2024年10月7日，西班牙，圣塞巴斯蒂安 （San Sebastian，Spain）。在即将开设苏格兰酿酒厂分店之际，罗卡兄弟与麦卡伦一起环游了半个世界，代表了每个城市；今天我们关注的是他们的家乡，这一切的起源。
米其林三星El Celler de Can Roca的厨师在回顾11年前与优质苏格兰威士忌公司Macallan开始的项目时解释道，第26届Gastronomika的主题是“开放的城市是灵感的源泉，一个帮助我们产生和利用协同效应和内容的概念”，该项目将他们带到了不同的城市、国家和大陆，寻求在美食上综合每个地方的精髓。
他们在苏格兰开始了这场冒险，琼宣布：“本月底，我们将在西班牙境外开设第一家餐厅。这家名为TimeSpirit的餐厅将位于麦卡伦庄园，该公司位于苏格兰斯佩塞德地区的酿酒厂，将成为我们的灵感之源。”继英国之后，纽约及其可食用的云，或墨西哥城，产下了一种鲻鱼头的卡特琳娜，“它可以整条吃，因为我们用obulato盖住它并蒸了蒸，这样我们就可以在不折断骨头的情况下提取骨头”。然后是巴黎和伦敦，甚至是赫雷斯，所有这些经历的提炼产生了非凡的菜肴和威士忌，他已经现在总结在情感纪录片中。
赫罗纳，El Celler生态系统
但对琼来说，提炼一座城市也意味着“安顿下来，创造一个商业模式生态系统，创造当地财富，促进其发展。这就是我们对家乡赫罗纳所做的，我们出生和长大的城市，我们总是会回到这里”。正是在赫罗纳，这个家族仍然经营着最初的Can Roca，“我母亲在那里供应罗马鱿鱼和雪利酒中的肾脏”，已经发展了所有相互依存的业务，从El Celler到Normal，包括Rocambolesc、Casa Cacao、Mas Marroch、Espirit Roca酿酒厂和最新的Vii，一家天然酒吧。“我们还为那些无法前往El Celler的人提供更多选择……仅2023年，我们就有12.9万人在等待名单上”。
赫罗纳显然是罗卡家族的灵感之源，今天我们看到它被翻译成了两道非常有代表性的菜肴。第一个系列以新的Tutti苹果为特色，这是加泰罗尼亚IRTA和新西兰植物与食品研究所进行的研究的结果，“旨在承受水分压力，在厨房里也非常美味和通用”。自然，在60º下烤10天，有这些不同的质地，他根据野猪肉准备了几份演示文稿，“野猪肉在赫罗纳几乎是一场瘟疫，我们正在推广它的肉供人们经常食用”，比如用肉填充并在烤箱中烤熟的精致苹果片花。第二个方案模拟了“赫罗纳的雾，它笼罩着它的森林，因为它被四条河流穿过”，产生了一种雾，这种雾没有消散，而是留在了盘子的底部，因为它是用蒸汽和甘油基制成的，包裹着一种由蜜饯死亡号角、可可叶和松精华、甜菜根冻糕和泥土蒸馏物组成的冰淇淋，“与我们在2005年近20年前在Gastronomika上展示的一样”。
Joan Roca distils Girona, 'the city I always return to'
On the verge of opening a branch of their Scottish distillery, the Roca brothers have travelled halfway around the world with Macallan to represent each city on the plate; today we focus on their hometown, the origin of it all.
Referring to the theme of the 26th edition of Gastronomika, "an open city is a source of inspiration, a concept that helps us to generate and exploit synergies and content", the chef of El Celler de Can Roca*** explained as he reflected on the project that began eleven years ago with the premium Scotch whisky company Macallan, which has taken them to different cities, countries and continents, seeking to gastronomically synthesise the essence of each place.
They started this adventure in Scotland, where "at the end of this month we will open our first restaurant outside Spain. Called TimeSpirit, it will be located in The Macallan Estate, the company's distillery in the Speyside region of Scotland, which will serve as our inspiration,' announced Joan. After the UK came New York and its edible cloud, or Mexico City, which gave birth to a mullet-headed catrina, "which can be eaten whole because we cover it in obulato and steam it so we can extract the bones without breaking them". Then came Paris and London, and even Jerez, and the distillation of all these experiences gave rise to extraordinary dishes and whiskies, which he has now summarised in emotional documentaries.
Girona, the El Celler ecosystem
But for Joan, distilling a city also means "settling in and creating an ecosystem of business models that generate local wealth and contribute to its growth. This is what we have done with our native Girona, the city where we were born and grew up, and to which we always return'. And it is in Girona that the family, which still runs the original Can Roca, 'where my mother served squid a la romana and kidneys in sherry', has developed all its businesses, which feed off each other, from El Celler to Normal, including Rocambolesc, Casa Cacao, Mas Marroch, the Espirit Roca distillery and the latest, Vii, a natural wine bar, 'which we accompany with my mother's tapas'. We're also helping to provide more options for those who can't make it to El Celler... we have 129,000 people on the waiting list for 2023 alone'.
Girona is obviously a great source of inspiration for the Roca family, and today we have seen it translated into two very representative dishes. The first is a range featuring the new Tutti apple, the result of research carried out by the Catalan IRTA and Plant & Food Research in New Zealand, "designed to withstand water stress and also very tasty and versatile in the kitchen". Natural, grilled and roasted at 60º for 10 days, with these different textures, he has prepared several presentations based on wild boar meat, 'which is practically a plague in Girona and we are promoting its meat for regular consumption', such as the delicate flower of apple slices stuffed with meat and roasted in the oven. The second proposal simulated 'the fog of Girona, which envelops its forests because it is crossed by four rivers', creating a mist that did not dissipate but remained at the bottom of the dish, as it was made with steam and a glycerine base to envelop an ice cream of candied trumpets of death, cocoa leaves and pine essence, with beetroot parfait and earth distillate, 'the same one we presented at Gastronomika in 2005, almost 20 years ago'.
