Last month we were going to be fairly close to Girona at the Hotel Mas de Torrent so I emailed the Celler de Can Roca, now No 1 in the world in one set of such rankings, in the faint hope that a table for two might be available and of course it wasn’t but I asked that they contact our hotel if there was a sudden cancellation. To my surprise a phone message was waiting for us when we arrived and on 11th September, Catalunya’s National Day, we found ourselves lunching at a packed El Celler.
We were warmly welcomed and asked if we wished to see the kitchen before the meal which we did and were shown around the very modern kitchen with its several creation, preparation, cooking and ‘assembly’ areas with their teams as well as some of the high-tech gadgets used e.g. to extract and intensify the essence of key ingredients.
The kitchen was full of chefs including several foreigners like Mike from Edinburgh who had been there for two years and an Argentine who is a joint Chef de Cuisine under Joan Roca.
After the meal we were shown around their incredible cellar containing major quantities of the best wines from all over the world. I noticed that e.g. Petrus, DRC etc etc were placed on the highest shelves. For extra wine storage they apparently still use the cellar at their parents’ original restaurant close by which is still operating and is hugely popular with Mama Roca still in charge.
The Roca brothers used this cellar as their first restaurant [hence the name of the new one] before they relocated to their impressive purpose-built building constructed around an old Spanish mansion which Joan Roca lives in and which also houses the new kitchens on the ground floor.
Two fixed menus only were offered and we greedily chose the larger of the two and, more rationally since the whole table must have the same menu, because Susan has become allergic to foie gras and the ‘Feast’ menu contained none.
The menu chosen is given to every customer in their language and the photographs that follow will be in that order although we were actually given the bonbon laden bonsai olive tree first and ‘the World’ second. For no reason we could divine the menu was divided in two and began with 6 ‘starters’ or ‘amuses’ which I have labelled A-G on the menu for ease of reference.
Since I was driving and Susan basically only drinks certain still and sparkling white wines we had to forego the special glass by glass selection to accompany each course. Instead we chose a Cava Gran Reserva Manel Raventos 02 Brut Nature as a replacement to accompany the entire meal while complimentary glasses of Cava were served prior to the meal.
The ‘main’ tasting dishes [1-14] followed.
As the menu shows [A] ‘The World’ was a selection of ‘tastes’ from 5 countries that Joan Roca had recently visited: Mexico, Peru, China, Morocco and Korea and was presented inside a folding paper globe with the world printed on it
**The caramelised olive with anchovy bonbons hung on a Bonsai Olive tree – only one left on ours before I hauled the camera out.
I apologise for the size of the phtographs which have not appeared so large from Photobucket in the past and will limit them to 8 in this post
but will include other dishes from the menu in further posts if people are interested.
The essence of this extraordinary meal was of presentation and intensity of flavour and often colour and I hope these adequately illustrate the presentational and colour aspects.
[1] Boring as a vegetable stock based plate might sound it was delicious and rather beautiful
[3] The white asparagus and truffle viennetta was a perfect blend of intensity and texture in its key ingredients
And the [5] Salad of sea anemone, razor clam, royal cucumber and seaweed in escabeche was as delicious as it was somewhat strange.
Susan couldn’t eat hers [the mackerel also defeated her] so I had both twice. The former grew on me to the point of genuine enjoyment. The latter was a simply an intense and attractive presentation of a fish I like.
So I will skip to two of the desserts [all 3 were magnificent]
[12] The sourdough ice cream with cocoa pulp, fried lychee and sherry vinegar macaro was so tasty although I am not sure why the description doesn’t mention what we assumed, by taste and texture, were tiny meringues covering the outside.
And the jewel-like [13] ‘A fragrance adapted’ with its symphony of blood orange, vanilla, mango and roses
It was a most interesting and enjoyable experience and I hope I have managed to convey some of that here. I apologise again for the size of the photographs but would be happy to provide any of the other courses if anyone wishes to see them.
We were there at 13:00 for 13:30 and finally left at 16:45 after coffee and more bonbons. The roads were eerily empty and we soon discovered why. I had forgotten that on this particular National Day [which our Spanish waiter quaintly described as a celebration of losing a battle – the Bourbons taking Barcelona] there would be a joining of hands the entire length of Catalunya. After many circuits as we were turned back by the police from the crowds watching and forming the line which passed through Girona, we finally found a way to the motorway and made a large circle back to an exit which passed above the line.**
