Moncho Gómez Lorenzo: "The school canteen underwent a radical change when the woman joined the workforce"

AlgaidaThe dining room of CEIP Pare Bartomeu Pou in Algaida is, since last June and forevermore, Can Moncho. It is in recognition of José Ramon Gómez Lorenzo (Pedrayo, 1962) who, from 1988 until this year, has been the cook at the public school in the municipality. At times, and amidst nostalgic memories, he tells us very valid and practical tips and recipes for any family trying to get the little ones in the house to eat everything. Moncho didn't want any farewell party, but after almost forty years of service, the event was entirely inevitable.

Where are you from and how did you end up in Mallorca and settle in Algaida?

— I was born in Pedrayo, a hamlet belonging to the Town Hall of Pereiro de Aguiar, in the province of Ourense, in Galicia. At eighteen years old, I stood my ground and left home for adventure. I ended up in La Rioja, where I started working in the fields, harvesting fruit. There I met a couple of young people who worked in hospitality and they told me that there was a lot of work in Mallorca. I didn't think twice: I packed my bags and came with them. We arrived a week before Easter Week in 1981 when I was 18 years old.

How did the beginnings go?

— Yes, they were quite tough, it wasn't easy at all to find work at first. We stayed at the Pensió Bahía Mediterráneo, which was in Plaça Gomila. We each had a room and only had enough money to pay for the first month. In the end, my first job was as a warehouse assistant at a company in the Son Castelló industrial estate. I worked from Monday to Friday, and on weekends, which I had off, I got extra work as a waiter, especially in party venues. I remember earning much more from tips than from the salary they gave me. That's where I started getting into the world of hospitality.

And when did you jump into the kitchen?

— It was through a gentleman I met who had a restaurant near Plaça Gomila called Can Mateu. He asked me if I wanted to work with him and told me: "Don't worry, I'll teach you." My job was to clean chickens, remove their giblets to leave them sliced for roasting, and be behind the bar. I was there from May to October, about five months, until the restaurant closed because it was only for tourists. When it closed, I met another person who called me for a restaurant that had something very good at that time in Mallorca: it was open all year round. It was the Restaurant Los Tordos, located on Marquès de la Sènia. The owner told me that if I liked it, he would teach me. And that was my first real contact with the stove. There I began to feel what I really wanted to be and I learned a lot. I was there until I was called for military service.

How did you get to Algaida?

— Two partners and I rented a roadside restaurant in Manacor called Can Fideu. I was the cook. One day the management team from the Algaida school showed up and asked me if I was interested in running the school canteen. We did the numbers, I proposed a price per menu and they thought it was very good. I went to see the school facilities and decided it was better to cook directly there. So I spoke with my partners and we reached an agreement, and I left the restaurant to start working at the Algaida school.

Do you remember those first few years compared to the current volume of students?

— When I started there were very few children, only 25. I was self-employed and took care of everything: buying, preparing, and distributing the food. The duty teachers helped me and supervised the playground and the dining room. I only had to clean the facilities that I used. Since I finished at four in the afternoon, for the first ten years I combined it by working in the evenings at restaurants like Cal Dimoni or Quatre Vents. Well, from those beginnings, we have ended up with 302 permanent children.

Why do you think this increase was motivated?

— It is clear that the dining room underwent a radical change when women joined the workforce because they had to leave the children in the dining room. And here, for many years, there was a double school day and only the children who came from Pina, Randa or from outside were "obliged" to stay, for the others it was optional.

How have you experienced, on a practical and emotional level, this last year before retirement?

— For many years I had a young man working with me, Francisco Barceló, whom I taught in my own way. This gave me freedom of movement to be a bit in the dining room or in the patio. But when he left, I had to stay on the front lines of the stoves, along with Sergio, who is an assistant, and Lola, who helped us clean and set up the menus. And that's why this last year has been a lot of work, the feelings have been super good because I've reconnected with the beginnings. Arriving in the morning again, standing in front of the stoves and cooking everything myself until four o'clock has been a pleasure. I enjoyed it as my phrase said: "Like Toni Kroos, the footballer, who retires with his boots on." I retired with my apron on.

