Speaker: Joan Roca (El Celler de Can Roca)
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.
Who is Joan Roca?
In his cooking,
Spanish Chef Joan Roca continues to reference the vivid memories he has
of his mother's kitchen. The family-owned bar served classic Catalan cooking to
a modest clientele. All three Roca brothers – Joan, Josep, and Jordi – eventually opened a restaurant
annex to the bar, in 1986, and within a few years began collecting Michelin
stars. In 2009 el Celler de Can Roca shot 21
spots to number five on San Pelligrino's Top 50 Restaurants list, and rose
another spot this year. From its humble origins serving up plates of fried
calamares in the 1960s, the family bar turned restaurant was this past year
awarded its third Michelin star.
Joan took his roots,
added culinary school in Girona, mixed in extensive travel and a healthy dose
of what he could copy from his idols Chefs Frédy Girardet and Joël Robuchon and
“only then did (Josep, Jordi, and I) risk ourselves on the slippery slope of
this non-conformist path, which we haven’t abandoned since.”
A family kept together by cooking. This is one of the main themes in the
career of Joan Roca, head of El Celler de Can Roca.
His family encouraged his first steps in the kitchen and today continues to be
one of the keys to his culinary activities.
The Brothers were
brought up in a setting in which the main stars were traditional Catalonian
recipes, in the Can Roca restaurant owned by their parents. None of them could
have imagined as they played in the nearby streets, that gastronomy was to keep
the family so close over the years.
Joan, the oldest, was
the first to show interest. He used to enjoy shopping with his mother in the
market and watching her in the kitchen. He came to love the aromas, smells and
sounds coming from the pans. "It was
a small kitchen, but our hearts were in it", he says.
After his early,
family-focused beginnings, he went to study at the Hospitality School in
Girona, where he learned other ways of cooking and serving food that
complemented what he already knew about Catalonian cuisine. Then he spent short
periods with prestige chefs - first in Spain under names such as Ferran Adrià, with whom he developed
the famous "deconstruction"
methods, and Santi Santamaría
with whom he learnt new versions of standard Catalonian dishes, then in France
with George Blue, who taught him the "French" way of organizing a
top-level kitchen.
Searching the perfect way
On returning from France
aged 22, he decided to open a new establishment, El Celler de Can Roca next
to that of his parents. That was when he started to develop his own personal
approach to gastronomy - starting out with tradition and adding know-how
learned on his travels and from personal reflection.
Joan Roca and his team
take their inspiration for new menus from three sources - the search for the
perfect way to cook food, the roots of regional cuisine, and the aromas
provided by nature. On a technical level, Joan Roca has studied the
ins-and-outs of sous-vide cooking,
his aim being to preserve the maximum original flavor by carefully controlling
temperatures. Sous-vide cooking is much less aggressive than traditional
cooking, and guarantees texture while altering foods as little as possible.
This technique first
appeared on the menu in 1995 with a dish that was to bring him fame, Warm cod
with spinach, cream of Idiazabal cheese, pine nuts and a reduction of Pedro Ximénez. He subsequently
perfected the technique further, bringing out creations such as Foie gras with
honey, citrus fruits and vanilla and saffron-infused milk, and
Breadcrumbed dewlap of pork with green pepper samfaina.
Synergies
At El Celler de San
Roca, while the main emphasis has always been on the quality of the raw
materials used, technical innovation has also played a star role. In parallel
with research into vacuum cooking, R&D activities also took place in other
areas of interest, such as the use on the desserts menu of the aromas to be
found at the high-end of the perfume market ("Adaptation", in 2002),
how to obtain distillates and use them as flavor enhancers (Oysters with the
aroma and flavor of earth, 2004), how to use smoke in recipes (Baby octopus
with green pepper perfume, 2005) and cooking with wine, going to the extreme of
offering bites of red wine (2006).
Joan Roca participates
in everything that goes on at El Celler de Can Roca. He is convinced of the
importance of the synergies created in the kitchen with the work done by his
brother Josep as sommelier and maître, and the sweet delicacies devised by
younger brother Jordi at the head of the desserts station. The three boys who
used to play at the door of their mother’s restaurant have now joined forces,
creating a fine-tuned operation. And mention should also be made of their
sister Encarna, who deals with the banqueting division at the Mas Marroch
establishment.
In September 2007,
they transferred the El Celler de Can Roca operations to the Torre de Can Roca,
just 200 meters away, to gain more space in the kitchen and in the dining area.
More space, and more freedom to work with quality. And, above all, says Joan
Roca, "I want to cook like my mother, with my heart".
One of the features
that best defines the work of the Roca brothers and their restaurant El Celler
de Can Roca is their zeal for culinary research. They actively collaborate with
the Alicia Foundation
(Science and Food) and one of their research projects has enabled them to carry
out an in-depth study on issues such as cleaning oysters under high pressure.
They published their research at the Barcelona Vanguardia conference (as part
of the Alimentaria 2010 fair), where the entire Roca family received a
heartfelt tribute for their dedication to the food profession.
In 2013 Roca brothers
launched two establishments in Barcelona’s stylish Hotel Omm. On the one hand,
there is Roca Moo, a re-launched version of the hotel’s Restaurante Moo.
Although the Roca family has consulted on this former establishment for some
ten years, they have now reopened with a new concept.
The new re-vamp
includes an open kitchen, a bar for dining or watching the chefs in action, and
the following three tasting menus based on modern Catalan cuisine: Vegetarian,
Seasonal and the special, eight-course Menu Joan Roca. Despite the ongoing
involvement of the Roca family, the force behind the three-Michelin star
restaurant El Celler de Can Roca in Girona (Catalonia), the Roca Moo kitchen is
under the command of chef Felip Llufriu.
On the other, thirsty
throngs and diners looking for a more casual gastronomic experience can visit
the new Roca Bar, located in the hotel lobby. Open all day with a
menu given over to the concept of street food, the Roca Bar offers dishes like
tapas, sandwiches, regional pastries, artisanal cheeses, a breakfast buffet and
different plates for sharing.
In April 2013 El
Celler de Can Roca was named Best Restaurant in the World by Restaurant
Magazine.
Books
El Celler de Can
Roca, The Book (Roca Llibres, 2013)
Diez menús para un
concierto. La cocina de la música (Galerada, 2008)
Sinfonía Fantástica.
Joan, Josep y Jordi Roca (Domeny Editores, 2006)
La Cocina Catalana de
toda la vida. Joan Roca (Viena Edicions, 2005)
La
cocina al vacío. Joan Roca y Salvador Brugué. (Montagud Editores, 2003)
Roots.
Essential Catalan Cuisine According to El Celler de Can Roca [Kindle
Edition]
Joan Roca. Librooks
Barcelona (May 2, 2012)
Awards
1. 2013 1st ranked in
Best Restaurants in the World list, Restaurant magazine.
2. 2011 Grand Prix de l’Art de la Cuisine 2011 (Académie Internationale de la Gastronomie)
3. 2010 Doctor
Honoris Causa, Universidad Girona (Spain)
4. 2004 Award for the
Best Conceptual Innovation, Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía Congress
5. 2001 Best Chef, Lo
Mejor de la Gastronomía Congress.
6. 2000 Spanish
National Gastronomy Award 2000, Real Academia Española de Gastronomía
No comments:
Post a Comment