Chefs debate how valid it is to use storytelling in restaurants

“Here we have potatoes wrapped in chaco clay,” says Virgilio Martinez, chef at the Central restaurant in Lima, Peru, as he opens clay spheres in the center of the table.

“In Peru, this clay has been used for centuries to cover potatoes with a bitter taste. To obtain this clay, inhabitants of the arid areas of the altiplano manually dig holes of up to five meters in the ground”, he adds, in charge of the best restaurant in Latin America. , and the second best in the world by the 50 Best Restaurants.

At the table, amazed eyes stared at those little mounds of earth: the narrative was so engaging that it transformed three small muddy potatoes into precious morsels full of history.

At Central, the Peruvian chef interprets the different habitats of the country through the food, and he believes it is important to show this research to customers. “We do all this staging to show ideas, work and also a narrative that is built on real work, on research, on development, on connection with communities,” he says.

The art of storytelling or narratives, known as storytelling, has been around since the beginning of time — even in gastronomy it is not new. Now, however, more than ever it is on the rise.

Although he uses the technique, Martinez classifies it as superfluous. “I didn’t want to fall into saying that for us storytelling is essential, because it’s not. What’s important is to explain the work we do, and this work that is history”, he evaluates.

Janaína Rueda, chef at A Casa do Porco, in São Paulo, believes that restaurants have a duty, in addition to serving good food, to educate people through stories. Currently, her restaurant menu is signed by an all-female team.

“It’s important for us women to step out of the shadows and give ourselves due credit. The fact that this menu was created and directed by me with a group of female cooks says a lot about walking, through education, to address women’s issues in a docile way” , says.

The importance of women at the forefront also made chef Tássia Magalhães, from Nelita, in Pinheiros, be inspired by affective memory, and each step of the menu tells a part of the lives of the cooks present there.

“Telling my story through Nelita is very important, I can take my soul to the clients. Telling the girls’ story completes this desire to elevate women in the profession, to be able to show a little of the paths of each one of them”, she explains.

For many chefs, delivering a narrative alongside the food would create a more memorable moment for the customer. “When a story is told in a true way, it changes the customer’s relationship with food, because you touch other senses and feelings”, believes Magalhães.

According to neuroscience, when someone hears a story, several areas of the brain are activated at the same time to build a logical sequence. Therefore, when listening to a narrative, the human being becomes more deeply involved.

“It makes perfect sense for restaurants to use stories to activate the emotional aspect in the customer”, understands Danielle Bio, a neuropsychologist at Hospital das Clínicas.

“Telling an impactful, affective story, full of details, combined with smell and taste, makes the customer memorize that experience more efficiently. He will remember that restaurant, that dish, and will want to come back more often. “

Luiz Filipe Souza, from Evvai, is one of those who want to tell stories via the menu. “All dishes carry a story in a very strong way, bringing out the affective memory of the customer. They are means that we use so that the customer gets into the mood and embarks on our narrative”, he says.

Arcelia Gallardo, from Mission Chocolate, believes that storytelling not only builds loyalty, but also arouses the customer’s interest in learning more about a brand.

“Whoever buys my chocolates ends up being interested in knowing what other stories I have to tell. For me, it’s impossible to make a good product without a good story behind it”, he defends.

There are, however, situations where storytelling backfires — especially when it’s not based on real research. In 2014, the ice cream brand Diletto became the target of investigation and lawsuits by Conar (National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation) after consumers found the brand’s stories “exaggerated”.

One of them told that Vittorio Scabin, “grandfather” of one of the partners, had brought the recipe for the products from Italy in 1922. The narrative involved World War II and the snow of the Alps as the basis for the manufacture of “gourmet gelattos”.

The lack of veracity —or, in good Portuguese, the lie— makes chefs wary. Rafael Costa e Silva, chef at Lasai, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Rio de Janeiro, thinks that some restaurants are overdone.

“There are restaurants that exaggerate. There are people who spend five minutes counting the dish, how they do it, where it comes from, who planted it. As a customer I don’t like that”, he ponders.

For him, there are suitable circumstances for the use of this resource. “When I visited El Bulli, in Spain, I thought their storytelling was cool, it made sense. However, it became popular and bothers me. The guy comes to tell me an elaborate story, then you look and the dish is pasta with tomato. It gets difficult.”

In the house, the narrative is used to explain its concept in a punctual way, at the beginning of the experience. “Today Lasai only has a table in the kitchen, so we stay all night talking to the customer. The important thing is to understand the profile of each one: some are more interested, others less”, he teaches.

Marco Renzetti, chef of Fame, in Jardins, thinks that the practice could end up as a “shot in the foot”. “Storytelling is a marketing strategy, and I understand that restaurants use it to attract customers. But it doesn’t always correspond to a genuine, sincere story, and it’s often artificial. You can see that, in most cases, it’s something constructed “, it says.

“For me, as a customer, I’m absolutely not interested in storytelling. I’ll go if the food is good. The chef can make up all the stories he wants, but if it doesn’t have flavor, texture and cooking point, no artifice. marketing, no story will make me come back.”