The very recent opening of his restaurant in Brera may have been good for business but, since Max Mariola landed in Milan, controversies have not stopped persecuting him. Of course, someone would attribute the responsibility to him: for example, the decision to sell a plate of carbonara at a cost of 30 euros is the chef-influencer’s. He, at the microphones of The mosquito, justifies the price by saying that what he sells is not simply a dish: “It’s an experience, a culinary show.” The restaurant chefs, sometimes Mariola himself, prepare it directly at the diners’ table. And then the possibility of hearing the social media star whisper her slogan «the sound of love», panting and reproducing the sounds of creaming would be worth the price of the carbonara.
«It will be made with the eggs that come from a hen that has a golden ass», quips co-host David Parenzo. While Giuseppe Cruciani takes the influencer’s defense. At a certain point, the showman de The mosquito he asks Mariola why there are so few female chefs. And it is here that the host of the show makes a slip that Parenzo immediately frames as sexism. «Because it is very tiring work. Can you imagine a mother who stays away from her newborn child for 12, 14 hours”, says Mariola? Parenzo intervenes: «But this applies to all jobs, a famous lawyer, a magistrate…». Cruciani immediately interrupts him: «No, they can find their own time, you have to be in the kitchen».
Chef Mariola insists: «In the kitchen, all those hours, you have to be present». And then he declares: «I mainly have men in the kitchen». Cruciani then asks him, already imagining the answer, if he followed the requirements of female quotas in hiring. «No, because it’s really hard work», reiterates Mariola. At this point Parenzo returns to tease him with paradoxes: «Ah, so gays can’t be chefs?». Mariola wants to get out of the controversy and tries to say “of course anyone can do it…”. “And the blacks?” she goes back to asking for Parenzo. «My room is multi-ethnic, my waiters are multi-ethnic». The topic ends with a final consideration from Cruciani: «But there isn’t a homosexual chef. Why isn’t there an important homosexual chef?”. And Mariola falls back into a phrase that is at least ambiguous: “And what do I know, I don’t hang out with them.”
