I recently had the honor of designing and creating the brooch that was presented to the chefs for the 2022 Edition of “Estrellas en el Camino”, an act of solidarity that has been backed and organized by Casa Barqueiro for years. This year, they managed to bring together no less than 27 chefs with at least one Michelin star each, and over 450 people attended the event. The money raised was donated to the Santiago de Compostela Association for Multiple Sclerosis.
It was very interesting to chat and share views with these great culinary artists, people who have great talent yet are also very close, such as Lucía Freitas, Jordi Cruz, the Torres Brothers, Ángel León, Valerio Carrera, Marcos Granda, Paolo Casagrande, Eneko Atxa, Marcelo Tejedor, Quique Dacosta, Yayo Daporta, etc.
It brought us great satisfaction to see how much everyone loved the brooch. Without a doubt, the culinary arts and precious metalworking are among the oldest manifestations of human evolution. They are some of the first wonderful activities that set us apart from other primates. The moment we stopped merely ingesting foods and started cooking to make it a pleasurable activity, culture and civilization were created.
At the same time, the first pieces of jewelry were made using shells, bones, and tusks. At first, they were simple amulets to invoke the spirits of nature. But soon, the desire to make these amulets aesthetically pleasing, to make them beautiful, emerged. To this end, techniques, tools, and skills were slowly developed over the centuries.
And this is a road that never ends: experimentation, creativity, and perfectionism mean that the culinary arts and precious metalworking continue to evolve thousands of years later.
The brooch I created for the 2022 “Estrellas Solidarias en el Camino de Santiago” is a tribute from one centuries-old profession to another.
Because seeking beauty and pleasure is a road that brings us together, defines us as humans, and, above all, makes us happier.
