Alberto Chicote: “‘Are you going to eat it?’ social resonance”

What will viewers find in this season of ‘Will you eat it?’

As a basic guide, we’ll cover themes that are very close to anyone who wants to see us this season. They touch you, they touch me and all of us who make the show. These are problems that we encounter very often, such as consulting reviews on the Internet. There are five themes in total, and they all depend on the uses and needs of each day.

How did the fake comment problem come about? Do you focus on restaurants that buy positive reviews, or the fact that competitors may intentionally write bad reviews?

This is a theme that comes up in a certain way. About a year ago, while opening my new restaurant, Omeraki, I suddenly received an email from a man I had never met. He told me it’s always helpful to contact him to negotiate the price, having a few positive reviews. And I was like, “How? What is this?” I’ve never seen this in my life.

To begin with, I am not a consumer of reviews. First, because I rarely go out, and second, when I go out, I usually go to my friends’ restaurants and I don’t need anyone to tell me if the food is good or bad. As I dived into that world, I found that you can get reviews from real users that feel great, with the option to write them yourself. I get that the payer rules are not so good for me, but bad for whoever it is, well, they eat them here. Although there is a regulation prohibiting these practices, no one controls them.

Are you going to offer any tool so that the consumer does not fall into the trap or are we unprotected about it?

To prevent this from happening, the tools are in the hands of major platforms. They’re the ones who have to offer the solution, so what we’re going to do is give the warning that not everything that glitters is gold. What the user can do is try to decipher that the opinions they read are from users who don’t have strange behavior, but you’d have to spend half a life verifying that.

Many of the topics covered in the program involve some form of risk to people’s health, such as food allergies. Did you encounter any surprises during the recording of that episode?

Two main things happened in the allergy and intolerance program. First, the public has a lot of ignorance about the difference between one thing and another. An allergy can kill you, and an intolerance is something that will inconvenience you in the worst case. My greatest surprise was when I learned that the scientific community agreed that all the intolerance tests available to you in different places, often in pharmacies, were worthless. When you go to the doctor they tell you to throw it away because it has no value.

How strange, you go to do different tests in different places and each one gives you different results. Still, it’s striking because after all, these are so-called medical tests but are neither supported nor approved by the scientific community. Doctors tell you to be careful because you stop consuming lactose for a few more years, and when you realize that’s not true, it turns out you’ve become intolerant on your own.

Among all the installments, would you say the biggest challenge or difficulty during registration?

‘Are you going to eat?’ We’re always looking for someone to explain why they’re doing things wrong. They are the show’s weirdest moments. Who is offering to serve you your wedding dinner in the garage of his house, without any sanitary measures or health checks… Once we find these people, we will call them so they can tell us why they came. do this But I understand that this is exactly the essence of the program.

As in other incidents, has there been any police intervention this season?

There is no police intervention this season, but the essence is ‘Are you going to eat?’ to create social impact. People’s awareness of what’s going on. If you see us talking about allergies and intolerances, when you come into the office the next day you’ll be like, “Hey, how important are intolerances and allergies.” We are trying to create some social impact, shed light on all this and give a voice to people in need. This can be done later if the institutions understand what is happening and decide to write on the subject.

How do you choose themes for each season? Do you receive any offers from the public?

There’s a little bit of everything. There are times when we take a complaint we receive between seasons as a basis, and sometimes we find it directly. For example, like the reviews that attacked me when I was setting up my restaurant. When I saw that this was happening, I talked to the director of the program and we decided to do it.

How do you balance in the latest ‘Nightmare in the kitchen’ edition?

It is a great honor for me, myself and the whole team to continue a program like ‘Nightmare in the Kitchen’ and maintain its freshness on the first day. It is true that the audience numbers were not the same, but today, it is not on television in general. The truth is, both the chain and the entire team are satisfied and happy. I don’t have a date yet, but I know we’re filming the ninth season. It looks incredible, nine seasons. And as always, we will try to do our best.