Michelin-starred El Celler de Can Roca and the Roca brothers that built it may be a long way gastronomicallyfrom their parents café, but the ideology of good, Spanish cooking is the same

THE gulf between traditional Spanish cooking and the avant-garde creations dreamed up by the nation’s “modernista” chefs may appear vast. But in the north-eastern city of Girona, it can be measured by a distance of just a few hundred metres. That’s what separates the Roca brothers’ gleaming new eatery in the quiet residential suburb of Taialà from the popular café-restaurant run by their parents, Montserrat and Angelete.

The trio of Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca have gained an international reputation for being at the vanguard of some of today’s most exciting and technically challenging cuisine. This in turn has earned their El Celler de Can Roca two Michelin stars and lavish praise from the food critics. Now firmly established on the foodies’ map – last year it was voted the 11th best restaurant in the world by the prestigious gourmets’ bible, Restaurant magazine - it can take up to two months to get a weekend reservation.

A key ingredient in their success has been that each of the brothers has his own expertise – Joan, the savoury courses, Jordi, the desserts, and Josep, the wines – and they combine their talents to create exquisitely unusual dishes. The result is a menu  peppered with offerings such as fennel veloute with sea water and barnacles, fig’s terrine with bitter, tender almonds and foie gras or artichokes with sunflowers and orange.

On the other hand, their parents’ Restaurant Can Roca just up the road is a stalwart of tradition, a popular local restaurant that has served up typical Catalan fare for decades. Dishes such as pa amb tomàquet (bread with tomato rubbed over and seasoned with olive oil and salt), mongetes amb butifarra (beans and pork sausage) and escalivada I carn d’olla (Catalan stew) are firm favourites with the local clientele. The emphasis is on hearty down-to-earth dishes prepared from fresh vegetables and good quality meat and fish rather than anything fussy or fancy.

Yet, for all the apparent differences, Joan Roca insists that the basis of the innovative cuisine at El Celler was an upbringing steeped in the very Catalan dishes that his parents still prepare. So while his receipes are as technically accomplished as near neighbour and friend, Ferran Adrià, of El Bulli fame – rated as the best restaurant in the world -  they are inspired by a cuisine that stretches back for centuries.
“The cooking that we do is one that has evolved, that uses new technologies and that is open to the rest of the world,” Joan explains, “but, in essence, the theme comes from our memory of the tastes and smells of traditional Catalan cooking that we got from our parents.”

If the Roca brothers’ cuisine is an inspired combination of the traditional and the very modern, so too are their new premises. A path leads from the street to a grassy courtyard which you cross to enter the sleek, minimalist interior of El Celler. They only moved into their new restaurant in October last year ((2007)) – having built up their reputation over 20 years in a smaller building next door to their parents’ café.

Once inside the new El Celler there is a feeling of space and light, especially once you enter the glass-walled eating area, where the 12 tables are arranged around a central triangular “cloister”. This contrasts greatly with the old premises, which also had a dozen tables but in a much smaller, darker environment with cramped kitchens that were difficult to work in.

“It’s like a dream. This new space is like a cloister. It has a sensation of comfort, calm, intimacy,” says Joan. “The other really important thing is that we have improved the installations – the kitchens, the wine cellar and so on.”

In the latter can be found another example of the brothers’ belief that the dining experience should involve all the senses, not just taste but touch, sight, sound and smell. Within the darkened single-storey bodega Josep has arranged five shrines to his favourite wine-producing areas or grape varieties - Champagne, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Priorat and Jerez - and in each there is music, images and objects to hold that, for him, encapsulate the essence of the particular wine. “It’s meant to be like a voyage that allows people to interpret the wines,” says Josep.

Read the full article in our June 2008 issue.