Today we are afraid of simple words like goodness and mercy and kindness. We don’t believe in the good old words because we don’t believe in good old values anymore. And that’s why the world is sick.

I wasn’t manufactured. I was cut from the cloth of the very old world of gastronomy. There was no such thing as celebrity chefs, chefs were trained and I like to think that I still represent those old values from that world and the opportunities that I am offered I often say no to.

I am imprinted with the whole sense of European history, especially German history, going back to World War I, which really destroyed all the old values and culture. My grandparents had been reasonably well-off but they became quite poor, living in an attic apartment.

All things change. В The automobiles change every year. В [Your] television set gets lighter and smaller and higher definition. В All things in the scientific world change. В But politicians do not change. В They carry old values and they don’t even know it.

Madrid reacting with the forceful protection of bullfighting as an art form is an example of the survival of the old values.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about lately is how the change in values makes the survival of the old values, where they do survive, all the more striking. There are pockets of the old bullfighting world that exist more or less intact, both in Spain and elsewhere.