El Celler de Can Roca http://www.cellercanroca.es had been on our wish list for some time. Last February in Barcelona I met fellow blogger Joan Gómez Pallarès http://devinis.blogspot.com/ , who spoke highly of the three Roca brothers, claiming they had moved to a beautiful new venue with twice the surface area but the same number of tables as before. I had also read posts by François Bruschet http://gastronomique.canalblog.com/archives/2007/12/26/7353431.html about Can Roca.



El Celler de Can Roca is one of my most memorable dining experiences, up there with Troisgros http://www.troisgros.fr/anglais/accen.htm . At 279€ for 2 people with 19 courses and 9 wines by the glass, one could also call it a bargain (the top menu is 100€ per person).



Finding the place is not all that easy, but just as I had declared us lost in some non-descript mixed residential and business area, I realized that we were in fact right in front of the place. One enters El Celler through a courtyard delimited by wooden high walls, treading on large gray rectangular stone tiles forming a pattern on a bed of dichondra ground cover. The room is spectacular, built around a central triangular atrium planted with young maple trees, with black slate on the ground and huge glass panes all around. Ceilings are covered in oak slats, and the largest wall is entirely made of glass. Tables are well spaced and comfortable, and service is friendly, relaxed but extremely attentive.


I try to be discrete when reporting on the great food places of the world – I leave the big digital SLR camera at home and just use my cell phone to steal some photographs of each dish, jotting a few notes down on the back of an envelope. Still, the waiter noticed, and at the end of the meal he handed me a detailed list of all that we ate and drank, printed on their menu paper.



At first we were tempted by the Menu of Classics, consisting of 5 courses, an anthology from the Roca brothers’ best creations from the last 10 years; at 65€ it would have been a bargain. But we decided instead on the 100€ Menú Festival, with 17 courses of “tapa”-sized tastings. Cathy asked for one small substitution, and it was not a problem.



Given the difficulty in matching a bottle of wine to so many different tastes, and keeping in mind that I had to drive 30km back to my parent’s house, I asked the sommelier, Carles, if he could serve us a few wines by the glass in order to bring out the best of each dish. An important aspect of El Celler is that one of the three Roca brothers is a sommelier, and so this is one of those places where wine plays a major role in the dining experience; Carles was very competent and helpful throughout the meal. Some top chefs seem to have little interest in wine, or make no effort to ensure that their creations are served with wines that will enhance the experience.







As we contemplated the menu, we were brought a glass of Cava from Albet I Noya http://www.albetinoya.com/eng/index.html , a good organic grower from the Penedès area, and 7 excellent mises en bouche, beginning with crunchy textures and working our way to softer richer textures in preparation for our first true course, while introducing some of the recurring themes of this meal (cod, peas):



• Thyme cracker – flat twisted grissini with just the right amount of spice



• Crunchy cod fish – light fried cod



• Baby zucchini with vinegar – the vinegar is injected into a capillary tube carved out from inside the courgette



• Carrots with orange



• Pigeon bonbon with Bristol Cream – a parfait molded into a hemispherical shape



• Fennel velouté with cockle and sea water



• Peas with mint – a prelude of things to come, a spoonful of freshest peas.







While waiting for the first course, we took time to admire the architecture of this beautiful place and snap a couple of pictures. And to taste the house bread, made in the catalan tradition.








• Ostres al Cava Agustí Torelló, compota de poma, gingebre, pinya, limona confitada i espècies



The oysters are accompanied by a Rosé Cava prepared by Agustí Torelló http://www.agustitorellomata.com/ with the addition of xanthan gum. This is a very special substance, because a very small quantity of it will confer to any liquid what is known as pseudo-plasticity. Thus the cava appears to have the same gelled consistency as the oysters, yet it reverts to totally fluid when in the mouth. The apple compote, ginger, pineapple, lemon confit and spices bring freshness to the rich oysters and leave a persistent beautiful taste. This is an absolutely brilliant and highly technical reinterpretation of the classic oysters with champagne.







Cathy does not eat oysters, so as a substitute she got a foie gras turrón with truffle salad, a nougat of foie gras with cocoa served with gold leaf and a salad of aestivum truffles, pure pleasure. Well matched to the Cérvoles white wine.



Two whites were proposed to accompany the early courses, leaving it up to us to pick our best match: Ökonomierat Rebholz, Auslese “Im Sonnenuhr” 2003 Pfalz http://www.oekonomierat-rebholz.de/ – huge mineral sensation with fine acidity; and Cérvoles 2005 DO Costers del Segre http://www.cervoles.com/ – Chardonnay Macabeu intelligently oak aged



• Espàrrecs amb parmesà, mandarina i gingebre



Three white asparagus tips standing around a reduction of parmesan and mandarin underlying paper thin shavings of green asparagus covered with ginger flavoured foam. A great match to the Riesling, the citrus and ginger enhanced by the wine, the rich parmesan cream balanced by the acidity.



• Mùrgules amb tel de llet d’ovella



Morrels cooked in ewe’s milk and covered with a pure white rectangle of milk skin (much like Japanese yuba) with a borage flower and black truffle filaments. Milk will be a major recurring theme throughout the meal.



