This 2023, which marks four decades since Mey Hofmann opened the Barcelona school in which he wanted to transmit his knowledge and vision of cooking and pastry, the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition wanted to say goodbye to him last night by dedicating its prestigious annual tribute to a great figure in gastronomy. A tribute that for the first time bears the name of a woman, and that in previous editions focused on Juli Soler (2022), Santi Santamaria (2001), Josep Pla (2019), Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (2018), Ignasi Domènech (2017) and Néstor Luján (2016).
The meeting took place at the Plaza Barcelona Hotel, where dinner was served by the Hofmann and Juvé restaurant.
In addition to the prestigious school, through which more than 20,000 students have passed, including prestigious professionals such as the Torres brothers, Jordi Esteve, Arnau Bosch, the pastry chef Josep Maria Rodríguez and Aitor Álvarez, Hofmann created a gastronomic empire that includes the Hofmann restaurant, with a Michelin star since 2004, the Hofmann pastry shops (the last one recently opened in Pau Casals), among other establishments. An empire that today is led by his daughter Sílvia Hofmann, faithful to the chef’s philosophy and who yesterday thanked her for the recognition.
The president of the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition, Carles Vilarrubí, pointed out that the honoree founded “the only gastronomy school in the world with a Michelin star where they offer quality training and an exceptional gastronomic experience to their clients, with different styles and proposals. culinary”, which Vilarrubí described as “gastronomic asset of our country.
Mey Hofmann died of cancer in May 2016, a few hours after her daughter received in her name a special award that the Academy dedicated to the chef and teacher, during a dinner on the grounds of the old Hospital de Sant Pau, a special award to the Hofmann School.
The long-awaited chef, who was born in Barcelona in 1948, daughter of a German engineer and a Catalan concert pianist, studied at the Liceu Francès in Barcelona and later studied hospitality in Paris. But as she remembered yesterday, she was in Germany, where she spent her summers, where her vocation for the sweet world arose, to which she was able to apply her multidisciplinary knowledge of economics, gemology and jewelry design.
The menu that was served revolved around the Mediterranean cuisine that she championed. Among the dishes, prepared at Hofmann, the sardine pie with Catalan sofrito, semi-dried tomatoes and lemon marinade, one of the cook’s most emblematic recipes; the braised lamb with aromatic herbs, sweet potatoes and mushrooms, the lemon, rosemary and olive oil dessert and its successful almond biscuit, crunchy vanilla, fresh strawberry and lime compote, vanilla mousse and strawberry water.