In Spain, cutting jamon is a fully fledged job that brings prestige and money, a man’s world that women are only just starting to take on.
High-level cutters of the country’s world-famous dry-cured ham legs, which can fetch 3,000 euros (US$3,437) in markets like China, are employed by top restaurants, at weddings or glitzy events.
However, women are still a rarity among these “rock stars” of the ham sector.
Puri Garabaya, 31, was the first so-called cortadora (cutter) to take part in the final of the Spanish Championships for Jamon Cutters in southern Jabugo last weekend.
She did not win, but told reporters before the competition that her presence was crucial “for all women who can now say: ‘Look, we too can get there.’”
For this select group, cutting ham is an art, the slices so thin they are near transparent, among other techniques.
“For a cortador to become a master, he must be capable of transforming the cutting process into sensations, into harmony and emotions,” Florencio Sanchidrian said.
A well-known cortador, Sanchidrian has cut jamon for the likes of actors Robert de Niro and Al Pacino, Pope John Paul II, the Spanish king and former US president Barack Obama.
He has earned 3,500 euros for just one cutting session, “sometimes more.”
“We’re a little like rock stars, each of us has their own reputation,” said Raquel Acosta, another cortadora — the “a” at the end indicating the feminine classification of the noun as opposed to cortador for a man.
Aged 27, Acosta is a pioneer in this very masculine world along with Garabaya.
She started off in a jamon store in the western city of Salamanca.
At the time, “I didn’t know of any woman who had taken part in a competition,” she said. “You didn’t even hear the word cortadora. If you looked it up on Google, you came up with a machine that cuts ham.”
Now, though, she has traveled to Berlin, Paris, Marseille and London to promote Iberian ham, an opportunity that would have been “unimaginable” before.
Still, she said there are very few women who work at that level, between five and 10.
“Women were forced to work harder to enter this world,” said Manuel Pradas, an adviser to cortadores in Barcelona and an expert on the sector.
He said ham was “long cut in a rudimentary manner,” a reflection of the Spain of the past that was “more chauvinistic.”
However, at the turn of the century emerged “a new image of the cortador who has studied all the different cutting techniques” and focuses more on presentation in a bid to give the job more prestige, he added.
This new image has allowed women — who say they cut ham with more “finesse” than their male counterparts — to enter the ham cutters’ world.
Social media also contributed to bettering the visibility of cortadoras, said Miriam Lopez, founder of the blog Jamon Lovers.
With 11,000 followers on her Instagram account, Raquel Acosta is “the most famous,” Lopez said.
“Raquel is an example,” said Luz Maria Zamorano, 35, who in her three years as a cortadora has cut about 2,000 ham legs.
“It’s a masculine world, but I believed that you could bring a feminine touch,” she said.
At a time when women’s rights are more than ever on the agenda, jamon producers, hotels and television channels are banking on this.
Pradas manages in Barcelona a team of 25 cortadores that includes seven women, who bring “freshness” to the group, he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese