Last Sunday, while some were taking it easy on the caravan back to Barcelona, ??a group of friends, neighbors or acquaintances of the chef Quim Marquès and his daughter Paula, packed the new Santa Magdalena (Santa Magdalena, 6). He joked insinuating that they had chosen a long weekend Sunday so that the place would not be overcrowded, but the success of the event was resounding. And among the festive crowd there were dishes of casserole noodles, salad, cap i pota, fricandó or the classic chickpeas with sausage and cuttlefish in homage to the Pinotxo of La Boqueria.
One of the assistants, when testing them, warned the boss that they were missing a detail to be perfect. “Don’t you remember, Quim, that the aioli made the chickpeas more creamy? You’ll see, do the test.” The keen observer was none other than José Andrés, one of the most important figures in cooking and cooperativism in the world, a close friend of Marquès since their days as culinary students. The chef did not want to miss the event, which he attended with Carles Tejedor, his right-hand man in Washington, and with friends Ferran and Albert Adrià, who were enjoying themselves crowded together at one end of that bar tiled with eighties tiles, while music from The time.
We had to return on Tuesday, to see the new food house in action, try some preparations that were not included in the premiere and talk with Marquès. Five years after the closing of the emblematic Suquet de l’Almirall, full of joy, he recognized that he felt himself back in his element. “My body asked for it, because this is my thing and I needed to return.” While he attended to the demand for some of the tables, almost all of them occupied by residents of the neighborhood, he confessed that he would never have thought that so many people would still miss the Suquet and keep memories of that house that had been part of his life. . The cook also said that they were not looking for a place to open a new business, but that they stumbled upon it. The bar where he and his daughter used to drink coffee, in front of the ExquisEat space that they opened together during the pandemic and where they organize the most varied activities (cooking courses, presentations of gastronomic products, talks…), was going to close . They offered it to them and they didn’t think too much about it.
They explain that for them it is a challenge to establish synergies between their respective professions of cook and nutritionist. And one of the effects is that much more vegetables enter the kitchen of the new Santa Magdalena than did in the Suquet. Paula is also the one who has taken care of the brand image, with a striking penitent Magdalena. Although they recognize that sometimes it is difficult for them to agree and that is why they constantly debate, they share without fissures the reason for being of the new restaurant: they are both concerned that there are dishes that they ate as children or that Quim Marquès himself still enjoys. on Sundays at his mother’s house, which are in danger of extinction. “It is very good that we eat ceviches, but it is not difficult to find a good fricandó in Barcelona.” And that is their bet, simple Catalan cuisine, at an average price of 30 euros, in addition to a menu of the day for 19.50 euros and forquilla breakfasts with cheeses from Eva Vila, cold cuts from Cal Rovira and the stews on the menu.
That is why the cuisine of this place that honors and vindicates the figure of a Mary Magdalene that Marquès (“I am a little irreverent”) considers unjustly condemned, resorts to a traditional recipe book. Good “rostit” croquettes, correct Cardinal macaroni, we had a tasty salad with the last tomatoes of this warm autumn, a mix of squid and monkfish with romesco or a simple rice casserole Torrent de l’Olla, inspired by picnic areas that proliferated in Gràcia when people from Barcelona went up there to look for water in the fountains. And desserts like the delicious flan with cream to sin without haste.
