I'm not sure that we'd ever mentioned it, but Janet had secured a lunch booking at El Celler de Can Roca in Girona which has twice been rated the best restaurant in the world. And today was the day.
The day started very well with a fast train ride from Barcelona to Girona - 38 minutes compared to about 90 when we followed the same route by road the previous day. This left us a couple of hours to nose around town before the main event. It's a very pretty spot with a river and ancient town wall for views etc.
The lunch was an amazing experience, all 30 courses, if you count all the individually crafted appetisers.
It was "food as art" to coin a phrase. The presentation was amazing with various props and plates that had been created especially to complement a particular dish. Each dish was unique with its own flavours and special concept/recipe.
It was completely over the top, but wonderful all the same.
The restaurant is run by three brothers - Joan, Josep, and Jordi Roca. They always make a point of welcoming their guests in person and were very happy to pose with awed (and very full) diners.
It was "food as art" to coin a phrase. The presentation was amazing with various props and plates that had been created especially to complement a particular dish. Each dish was unique with its own flavours and special concept/recipe.
It was completely over the top, but wonderful all the same.
The restaurant is run by three brothers - Joan, Josep, and Jordi Roca. They always make a point of welcoming their guests in person and were very happy to pose with awed (and very full) diners.
A few more details follow (for serious foodies only).
We started at 1:00pm and finished at about 5:00pm (as best we can recall).
After a welcome glass of Cava (local bubbly) in the garden, we were ushered inside and offered a tour of the kitchen (which was reluctantly accepted). There were heaps of people prepping food, all highly organised and quiet, quite unlike the panic stricken examples on the TV cooking shows! From what we heard there are about 60 staff (kitchen and waiting combined) to look after about 45 diners.
Once seated in the dining room we were given two menu options - the most popular dishes (12 or so courses), or the "Feast". A wine match was offered or you could select from the 60,000 bottle cellar. The wine list was in 3 volumes, with its own special trolley so it could be moved around without risking a strain injury. Each volume took two hands to lift. I noticed 3 NZ reds in the list including 1 from Martinborough.
As we didn't expect to be visiting again any time soon, we opted for the full menu "Feast" experience.
It began with "a journey around the world,” as described by the waiter, who presented each diner with a black paper lantern. The lantern unfolded to reveal five tiny appetisers, each representing a different country that had inspired the chef. Each one a work of art in its own right with multiple flavours.
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| Appetisers 1 to 5, minus enclosing lantern. |
Another 10 more rounds of appetisers followed, including an amazing campari bon bon (a mouthful of campari and grapefruit encased in a delicate, paper-thin shell), and an oyster in a black garlic broth. Perhaps the most spectacular was the olive ice cream, presented to the table as perfect olive shaped tastes attached to a bonsai olive tree.
And then it was time to start on the menu proper. Some examples:
Red mullet with kombu, prickly pear foam, sea anemone, salicornia, and Katsuobushi vinegar charcoal grilled red pine mushroom. Served on a polished stone slab plate.
Pigeon with fermented rice, rice skin sauce, koji suace, fermented rice, rice bread with pigeon parfait. Certainly the best pigeon with fermented rice that I've ever had!
Skipping along to desserts, how about Orange Colourology - an amazing sphere of "something" containing alll sorts of treats when broken open.
There were (only) three dessert courses. Another memorable one was Turkish Perfume - rose, peach, saffron, cumin, cinnamon and pistachio. After eating the dish the experience was rounded off by inhaling the complementary perfume from an upturned glass. Never thought of that before.
And when we thought it was all over, out came the sweets trolley, complete with handsome serving person.
Yes we were really there. It was not a dream - see pic below!
What an experience. Definitely a "bucket list" item.
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