When I spoke with Martha Ortiz, she was the chef of Dulce Patria in Mexico City. The book’s roll call records that Dulce Patria has since closed and that she now runs Filigrana, also in Mexico City.
Ortiz speaks in The Luxury of Attention to where creativity in the kitchen comes from and how it is kept. On the first question, her answer is wider than almost any other in the book. She told me that nourishment has to be understood as something beyond food, and that a chef feeds the imagination by absorbing other disciplines. She visits museums, listens to music and opera, reads literature and poetry, and studies the texture of painting techniques, and it is in the artistic ability of others that she finds the motivation to create. The breadth of that list is itself the lesson. The chef who reads only cookbooks will eventually produce only cookbook food. On the second question, she produces an artifact most chefs do not. For every dish she writes a libretto, a story of emotions, characters and ideas in which particular words correspond to colors and tastes. From the story come small drawings, then visits to markets, museums and antique shops for the objects and flavors that bring it to life, all of it collected in a notebook with sketches of plates drawn in strokes of burned cinnamon. The libretto is the structuring document that ties each dish to a thesis and lets her return to an idea months later without starting again.
“I visit museums, delight in music and opera, read literature and poetry, and respect the texture of painting techniques. It is there, in the artistic ability of others, where I feel inspired and motivated to create.” Martha Ortiz, chef, Dulce Patria, Mexico City
In the book, Martha Ortiz appears in Chapter 6, The Creative Act, where her range of inputs stands as the fullest example of a chef drawing from outside the field, and where her libretto sits beside Albert Adrià’s chassis and Susanne Hatje’s programmed partnerships as evidence that creativity at this level is scheduled work and protected time.
“I create a libretto to accompany each and every dish.” Martha Ortiz, chef, Dulce Patria, Mexico City