Browning and Oxidations- Lecture 9- Carme Ruscalleda

Carme Ruscalleda (Sant Pau, Sant Pau de Tòquio)

Location: Science Center D

This public lecture series discusses concepts from the physical sciences that underpin both everyday cooking and haute cuisine. Each lecture features a world-class chef who visited and presented their remarkable culinary designs: Ferran Adria presented spherification; Jose Andres discussed both the basic components of food and gelation; Joan Roca demonstrated sous vide; Enric Rovira showed his chocolate delicacies; Wylie Dufresne presented inventions with transglutaminase. The lectures then use these culinary creations as inspiration to delve into understanding how and why cooking techniques and recipes work, focusing on the physical transformations of foods and material properties.

Watch Next Video: Meat Glue Mania | Lecture 10 (2010)- Wylie Dufresne- Science and Cooking

Who is Carme Ruscalleda?

Carme Ruscalleda i Serra (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈkaɾmə ruskəˈʎɛðə]) is a renowned Catalan chef of the restaurant Sant Pau in Sant Pol de Mar, near Barcelona. She also owns and manages the restaurant Sant Pau de Tòquio in Japan.

Ruscalleda was raised in a family of farmers and began cooking as a girl. She studied Charcuterie technics, as well as Commerce, and after marrying a grocery owner, Toni Balam in 1975, the couple opened restaurant Sant Pau in 1988. In 1991 it obtained its first Michelin Guide star and in 2006 obtained its third Michelin star. Today her restaurants have five Michelin stars in total: three in her restaurant in Catalonia and two for the Sant Pau in Tokyo, making her the world's only five-Michelin-starred female chef.  The restaurant in Sant Pol de Mar also obtained the maximum three suns of the Campsa Guide in 1999.

Her cuisine is strongly based on Catalan tradition though open to world influences, and focuses on quality and seasonal products. She often relates the dishes served to a leitmotif explained in the menu, creating a sort of literary concept.

Since 2000, she has published numerous books on the Mediterranean diet, with an emphasis on modern, easy, quick and tasty meals; including recipes adapted to non-professional kitchens. The most celebrated is Cuinar per ser feliç (2001), Cooking to be happy. In English she has published Carme Ruscalleda's Mediterranean cuisine (2007), Salsa Books Editions.

She currently is head chef at the Moments restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental in Barcelona whilst still overseeing her other restaurants.

In popular culture

There is a sardana called Carme Ruscalleda in the album Ballem-la (Let's dance it), played by the cobla La Flama and composed by Pere Vilà in 2001.