Is called carlos sanchez and although he works with metal tools, golf is not his thing. He doesn’t need a ‘caddy’ to carry his knives wherever his services are hired. Especially top-level social and sporting events in which, under the prestige of chef José Andrés and his group, he is hired to perform a job that in the United States is considered an art: cutting ham.
Born in Barcelona but with a Burgos heart, this Spaniard triumphs on the other side of the pond as an ambassador for one of the best products in the world: Iberian ham. He is recognized by his suit, black vinyl glove and perfect tie knot in each of the acts to which he is called –he travels all over the world–: from the Oscar to Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Sánchez has captured all eyes among the VIP audience that has attended the Augusta Golf Masters these days, in which Jon Rahm –the lion of Barrica– achieved his first green jacket and the sixth for Spain on the same day that Severiano Ballesteros would have turned 66. He is used to preparing his dishes of ham ‘minitapas’ before celebrities of all kinds. This small, one-bite cut is his personal hallmark.
He has worked with heads of state such as Barack Obama, actors and directors –Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon or Steven Spielberg, to name a few– and kings, those of Spain of course, and others like the late Elizabeth II of England. He has been hired at numerous private parties, a world he arrived at thanks to the trust of the Spanish artist Raimundo Amador, as he explained in an interview on ABC.
His success story began with his brother in a Burgos butcher shop. There he began to perfect his technique cutting hams until he became a true master. The epigraph that includes his trade in the US is that of ‘artist’ as there is no specific professional category.
Despite the lack of knowledge that still seems to reign around Iberian ham among Americans -frequently confused with Italian ‘ham’–, the Spaniard considers that there is more respect for his work on the other side of the pond than in his native country.
