When the pandemic hit, those of us who kept wistfully adding items to our culinary travel bucket lists began to wonder if the dreams would ever come to be. As we continue to watch, cautiously, as destinations and businesses re-open, we dare to dream again. Writer Irvina Lew was fortunate to have crossed one of her bucket list items off just before conditions were worse and travel suspended, having the opportunity to experience El Celler de Can Roca’s menu at the famous Spanish restaurant.

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Until I met Michelin three-star chef Joan Roca, a guest chef at the Wine & Food Festival Cancun/Riviera Maya, in March, 2015, I didn’t realize that his namesake restaurant, El Celler de Can Roca, in Girona, was located just a 38-minute high speed AVE train trip away from Barcelona. I knew that it was a two-time Best Restaurant in the World (including 2015) and recognized it as a frequent fixture on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list (in Restaurant magazine). Barcelona is a favorite destination, so I added Can Roca to my Bucket-Short-List and was finally lucky enough to lunch there – solo – in more settled times, on February 15, 2020.

Experience the outdoor area of El Celler de Can Roca. Photo courtesy of El Celler de Can Roca.

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At El Celler de Can Roca, numbers – particularly the number three – hint at the story. There are three Roca brothers – Joan, the Chef; Josep, the Sommelier; and, Jordi, the Pastry Chef. Along with an impressive team – three assistant chefs (led by one chef de partie) in each kitchen department, three maître d’s and three sommeliers in the dining room – they maintain the three Michelin stars, which Joan Roca first earned in 2009.

There are other significant numbers to ponder at El Celler Can Roca: 

11 months to book a reservation online (midnight the 1st of the 11th month)
14 courses on the Classic menu: 7 appetizers, 5 mains, 2 desserts
15 tables in the entire restaurant, including one next to the wine cellar
20 staff the dining room
22 courses on the Feast Menu 7 appetizers, 12 mains, 3 desserts
50 chefs
55 customers
4,000 curated wine labels
70,000 bottles in the cellar
(I couldn’t begin to count the number of ingredients on the menu or the number of languages spoken by the staff.)

Wearing his crisp, white chef’s jacket, Chef was waiting to greet me when I arrived for lunch and, much to my delight, he amiably agreed to pose for a picture and escorted me through the expansive ground floor and light-filled kitchen. At each station–mise en place, bread, grill, dessert et al–teams of chefs, including some participating in a four-month working master-class, called a stage, were prepping dramatic presentations, some with teeny tweezers or plastic sauce bottles in hand; others within view of the entry garden.

Here I am, standing with Chef Joan Roca of El Celler de Can Roca.

On one counter, a group of globes awaited mini-magical-one-bite-portions which would be placed on teeny platforms at the end of each of five outstretched arms. Each arm represented a country identified in print on its circular base. (When Julia, my waiter, presented the amuse and called it The World, she explained that if I could distinguish the last two bites correctly, and move the arm accordingly, I’d find an edible surprise. Miniscule pieces of purple potato suggested Peru; the pickled vegetables tasted Asian, so I chose China. Hoorah! I guessed accurately and when I moved the arm to the proper “Country,” the top half of the globe popped open and revealed a sixth, soft and smooth treat inside a small oval.)

I recognized some of the ingredients in the amuse, such as jicama and mango, crab, and I adored the lamb, yogurt with mint from Turkey. But, I had already asked to see the menu AFTER the meal, and was unsure about some items.

Here’s what it said on the El Celler de Can Roca menu:

Mexico: Jícama taco, mango, onion, lemon, achiote and coriander.
Singapore: Chilli crab
Egypt: Giza pyramids
Turquia: lamb, yogurt, cucumber, onions with mint
Peru: “Causa limeña”

A “world” of culinary delights with a special surprise inside.

At another station, I saw what appeared to be small, sculpted Bonsai plants. When it was served, I learned that they were mini-olive-trees. A crispy black olive tempura was hanging from one branch and a sensually smooth, green, olive ice cream was hooked on another. Remarkable.

A very special bonsai olive tree with culinary treats.

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After the kitchen tour, Cyril, one of the sommeliers, showed me Chef Sommelier Josep Roca’s wine cellar, where a series of three-sided alcoves are dedicated to some of his favorite wine regions; in each, two screens flash images that epitomize the region and an indigenous centerpiece representing the unique terroir of each region– Champagne, Reisling, Burgundy and Jerez—sits atop a table in the middle of the space.

A glimpse into the cellar of El Celler de Can Roca. Photo courtesy El Celler de Can Roca.

All too soon, Cyril ushered me down an aisle that led to two long, narrow rooms facing a triangular-shaped, glass-walled, interior, birch-tree studded garden. White, architecturally-sculptural work stations divided each open space, so that guests dined in small sections holding three or four tables and most could view the garden; only a few rocks and a large round charger decorated the cloth.

Having shared with Cyril my experiences at the harvest in Burgundy and Champagne (September 2018), it wasn’t such a big surprise that Marianna, the Maitre d’ offered me Champagne and poured Josep’s favorite: “Les Vignes de Montgueux” from Jacques Lassaigne.

