Madrid (EFE) , he told EFE this Tuesday.
“I think this final has been a lesson in sportsmanship, how you can compete side by side with whoever you have next to you and in a healthy way,” said Fernández, who this Monday won the culinary television program with a menu of three dishes inspired by his family and with which he conquered the jury and the Argentine chef Mauro Colagreco.
Along with 29 other participants, the man from Zaragoza entered the Masterchef kitchens with the opportunity to “make a huge change” in his life: “The dish I entered with seemed very good, since then only three and a half months have passed and now It seems prehistoric to me”, recalls the winner.
Dishes praised by the jury
From the program he takes “an evolved, rigorous and evolved vision of the dishes”. Theirs from the final this Monday, consecutively called “El amor”, “La familia” and “El futuro”, were praised by the jury made up of Jordi Cruz, Samantha Vallejo-Nájera and Pepe Rodríguez, who considered them “transparent and impeccable”.
A shrimp tartare as a starter, a low-temperature pigeon as a main course and a white chocolate ice cream with pepper and cotton candy were the proposals of Eneko Fernández, who admits that she has been working on them for months. “I think I had the menu in mind two months before the final, I am very thoughtful,” he confesses.
“I wanted to present something that spoke of my cooking but also of my tastes and my life”, summed up the winner, who has pocketed 100,000 euros, a published book of his own recipes and admission to the master’s degree “Cooking, Technique and Product ” from the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián.
It is clear to him that part of this award will be invested in further training. “I want to soak up a lot of the chefs in San Sebastián; I think I have to continue training and I would like to talk to the chefs to see the businesses that I could be in, ”he explains.
He wants to opt for projects “in which he can be closely with people to enjoy food,” says the former soccer player.
The Masterchef winner sees the outdoor tests as the most complicated
For Eneko Fernández, the most difficult thing has been the outdoor tests. “They are a humbling cure and a slap in the face because we all come from cooking in our homes and you face a lot of people, you see a world ahead that is super complex and in which you are forming”.
Two athletes, Ona Carbonell and Saúl Craviotto, also won the “Celebrity” edition of the program and Eneko Fernández believes that “the sportsmanship of self-improvement helps a lot in the kitchen and helps to better manage the anxiety and tension of the competition.”
In the final, Eneko Fernández competed with the young Catalan contender Alex, only 19 years old. “The relationship between the two has always been above all else. I take my hat off to Alex’s reaction, it is not easy, especially for someone so young, ”he said about his partner.