“After more than 15 years and by decision of the channel, March 31 is our last program on the Public TV screen.” This is how the “Cocineros Argentinos” social network account X reported a week ago what finally happened this Wednesday. Between tears and emotion, the members of the historic shipment said goodbye to the air within the framework of the brutal adjustment carried out by Javier Milei’s government in the state media.
“I send you immense love, we send you to all those who passed through Cocineros Argentinos, to all those who worked, participated and opened the doors of their home and their hearts to us. To you who have been there banking since the first day or perhaps just from yesterday. We are all part of this great family, thanks to my family from the bottom of my heart. Thank you very much for banking all this time”, were the words at the beginning of a farewell led by driver Juan Braceli.
In addition, the chef added: “We are closing, it is a lot of emotion, but it is a lot of joy. Do you know why we are here and why the whole country is tight right now? Because we are all Argentine Chefs. See you always, thank you.”
The gastronomic magazine was broadcast for the first time on the Public TV screen on January 5, 2009 and had been uninterruptedly on the air for 15 years until this Wednesday. The cycle was the most watched on the state channel and the one that performed the best commercially, which is why its lifting drew attention.
The program hosted by Braceli, Narda Lepes, Karina Gao and Ximena Sáenz, and which featured figures such as Guillermo Calabrese, was one of the longest running on screen and, with a federal proposal, it became the most watched on TV Public.
“A program like this would not have existed if public media did not exist, this is important to say. If there is no public media, no one bets on a federal program and on going to the corner of the corner of Argentina, where you can show the life of the people, their idiosyncrasies, their stories, sadness and joys,” Braceli had said days ago, after the news of the program’s lifting was announced, at the beginning of a farewell that finally took place this Wednesday.