When the next amuse arrived, I discovered that the charger also had a practical purpose; it became the floor – complete with a tile pattern – of the three-dimensional, paper pop-up replica of the Roca family tavern. The dish, Memories of a bar in the suburbs of Girona, which still operates nearby, fit perfectly atop the charger and created the backdrop for three rectangular “tables,” set with five miniscule, haute, yet traditional, Catalan tapas that their mom and mentor, Montse, served. My favorites were minced chicken cannelloni, sausage atop a crusty wafer and a grilled Cassava flower with a caviar beurre blanc and mullet, salmon and Beluga caviar beads that exploded in the mouth. Miniatures of the three young brothers also make appearances; with Joan in his made-to-measure apron at 9, already working in the kitchen.

Part diorama, part miniatures, delicious nibbles perch on tables hearkening back to the family’s restaurant.

The meal continued with creative bites that were beautifully choreographed and presented. I loved the little langoustine on sobrassada sauce, adored the mini-mousse like vegetables, a Romesco sauce with local walnuts, not almonds; devoured two teeny pieces of calcots, sweet and tender grilled leeks and savored the baby-Kabu-turnip tarte tatin with a crust of crisp Iberian suckling pig. I enjoyed tastes of ingredients that I’d ordinarily reject if I saw it on the menu: smoked eel, hake and the little pieces of mackerel swimming in an inventive mousse-like ajo blanco (an almond, bread, garlic gazpacho).

And, it was paired with wonderful wines, two from Burgundy, my favorite region: a Puligny-Montrachet Champ Gain 2016, 1er Cru and a Chassagne-Montrachet, 1er Cru Clos “Boudriotte,” 2014 A.O.C. from Domaine Ramanet. The meat courses were accompanied by Gonzalez Byass Pal Cortado 1986, El Celler de Can Roca D. O. Jerez, which was bottled 32 years ago.

The Roca kitchen clearly metamorphoses some of the most basic local ingredients to astonishing culinary status. They puré carrot, tomato, sweet potato; charcoal grill mango and leek; steam fresh fish, transform light and dark pumpkin seeds to make a milk or an oil and fry them to accessorize smoked eel. Mysterious (to me) scientific modalities elevate simple ingredients: olives into ice cream; sugar into thin-as-skin globes that melt in the mouth, liquids into light-as-air foams. Less obvious ingredients include assorted edible flowers, yuzu in marmalade, ginger and siracha in a sauce and seaweed, as a decoration and as a stuffing, within the whole red mullet. Crunchy, crispy or creamy, the variations in texture are amazing.

This lunch, during black truffle season, paid homage to the incredibly expensive edible. Labeled Tartufo, Truffle or Truffe, its iconic flavor and appearance was incorporated into a cabbage truffle and anchovy dish, a truffle meringue, a truffled brioche, even spinach and truffle. In one instance, a truffle strands topped a spoonful of ambrosia, a slice topped a macaron which contained a golden, mini-quail yolk. In another, a truffle soufflé atop veal is encased in a tower made of paper-thin, sliced-truffle-rounds.

An amuse bouche to celebrate Black Truffle season at El Cellar de can Roca. 

Jordí Roca, who was talking with guests during the meal, stopped by my table and I asked about Casa Cacao, in Girona, which is both his uber-artisanal chocolate factory and, as of February 2020, a newly opened, 15-room chocolate-themed hotel. He chatted about his three-year project with research in the Peruvian Amazon and in the jungles of Sierra Nevada in Northern Columbia, remote places where cocoa is grown and harvested and where he found the best authentic cacao beans in the indigenous community of the Arhuaco.

The meal’s three dessert finale actually presents a multitude of confections. The first was a mousse reflecting the Arhuaco source, made with cocoa bean cream and an infusion of cocoa bean husk; it is served with a side dish of authentic cocoa beans. Many varieties of confisserie are presented on two different carts. A fanciful white one rolls on traditional wheels. The trolley for Petit Fours was made in collaboration with Jordi Roca’s friend, industrial designer Andreu Carulla; it moves on multiple metal “legs,” which reminded me of the LEM, used in the moon landing, and transports three huge candy bowls. Among the numerous miniature chocolates, the Cherry Elderberry and the Hazelnut Praline, were sublime.

The dessert trolley looks like something from a space mission.

What can I say? As I sit, self-isolated at my computer, Can Roca – like restaurants in many places – is awaiting re-opening (which is currently slated for late June). As I look at the pictures and relive the meal as I write about it, I consider myself lucky indeed to have had such an experience. My advice? If you ever decide to go to Barcelona, try to book a reservation, when or as soon as you book the flights. If that’s an impossibility, reserve a meal at Enigma or Tickets, two of Alberto Adrià’s restaurants in Barcelona. Joan Roca, who has a series of cookbooks in English, Spanish and Catalan, spent the summer of 1989 working at El Bulli, where Ferran Adrià, Alberto’s older brother, was the famous head chef who influenced the worldwide trend to molecular gastronomy. Cross some truly experiential restaurants off your bucket list.

Learn more about the El Celler de Can Roca menu, and other information including making reservations, here.

— Story and photos, except where mentioned, by Irvina Lew

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