El Puma after leaving Top Chef VIP: “Cooking helped me develop my inner self and my personality” | TELEMUNDO | INTERVIEW | SKIP-INTRO

In a decade, José Luis Rodríguez –known worldwide as El Puma—changed the red button for the stove. The 81-year-old Venezuelan singer, who in 2013 led a “La Voz Perú” team, has just completed his participation in “Top Chef VIP” 3, the ambitious cooking reality show for celebrities on the Telemundo International network.

Endowed with a prize of 200 thousand dollars for the winner, and hosted by Colombian actress Carmen Villalobos, this program is broadcast three times a week and has various Latin entertainment personalities giving their best to satisfy the demanding juries.

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A VERY SPECIAL EXPERIENCE

“If I ever returned a dish in a restaurant, I apologize,” said Puma, aware that in his long musical career he has traveled to dozens of countries and, surely, at some point he was not satisfied with a dish that was offered to him. With more than eight decades behind him, the artist born in Caracas has learned that behind each of those offerings there were human beings who gave their best to satisfy him.

“I understood what chefs do to try to please all the customers who come to their restaurant. It’s something very complicated. One ends up admiring these people more, these chefs who are truly sculptors, artists, who decorate each dish, so that it is beautiful and also tastes good,” he tells Skip Intro of El Comercio.

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Asked if he had any knowledge of cooking before participating in the Telemundo show, the singer of such hits as “Dueño de nada,” “Tendría que llorar por ti” and “Señora Bonita” has no qualms about telling the truth: he never went beyond fried eggs with bacon for breakfast. This distance from pots and pans and sharp knives makes his experience in this reality show absolutely incomparable to his time with “La Voz Perú.”

“Being a music judge is a different thing from Top Chef VIP, this is cooking, food. The other thing is easy peasy, because it’s my thing, music. So I felt like a fish in water. But this project, this cooking reality show seems spectacular, sensational to me. It has been a totally unknown world for me, and I am very grateful,” she adds.

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Drama and joy, beyond the fire

Although he probably didn’t even think about reaching such an advanced stage of the show, the challenge of preparing mushrooms had to come for Rodríguez to finally abandon the contest for 200 thousand dollars. The artist presented a dish called “What’s Hongo?”, with which he could not convince the jury. At that gala he had arrived at the sentencing along with his compatriot Alicia Machado, with whom El Puma had moments of tension on more than one occasion.

For those who have followed this type of format in Peru or in other countries, a cooking reality show is not just about frying, cooking and decorating. There is also room for verbal exchanges, revelations and even quite emotional moments. So the question becomes clear: how much does this dose of drama contribute to maintaining interest in shows of this type on television today?

The Puma, underwent a double lung transplant in 2017 due to the idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with which he was born. This medical ‘background’ makes him approach life differently. See arguments as mere wastes of time, and enjoy happy moments much more.

“After my operation, alone at home, I said to myself: I have to laugh! Because I was so wrapped up in that traumatic thing. I started looking for comedians on the Internet. And I noticed a fabulous change in myself. My mood expanded, because a smile is a remedy that you can’t replace with anything, not even with pills. Pills are fictitious. So, when laughter comes from the inside out, you feel something so nice, and you start to let go of things that hold you prisoner: like sadness or taking life too seriously. You start to laugh at yourself and that’s fabulous,” he adds.

He always repeats that “God gave him a little more time” to stay among us, but he doesn’t waste it, and, therefore, when asked what the secret is to staying healthy, in front of and behind the cameras, he displays almost by heart a series of recommendations that he hopes will help in some way.

“You should try to eat what your body needs, not in excess, staying away from sugar, flour, and soda, which are fatal. Because sugar is more addictive than any other drug. They torment the children with so much sugar and that is harmful in the long run,” he says.

YOUR MEMORY OF PERUVIAN DISHES

Although he has already been eliminated from the competition, the father of actress Génesis Rodríguez also admits that he would have gladly tried to prepare some Peruvian dishes during his time on Telemundo’s “Top Chef” 3.

Certainly, this genius of vocal performance and today an admirer of the most dedicated chefs, does not need much time to remember some of our most emblematic gastronomic proposals, surely consumed in his long stays for the recordings of “La Voz Perú” back in the year 2013.

“The easiest is papa a la huancaína, and you can’t go wrong. The lomo saltado is also very good. Peruvian food is one of the most important dishes in the culinary world. It has personality. When you go to a great restaurant, it’s always French, Mexican or Peruvian,” says Puma, who also can’t hide his gratitude for the opportunity that it meant for him to show himself in a facet far from his nature musical.

“The teachings I received, what I learned from the boys. The desire they have to live, and the advice that I was able to give them once, whether they asked for it or not. That they have named me ‘Musketeer’ once. It was important (laughs). I’ve had a great time. I needed a program like this to develop my interior and my personality,” he concludes.