• Parmentier d’olives verdes



A green olive parmentier with milk enveloped in a spherical membrane and served with tuna foam; as you touch the sphere with your fork, it breaks and its contents mix with the foam. A very fine highly technical preparation whose taste reminded me of something that I just could not place, until our waiter told us that Joan Roca prepared this as a memory of his family’s Russian salad. By the way our Italian waiter Davide was very good and always available to describe the dishes competently; he made our experience at the Rocas’ very pleasant.



• Soufflé d’alberginia escalivada a la brasa amb sardines



A spectacular dish of charcoal grilled aubergine soufflé held together by a ring of sardine fillets, brought to the table with a glass bell filled with smoke. When the bell is removed the smoke disperses around you and adds to the flavour of the dish. Beautiful match with a white Edetária 2005 DO Terra Alta http://www.edetaria.com/ – grenache blanc and macabeu from old vines, vinified and aged in oak.







• Gamba al vapor d’amontillado



Beautifully presented giant prawn steamed with amontillado sherry with sweet almonds, served with an onion broth jelly, served with a glass of amontillado. The oxidative wine plays a symphony with the strong tastes of the head of the prawn, while the body goes perfectly with the Riesling.



• Bacallà amb sopa de pa amb bitxo i mongetes toves



Spicy cod and bread soup with chili and soft beans, the cod cooked in a vacuum and served with two minuscule crunchy bread rolls injected with olive oil.



Time to move to a red: Manyetes 2004 DO Priorat – another wine by Clos Mogador (but Carles insists it is not a “second wine”), Carignan and Grenache with lots of berry flavours.



• Ventresca de cabrit amb parmentier de llet de cabra I menta



When his was described as kid belly I assumed it was goat tripe, but in fact ventresca refers to the breast fillet, expertly roasted and combining the various textures of crunchy skin, fat and meat. Served with a goat’s milk parmentier made with Majorero cheese from the Canary islands and a few minuscule dots of mint jelly. This was a perfect match with the Manyetes.



• Royal d’oca amb carxofes a la taronja



One could call this a goose terrine served with artichoke shavings and orange. Very intense, dark and rich, probably done with the meat and the liver of the goose. Also well accompanied by the red Manyetes.


Time for desserts, three of them, and being a sweet wine lover I cannot resist Carles’ proposal of three matching wines.





• Pèssols amb aromatics I destil•lat d’eucaliptus



This was iced “peas” with aromatic herbs like tarragon, mint, dill, red currants and eucalyptus liqueur matched with Maximin Grünhauser Auslese 2005 Mosel http://www.vonschubert.com/ . The “peas” included very few actual peas, most of the “peas” were in fact spheres of a pea ice preparation visually indistinguishable from their natural cousins. High end Solero Shots? The effect is stunning, a highly technological dish that imprints itself in my memory for the taste and texture of the result.



• Adaptaciò del perfume Trésor de Lancôme (velouté de prèssec de vinya amb roses, nespres i albercocs)



What is called an “adaptation” of the perfume Trésor by Lancôme http://www2.lancome.com/_int/_en/fragrance/tresor/ actually does not contain any perfume, but is in fact a velouté of vine peach with roses, medlars and apricots that is meant to reproduce the famous perfume. Just as a reminder, two paper test strips of Trésor are made available. The match is close, mainly around the dominating rose aroma. Interestingly, the wine completes the match perfectly by adding the summer fruit, with Les Ayguets 2001 Yves Cuilleron AOC Condrieu http://www.cuilleron.com bringing its classic peach and apricot aromas. A remarkable dessert, clearly the result of lots of research.



• Endívia al café



A small endive caramelized in sweet coffee flavoured with tonka bean, accompanied by coffee ice cream on a bed of biscuit crumbs, served with rich Ino Bodegas Masia Serra DO Empordà wine. I would have chosen a Pedro Ximénez for its dark coffee-like aromas, but this local fortified wine held its own very well and was an excellent recommendation, rich amber coloured with notes of orange and hazelnut, a slight oxidation nicely rounding the last remaining hint of bitterness from the endive.







Neither of us drinks coffee any more, but we enjoyed the mignardises that were brought in a lacquered wooden box.




El Celler de Can Roca is one of the best restaurants in my world. It is impossible to avoid comparison with another Catalan name now at the top those “lists” that so many people like to discuss, as if food or wine were like soccer and one could assign points or draw up league results. The difference here is that, while all preparations are highly technical and innovative, technology is subservient to the final taste experience, which varies consistently from the subtle to the sublime. The Rocas are not merely experimenting with their clients, they have done enough of that in private and present us only with highly finished results guaranteed to impart a strong emotion, taking the season’s ingredients of Catalunya and distilling their best characteristics for us.



The surroundings are as contemporary as the cuisine, the perfect frame for highly architectural dishes. The service is very warm at Can Roca, and the meal definitely has a dynamic, with a beginning, a middle, and en end, in fact the end is very much reminiscent of the beginning. It is the sum of all these considerations that makes Can Roca so thoroughly contemporary and innovative and endlessly pleasurable.