"Any Day Now, I Might Win the Planeta Prize," Says Karlos Arguiñano

Karlos Arguiñano's latest 'child' weighs 2.4 kilos. It's called 'Cooking for Everyone' and carries the Planeta surname. It contains 700 pages with 560 recipes. Anticipating Christmas, it heralds a new cookbook that will dominate the new releases. It's a classic of the season, much like Mariah Carey's carol returning home like nougat. Arguiñano (Beasain, 1948) presented his new 'book-child' in Aia, a town where Amaia, the youngest of his six biological children, produces delightful txakolís.

Arguiñano's numbers are impressive. At 77, he has spent 37 years on television, with nearly 8,000 shows where he has cooked around 13,000 recipes. He started on TVE in 1981, with three million viewers. Since then, he has appeared on both channels of the Basque television ETB, Telenorte, Telecinco, channel 13 and the public ATC in Argentina, and Antena3 where he currently reigns as the king of the kitchen with his 'Open Kitchen'.

But he is also the veteran monarch of culinary editions. He published his first book in 1990. 'The Daily Menu' sold one and a half million copies "for which I didn't receive a penny." "The editor of Serbal was a sly bird who flew away with everything, which was a lot," he recalls with a smile.

With a print run of 110,000 copies and a price of 24.90 euros - about 10 euros/kilo - 'Cooking for Everyone' (Planeta) is the twelfth cookbook in an unbeatable series that has sold over one and a half million large-format books.

It arrives in bookstores with figures reserved for fiction authors like María Dueñas, Dolores Redondo, or Arturo Pérez Reverte. Arguiñano has no plans to publish fiction or his jokes for now, but he doesn't rule anything out, including memoirs. "If we keep going like this, any day now I might win the Planeta Prize. As soon as I learn to write, I'll start," the author jokes in front of some of the publishing giant's executives. "I could never have lived off my jokes, but from other things..."

He feels free to do whatever he wants and, of course, to keep telling those bad jokes that season his recipes. "No network has ever told me what I have to say, so I say whatever I want," boasts the friendly and popular chef who estimates he has spent "more than four thousand hours talking to himself."

"At 77, I still have the enthusiasm to cook every day, healthy, cheap, and fun. I think of those who have to feed three or four people on a 1,200-euro salary. Not those who have four boats. I don't cook eels, fresh hake cheeks, or lobster. I rarely make dishes for a celebration," he says with a more serious expression.

"I can't afford to get sick," says this hyperactive communicator who leads a team of nearly 20 people at his production company Bainet and who watches over a brand "that wouldn't put out a bag." "I have no dreams left unfulfilled. I'm old, but fresh.

I have exceeded my expectations far beyond what I dreamed. I have restaurants, a hospitality school, a hotel, wineries... I've produced films, sponsored a motorcycle team, pelota players, and several women's handball teams," he lists.

He details this at the K5 winery run by Amaia Arguiñano, an industrial engineer and oenologist. A 15-hectare vineyard and 50,000 vines on the edge of the Cantabrian Sea, in Aia, near Zarautz, where the chef has his restaurant. In Aia, he produces between 50,000 and 75,000 bottles of txakolí of various qualities. All with the same grape type, Hondarrabi zuri.

The presentation was joined by his fifth child, Joseba, who shares the screen with him and contributes 58 recipes to the book. "He's not as funny as I am, but he's smarter and much more prepared," says his smiling father. To keep it all in the family, his sister Eva Arguiñano signs another 56 dessert recipes.

Good humor is a key ingredient for Arguiñano. "I have a temper, yes, and sometimes a bad mood. But it passes quickly. Bad temper complicates life. You have to let it go and start fresh. Without humor, you can't lead a healthy life," he assures, regaining his frank and contagious smile.

The ironic streak comes from his father "who was very funny." "My mother was lame, very lame. When my father introduced her to my grandmother, she was suspicious, and my father said: 'Don't worry, mom, we already know which foot she limps on.'"

He says he doesn't quite know how he ended up in the kitchen. Young Arguiñano was a sheet metal worker at CAF, assembling doors and roofs for locomotives. "My first salary was 5,000 pesetas, and I thought I'd be happy managing my money. But my father humorously added: 'Yes. You'll manage your money but also your own house,' inviting him to leave his home.

"Eating well isn't about eating a lot or expensively, it's about eating a variety," repeats another of his mantras, the chef of delicious, delicious, and with substance. Every time he starts a television adventure, he begins with the same recipe, "hake in green sauce in honor of my mother," he explains.

Now he offers "simple recipes with ingredients that are neither expensive, rare, nor complicated, natural and seasonal cooking." From "lifesaver" dishes that are cooked "in a jiffy" to more elaborate recipes to give or treat oneself "a tribute." That's it, from steak tartare with pumpkin to mushroom soup with cheese crisp, including breaded anchovies with piquillo sauce.