Salty, Sweet, and Liquid, the Roca brothers
The out of this [culinary] world, Roca brothers
We have all experienced a dejavu like Anton Ego's when tasting the meal Remi prepares for him in the movie Ratatouille, a meal that takes him back to his childhood and deeply moves him. That same feeling is lived in the Roca brothers' cuisine, a triad of culinary experts from Girona, Spain.
Joan, Josep, and Jordi, three brothers raised inside the kitchen's warmth, and who under the heritage and passion of their parents —owners of a traditional local restaurant— now fulfill their dream of conquering their native Spain with unique flavors and experiences. One of his first successes, El Celler de Can Roca, founded in 1986, is now a restaurant with 3 Michelin stars that has been awarded (more than once) with the title of Best Restaurant in the World.
Each brother is a true expert in his world, and they live under truly exceptional creative freedom. They bring together the Academy and the warmth of home inherited from their mother, merging both with technologies that give life to the extravagant worlds inside their heads, and that are served as one-of-a-kind dishes in each creation.
The Roca's kitchen is history, design, engineering, and playfulness; in few words, it is synesthesia, all of it radiating from the meal and surpassing it as well as the guests' mind when eating it. Real "ephemeral" works of art that prevail even after tasting the last bite.
Photo courtesy: @cellercanroca
From left to right:
Jordi, Josep and Joan Roca.
In the past, a chef was an actor behind the scenes, what do you think of its new role as a protagonist on and off stage?
I think this new “role”, generated by trends, has to do with the need to humanize, to make our experiences more personal and organic. Surely this is the result of digital implementation in our human relationships; we want to get to know the person who cooked for us. But also, when we eat, psychological “switches" that connect us to our primary feeding experiences as infants —our mother—, are turned on. So there are internal processes that makes us want to connect and get closer to the person cooking for us. Cooking is caring, serving is caring, there is an emotional and human link to what happens every day in our kitchen and dining room.
With the new technologies that you are implementing, has it been a change over the past years on how you create art in the kitchen?
Paul Valéry said that a poem is never finished, that in any case, it is abandoned. The same thing has been happening with food throughout history. The knowledge of new technologies allows us to play creatively and make dishes evolve; however, we should not forget the most important thing: genuine flavor. Artificial flavor does not contribute anything, so technology must be used to enhance the authentic flavors that will awaken emotions by identification, without covering them too much. We must be able to play, to improve textures, or to showcase new sensorial experiences.
“Cooking is caring, serving is caring […]”
Photo courtesy: @cellercanroca
What makes you believe food and technology are "ingredients" that can be served together?
If you think about it, ever since Prehistory, technology has been linked to food. Fire as a primary technology, the utensils, the way we serve, present and eat. I think there is natural and constantly evolving connection between both.
Are you using technology in a way you never thought you could use to cook?
Yes, we are currently using a freeze dryer and a low-temperature distiller that allows us to extract volatile aromas.
"The knowledge of new technologies allows us to play
creatively and make dishes evolve; however, we should not
forget the most important thing: genuine flavor.”
Memory and imagination are the main ingredients in your cuisine, how do you build the path your guests follow to experience the concepts you create?
This is a very interesting question because that path can be can be traveled in several directions or from different starting points. Memory is key in the construction of emotion, and it is precisely by evoking sensorial memory through taste and smell that we can awake these memories. Memories are permeated with emotion, so it would be kind of a Proust effect —or a Ratatouille one.
There is a psychological recognition in the palate of a genuine stimulus or flavor linked to childhood, so naturally it awakens a powerful emotion that helps bring out memory. Not surprisingly, smell cannot be separated from taste and scientifically, smell is the sense most deeply connected to memory.
You are three brothers, each one is an expert of his own universe. If each one of you were an ingredient, what would you be?
The kitchen of El Celler de Can Roca, on a first level, is a three-way collaboration, a synthesis of three disciplines by three brothers. Josep is the liquid mind —the world of wine—, Jordi the sweet mind, and I am the salty one. We each contribute our vision within a new dish, or a new project in each step we take. We start from 16 key concepts that define our philosophy and from there we trace paths. Sometimes the starting point is the product, sometimes the landscape or the academicism; but it can also be memory, sense of humor, a daring experience, the idea of innovation, a perfume, poetry or magic, the world of wine, chromaticism. There is always transversality as an unlimited creative exchange from a humanist concept of a gastronomic creation.
Many dishes represent this three-way creation with my brothers, for example the “Amontillado Steamed Crayfish”. Crayfish, which is similar to lobster, acts as the fruit of the sea, a Mediterranean protein that connects us to the fishing territory of Costa Brava. Prepared in a bisque with toasted hazelnuts, represents the saltiness in the cuisine, my creative territory. Josep would add the sherry wine, which when cooked, releases vapors that impregnate the crayfish. We would finish by cooking it a subtle way, like a dream of albarizas and deep compasses. This inspiration is inherited by the migrant clientele from the South, who in the 70’s filled our parents' bar-restaurant with new accents and aromas. Jordi, witnessed it firsthand, so he will surprise us with a caramel’s sweetness to synthetize and recollect in an innovative reduction that intensifies the flavor and reflects its legacy.
“My imagination is always triggered by limitations.”
Your way of creating culinary experiences has a lot of face-to-face value. With the pandemic, what have you learned as master chefs?
We kept working from the kitchen with the same philosophy, and feeling of proximity, which is something we have always approached our guests with. The security measures and protocols are a challenge for the deep sense of generous hospitality, but the simplicity with which we have learned to receive our guests at home, are not an impediment. You have to see this crisis as an opportunity where distance is gained by condensing emotions on the meal, which communicates with its own language. The dining room now transmits the smile that the mask hides, and the eyes, if possible, show more complicity.
With this new normal, which has been the role of technology in and out of the kitchen?
It has played an important role outside of the kitchen because during distancing phases it has allowed us to keep in contact with our teams and keep creativity and inspiration alive. We have managed to incorporate logistics solutions and to implement online stores for Rocambolesc and Casa Cacao. We’ve also connected with our guests through virtually held conferences, webinars, and by participating at international congresses.
To know more about their salty, sweet and liquid universes, along with sustainable solutions, human development proposals, and more, go visit their webpage or instagram account.
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