It’s a tonic not just for the hospitality sector but for the country as a whole that El Celler de Can Roca in Girona has been named the world’s best restaurant. Nice too that Can Roca, which specialises in culinary experimentation (desserts that smell of recognisable perfumes, for example) is run by three brothers. When Joan Roca, head chef and oldest of the three, was asked at the award ceremony in London on Monday to identify the restaurant’s winning ingredients he cited hard work and the help of two extraordinary siblings. The latest generation in a family of restaurateurs, the Roca brothers inherited skills and enthusiasm rather than boundless start-up capital from their parents … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Food for thought
restaurant
Paella
The iconic dish of Spain. The food version of flamenco. And, like flamenco, there are as many styles as there are people to make it. Home-cooked, anyone will tell you is always the best, though exactly what should go in and what should stay out is the source of dinner-table discussions everywhere. The main variety is familiar to nearly everyone - and a few fast-food versions have been put on restaurant menus in recent years, to the disgust of true aficionados - though there are several notable variations on the theme, including: Paella Negra: blackened with squid ink for effect and flavour. Paella Fideus: No rice, but small curly pasta (fideus) used in its place. Paella Ciega (Blind … [Read more...] about Paella
Kitchen Colossus takes time out
In 1959, the jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins stunned his colleagues and admirers by withdrawing from the music scene. Popular and critically acclaimed he may have been, but the self-styled “Saxophone Colossus” was also jaded, feeling he had taken his music as far as it would go in a certain direction. For the next couple of years the only place he would play in public was on New York’s Williamsburg Bridge, where his tenor horn accompanied the sound of passing boats and trains. New York’s jazz scene may seem a long way from the kitchens of the Costa Brava, but Catalan chef Ferran Adrià, for many an artist every bit as accomplished as Rollins, has just announced his own withdrawal from … [Read more...] about Kitchen Colossus takes time out