and my son Pedro, the four of us. One time, the Cat was giving an open class on Paseo Alcorta, and my dad happened to be there. At the time of the questions, someone asked him who the best cook was and he named me. Then dad came over to introduce himself and they had a very nice chat. My relationship was friendship, and for me he was always a teacher.

–What other project do you have for this year?

–We are about to release the new Mostrador Santa Teresita book, I edit it with a friend who lives in London, with whom I already made Trocca at home. It will include all the counters: today there is one in Buenos Aires, another in a hotel in Tribeca (New York), another in Montauk (The Hamptons) and two in José Ignacio, because last year another one was opened in a winery. And for later we have another book about London, New York, Copenhagen and Paris, the cities that I like on a gastronomic level, with a lot of cuisine, products and lifestyle.