“Virgilio” on Netflix: the 10 best phrases from the Central chef in his documentary

Virgil Martinez He is 45 years old and has spent more than half of his life dedicated to cooking. A passion that he discovered out of rebellion, as he recounts in “Virgilio”, the documentary directed by the Argentine Alfred Olivieri that Netflix has just added to its catalog.

The chef from Lima, the son of a lawyer and an architect, decided to follow a less conventional path than his parents because he dreamed of traveling the world and it seemed to him that a job that went hand in hand with that ideal was that of a cook. “Peeling potatoes, cleaning a kitchen was something he could do anywhere in the world. It was easy to find a job without speaking the language and I wanted to fly around the world working in kitchens”, says Virgilio in the production that lasts about an hour and a half.

In the documentary, Martínez is not alone. The main part of the film and her story are chef Pía León and her sister, Malena Martínez, with whom she has developed other important gastronomic projects: Mil (in Cusco) and Mater Iniciativa.

In “Virgilio”, they talk about the satellite restaurants around Central, chosen in 2023 as the Best in the world in the prestigious The World’s 50 Best ranking, but also about the personal history of these outstanding Peruvians and their vision of life and the cuisine that has led them to be the best.

Here we summarize the documentary in 10 sentences:

1. On being a chef and his return to Peru

“Being a cook in Lima was not an option for me. I chose (this profession) for one more rebellious issue. I wanted to go out and the kitchen was an option to travel. (…) (After many years working abroad) At one point it clicked and I wondered what I was doing cooking Peruvian products abroad if I didn’t even know where they came from. There I said to myself: why don’t I go back to the origin”.

2 About the start of Central

“When Central opened it was a restaurant that, for me, was very old and static, but for Lima at that time it was an innovative restaurant that attracted people like Pía (León), an ambitious girl, wanting to grow in the kitchen and wanting to to leave everything”.

3. About Pía León and the beginning of the romance

“I interviewed Pía because she was insisting that I interview her to work (at Central). She had me crazy calling me on the phone and there was a moment when I hung up on her because she was busy in the kitchen. There were many people who wanted to work at Central and it was hard for me to understand that she could have an important position in the kitchen (…) When I opened the restaurant, I didn’t hang out with anyone, Central was everything to me. And when we close for a while, I’m left with nothing. I call Pía to help me do a consultancy and as if something told me I like this girl. I remember that when Pía arrived at the restaurant, I warned the people in the kitchen that a pretty and nice girl was coming. I told them: ‘Careful, calm down, guys’, because she looked a little euphoric. And mind you, I ended up being her character (who fell in love with her).”

4. On Pía’s achievements beyond Central

“Pía has managed Central for many years, then she goes on to Mil and Kjolle. But when she traveled to have dinners out, very important things beware, they always said she is Virgilio’s wife, the chef’s wife. What’s more, there were many situations in which they said: ‘Oh, you’re the one who makes the desserts.’ And she Pía never sought recognition, who knows her knows that this is not what she is looking for, she is looking for her place of work. If she seeks respect, it is the respect of the people in the kitchen ”.

5. On the success of Central

“Before, the phone would ring and the reservation would be taken by hand. But from that, (after international recognition), we now have 7 people on the phone taking reservations. The phone was bursting with calls. We had a reservation problem, because we would fill up 5 or 6 months from now and it was something we did not understand because we were used to working thinking about the day”.

6. About the COVID-19 crisis

“The president spoke and then they closed us down. We had to drop everything, we turned the tables, we went home to do nothing and not know what was happening. Full uncertainty. We began to ask ourselves questions, as if what we were doing was really relevant or not. For me, who lives in the kitchen, assuming not to cook was terrible. I can not lie. I didn’t imagine waking up and not having much to do.”

7. About the financial problem due to the closure

“People who saw our numbers told us two more months like this and the story is over. I had come together with people who offered us loans, people who wanted to buy Central… at one point I even wondered if this idea of ​​having Central, Kjolle and Casa Túpac, being so big, was necessary and if all this had not been a mistake what we had done, if in the future this would work with so many restrictions to go to restaurants ”.

8. About going to offer deliveries

“The deliveries on the one hand were an economic salvation, but on the other hand it was our downfall, because we work in a salon, for people who sit down, not people who are at home. We didn’t like this delivery thing, the dark kitchens, the fact that everything changes. In our case it was like that, because we plan an experience in the restaurant that can last between 3 and 4 hours, an experience in which we want to do things that transcend”.

9. On collective success

“It is difficult for me to understand that there is my growth, individually, without the collective. I see my growth as a product of the people I associate with. You are a large percentage of the people you hang out with, I hang out with people linked to cooking, agriculture, and gastronomy. My way of growing is with people”.

10. On happiness

“On a day-to-day basis I see myself confused, half lost, with peaks of joy and then peaks of concern for doing things very well. I am very obsessive. I am adding all these things and my identity is generated, what I am. I consider myself cheerful, optimistic, happy… I think that happiness is very difficult (to achieve), there will always be things that will take away your happiness. Being a cook takes away your happiness, it takes away your time. There are beautiful times that I am losing because I am cooking. A failure at a table or in a project takes joy away from you. I will never consider myself happy, but I do believe that there are moments of important happiness that I will always keep”.