As a kid I kept nagging on about becoming a chef, although I am sure that my vocation has much to do with my yearning for the Bodegón Alejandro (the family business). I was drawn by cooking, that's true, but also by the atmosphere there was in the Bodegón Alejandro. It's all linked. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't been born there; I can't imagine, really. I don't think I could do anything else, I'm the only one of my siblings who has cooking in my blood.

My parents and my Aunt María, who ran the business, tried to undo my wish to become a cook. They said it was a very tough profession, that there were better things in life, that any other job would be easier. But nobody beats any of the four siblings at stubbornness. So one day they told me that if I wanted to cook I would have to start working at eight o'clock, like everybody else, and non-stop until midnight. And that how it's been until today.

What do you think is your most distinctive contribution to the world of cuisine? Where does the key to your success lie?

I don't know about the most distinctive. What I can say is that having brought innovation to the chef's profession is one of the things I'm most proud of. Another thing we chefs have done well is to get parents to feel proud that their children are engaged in this profession, and that it's not seen as a burdensome pursuit, as it was in my time.

When preparing a dish, do you value other senses, besides taste, such as smell or sight?

Of course. When preparing my creations I consider every possible bodily sense. Obviously the most important and essential thing is that a dish tastes good, but it must also be nice to look at and smell as good as possible. It is a whole conjunction of factors that makes a dish perfect.

 “When preparing my creations, I consider every possible bodily sense”

Sweet, salty, sour and bitter are four of the basic flavours that the tongue can distinguish, with its 10,000 taste buds. Are your dishes set to enhance them as far as possible?

I always try to intensify the flavours of all my creations as much as possible.

Do you think it is important to maintain good tongue hygiene to better appreciate the flavours of your dishes in all their intensity, along with the wines that go with them?

Keeping good tongue hygiene is essential for good oral health. Obviously to better appreciate what we eat and drink too. But apart from food, I think it's essential to care for your tongue. Health is the most important thing we have.

How can you combine daily stress, the rush, the little time we have for everything, with a healthy and balanced diet?

In my opinion it's based on two concepts: balance and order. If everyday tasks are well planned, it gives you time for everything. Even for healthy cooking.

How is it possible to form such good teams when you are among the culinary elite?

The key is being loyal, genuine, generous and hard working, and having a firm hand; being an example for everyone. It is important to involve people on my teams in things that go well, and assume that the biggest culprit is me, as the director of the “orchestra”, when things go wrong. In my case, I owe my success to the fact that there are lots of Martín Berasateguis in the world that I admire so completely for how generous they are with me also.

 HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE SENSE OF TASTE?

 The sense of taste lets us appreciate the textures of food and its temperature, perceive flavours and enjoy it in all its intensity. Find out more about it in these interesting keys.

• The Sense Organs.

People have five basic senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, each of which is associated with an organ in our body. In the case of taste, the associated sensory organ is the tongue. It contains most of the receptors responsible for capturing flavours, which are located especially in the taste buds (those little red dots that are distinguished by the naked eye). When food reaches the taste buds, nerve impulses are sent to the brain through nerve fibres. And the brain interprets these impulses as flavours.

• Taste, the tongue and taste buds.

Taste and smell are two closely related senses, because the smell of the food we eat comes through the aerodigestive tract to the olfactory mucosa. That's why we find the food we eat insipid when we have a stuffy nose. The tongue is a fleshy, fibrous, motile organ, formed by a network of muscles and covered with a mucous membrane where the taste buds or papillae are concentrated, although there are also some on the palate and the pharynx. Adults have about 10,000 papillae, which are divided into four groups: circumvallate, foliate, fungiform and filiform.

• How to take care of your sense of taste?

To appreciate the full flavour of food it is important to care for your sense of taste. How? First, by maintaining proper oral hygiene. Do not forget to brush your teeth and clean your tongue after each meal. It is also important to avoid smoking and drinking alcohol, and to be careful with spicy foods as they erode the taste buds. Care should also be taken with very hot foods which irritate the lingual papillae and oral mucosa.

• Umami, the fifth taste.

Along with the four basic tastes (sweet, sour, bitter and salty), we can recognise a fifth taste: umami. The word comes from Japanese and means “tasty”. Hard to describe, we have only been made aware of it relatively recently, so many people are totally oblivious to it. However, it is certainly perceived when a stronger effect is attained in some dishes. Defined by the presence of glutamate, umami is present in many varied foods, such as cheese, cured ham, anchovies, tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms.