TALENT AND YOUTH IN ‘DEGUSTA SANTA CRUZ’.

If we look up the meaning of the word “talent” in the Diccionario de la Real Academia, we can see that, in principle, it tells us that it is “intelligence (ability to understand)” and also that it is “Aptitude (capacity for the performance of something).” and the dictionary ends with the explanation that it is an “intelligent person or apt for a certain occupation” … Undoubtedly, a word that invites us to training, to work, to challenge … to success.

In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the capital city and throughout the municipality, there is talent. A lot of talent that, above all, can be glimpsed in many young people who are coming on strong, who want to train more and better, who want to work and are not afraid of work, who want to face challenges and achieve goals, who want to succeed and deserve to succeed.

But no one is unaware that this talent from Tenerife, which we know is there and that many young people want to bring it out, always needs support and help, even more so in these complicated times of economic crisis and health crisis due to the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus pandemic, which has also affected schools and the normal development of the school year.

Thus, the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, together with his deputy mayor Alfonso Cabello, head of the Development Society of Santa Cruz, have been sensitive and proactive, with the desire to collaborate with the aim of bringing out the talent of Santa Cruz in the field of Gastronomy, Hospitality and Catering.

And for this, through the Development Society of Santa Cruz and, more specifically, through the project and Product Club “Degusta Santa Cruz” an interesting and we believe effective and successful initiative has been developed, which has been called “I Gastronomic Exhibition of Young Talents of Santa Cruz de Tenerife”.

This initiative has become a reality in the form of another attractive “audiovisual product” developed in collaboration with the veteran and emblematic Institute of Secondary Education and Polytechnic “Virgen de la Candelaria”, directed by Julián Fariña Rodríguez, and more specifically with Juan Enrique Rodríguez Alonso, head of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism.

Similarly, this initiative has been developed in collaboration with the Central Market Nuestra Señora de África, our popular “La Recova” of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, whose management cooperative society is chaired by the tireless Estefanía Hernández.

And in an example of collaboration between different public administrations, the project “Revitalization of Consumption, Trade and Traditional Markets” has been financed by the General Directorate of Trade and Consumer Affairs of the Government of the Canary Islands, directed by David Mille Pomposo.

After a careful selection, ten students of the Cooking and Pastry cycle, have been able to be protagonists of this initiative, after undergoing the assessment of different prestigious chefs from Tenerife, all of them chefs of different restaurants in the municipality of Santa Cruz, among which have been and we must publicly thank their invaluable collaboration to, among others, Carlos Villar (owner and head chef of the restaurant La Posada del Pez), Danny Nielsen (co-owner and head chef of the restaurant Nielsen), Nacho Solana (owner and head chef of the restaurant Solana), Alberto González (co-owner and head chef of the restaurant San Sebastián 57), Pablo Amigó (owner and head chef of the restaurant (Noi) and Érika Sanz (head waiter and sommelier of the restaurant Jaxana).

With these ten young and talented students of Cooking and Pastry, have been filmed a series of audiovisual programs, in which the future cooks have had to make the appropriate purchases of products (mostly local “Kilometer Zero”, organic and seasonal), implementation of the “mise en place” and, finally, the subsequent preparation of various recipes cooked in the facilities of the IES Politécnico “Virgen de la Candelaria”.

Apart from the cooking of the different and tasty recipes, all of them with a lot of “Canarian flavor”, the attractive programs, some of which can already be seen on the YouTube channel of the Development Society of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, feature interviews with the talented young chefs themselves, but also with their teachers, the chefs who have collaborated in the initiative, and a number of social agents of the municipality related in some way with Gastronomy, Hospitality and Catering.

Bringing to public light the young talent that the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has in the world of gastronomy is absolutely necessary, even more so in these complicated times. We believe that initiatives such as this one of the Society for the Development of Santa Cruz are a platform and a springboard for these young talents of the cuisine of Santa Cruz to make themselves known and to forge a professional career that, undoubtedly, they deserve.

NOTE: The episodes already available on the Development Society’s YouTube channel can be viewed through the following playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1dK2GvNIyzvW2FAqEamthlxkz4Yf-sj4.