In all these years, how has the way of feeding children changed?

— It has made a 180-degree change. Before, families used to eat six or seven fixed dishes. The Ministry of Health itself was the first to bet on this change with campaigns in APIMAs and town halls with the slogan: "Eating well is not eating a lot, it's eating varied and balanced." The beginnings were quite tough. We went from eating fried potatoes three days a week and two or three days canned fruit, to eating potatoes once a week and getting rid of canned fruit and introducing a lot of vegetables and legumes, introducing creams, a lot of varied salads... everything more cooked and fried foods at most twice a month.

And how do you deal with this change? How does it affect you as a cook? Because making healthy food for boys and girls must not be easy…

— Because of this change, I went to university at 45 years old! I did a postgraduate course in infant and youth nutrition and diet in the afternoons and on Saturdays. I did it because I didn't even grasp it myself at first. I thought: "Listen, they are children, if you give them a plate of pasta or some potatoes like a breaded steak, they will burn it off equally in the playground in thirty seconds!". But they insisted that it had to be done that way, and in the end, by preparing things with a lot of affection, we achieved it.

Some examples?

— For example, I make pumpkin, parsnip, or legume creams and then sieve them well so they are like "baby food"; they eat them without seeing anything and value the texture. With salads, the secret is the cut. If you cut the lettuce thickly, as at home, children are unable to put the leaf in their mouths. But if you cut it julienne style, very finely, accompanied by corn, tuna, or beetroot, they eat it little by little and assimilate it very well. Nowadays, salads are fantastic. There are many tricks to get children to eat everything, but the key is to arrive here every morning as if it were the first day and enjoy what you do

Do you have any other tips for vegetables or legumes?

— With lentils, for example, the godparents come and tell me: "what on earth do you put in the lentils, because my grandson says he doesn't like those at home and he likes yours?". The secret is the vegetable stock: spinach, carrot, pumpkin, chard, and onion. Everything is well sautéed and, when cooked, the onion disappears, the finely chopped spinach too, and the carrot and potato are cut very, very small, like for a salad (he draws it in a notebook). For the youngest children, when they don't like it, we get them used to it by giving them one spoonful the first week, two the following, and after fifteen days they eat the whole plate. You have to be cunning: if a child is not a big eater, you can't give them a full plate that overwhelms them from the start. The main courses also need to have a good visual presence that makes them hungry. Another trick I have is that grilled fish or meats, like chicken breast, are always accompanied by a little lemon sauce, Rioja-style or Biscay-style if it's cod. The child who doesn't want it, moves it aside, so it doesn't get dry. And the fish, always, absolutely free of bones. A bone in a child's mouth is a danger and scares them. You have to do all this arriving here in the morning as if it were the first day and enjoying what you do and preparing it in such a way that you make things easier for them when eating.

They say that children ate better at school than at home…

— It is a fact, the director himself told me: "Everything Moncho does is good and at home there's always a but...". This has an explanation: for many years I also cooked for the nursery school for 0 to 3 year olds. We went like a cart with hot food fresh from the pot. The children who started school at three years old had already eaten my cooking since they were little. They already came trained, and their main diet had been raised with me.

After so many years, you must have fed entire generations of algaidins. You must have had people here who then also had their children?

— And grandchildren! Think that I started here at 26 years old. At that time there were children of sixteen who had repeated (before the system was different) and who already looked like men and women. Those people have had partners, have had children and now those children leave their children with us in the dining room. We even have some grandchildren already! That parents leave their children with you means that their own experience in the dining room was good, otherwise, they wouldn't bring them.

In 1996 the management system for the canteens changed. How did it affect you?

— I started here in 1988 as a self-employed person. In 1996, the Ministry put all school canteens out to tender with a closed bid. A project had to be submitted which, among other things, included the price of the menu with supervisors included, that is, what the menu should cost the father and mother, and an annual fee that I paid to the school. I won the tender for five years, competing against large companies because I adjusted the price a lot, I think it was 165 pesetas at the time, and that's why I won. Then in 2002 it came out again and I won again. This last tender allowed me to have the service for 25 years, but renewable each year in which I had to send the Ministry a report evaluating the quantity, quality, and cleanliness of the management team, the APIMA, and the City Council, and so on until now. From then on, the school took a back seat in management and everything was up to me: I had to hire staff, asking that 70% knew Catalan and that they were leisure monitors. In fact, in the summer of 1997, we organized the workshops here to get our leisure monitor qualification. And most importantly: I presented a Project for the educational canteen and playground that is still hanging in the school.

What does this educational project consist of?

— It consists of the fact that the dining room is also a classroom. You have to enter in line, respect the monitors, sit well in the chair, clean your mouth after drinking, speak in a moderate tone, ask for things "please" and say "thank you." And in the playground, the children have to empathize with each other. It went much further than just giving food, there was a very important pedagogical part. In addition, we involved the boys and girls. We put two older boys from fifth or sixth grade at each table. They were in charge of serving the soup from the tureen. For the second course, the older ones got up in turns, entered the kitchen in an orderly manner - as if it were a wedding banquet - took their prepared trays and served the six classmates at their table. When finished, one of the older ones collected the plates, another the glasses, a small one carried the bread basket (which if it fell, nothing happened). Everyone had a function and this educated them and they liked it.

What has helped you maintain the motivation to cook for 40 years for the same client profile? What is the secret?

— The secret is to go to work with the enthusiasm of the first day and always keep in mind that you are cooking for children. This means that the more you enjoy making the dishes, the easier you will make it for them at mealtime. And all this, obviously, respecting nutritional guidelines, which is very important. It motivates me a lot to go out and have the kids ask me for seconds. If out of 140 older children, 70 want seconds, the fact of knowing that I have nailed that dish is the best motivation. At first it was difficult, because the vegetables didn't go down easily, until they got the picture in their heads and say: "Moncho's pilaf rice" or "rice with herbs". Then they no longer see "the green", but they value the flavor. Rice is a star dish. Or the Galician potatoes, which are slices with aromatic herbs and leeks, well dressed with a little oil and sweet paprika. You'd be amazed how they eat them. Modesty aside, I have many dishes like that. Another curious case is cannelloni. When I started here, if 50 children stayed to eat, only 5 liked them. Nowadays they go crazy for them. Many children did not know these dishes before.

And fruit, is it hard for them to eat it?

— Fruit, they must eat at least half a piece. They were not used to it. With the orange from here, there was no way. At first, I had to put it peeled, in slices and with a pinch of sugar, because otherwise there was no way, even though it's so good. Now they eat apples and pears very well, even though in winter stored fruit is harder to ripen properly. In summer, oranges, melon, and watermelon are popular.

Returning to the patio, you say that education also happens there.

— And so on. In the dining room we educate with rules of behavior, and in the playground by empathizing with the children, treating them all equally. For me it is essential that there is super intensive supervision by the monitors. From two to four in the afternoon I am responsible for everything that happens in the playground. Also, children like there to be a figure of respect. I used to go out to the playground and act as a referee in football matches between third, fourth, fifth and sixth graders. I played with them and acted as a referee. The last day I still whistled a match. If you do it this way, they listen to you; if not, things and problems start. When I started in 1988, teachers used to have lunch and then go out to the playground to play with the children. Nowadays this is no longer seen, and children need to see this figure and empathize with it.

Leaving school, how have you seen the evolution of the town since you arrived in 1988 until now?

— When I arrived, the town didn't even reach 3,000 inhabitants. Back then, everything was concentrated in the square: they played football, conillons… The life was the square and also on the football field, which was dirt back then. There was also the place to play ping-pong. Then the town started to grow a lot because it's close to Palma, the airport, the beach and the hospital, and also with the new road… The town has grown a lot.

What message would you like to send to the educational community and the town at the time of your farewell?

— I want to thank the educational community and the City Council wholeheartedly for the trust they have placed in me and my team of monitors over all these years, and I apologize if at any time I have not lived up to what was required of me.

And to the people who would enter your place?

— I would give them two basic pieces of advice: they must like children and they must like cooking. If they have these two things, everything else comes naturally.