Who was our first guest on the Stay to eat podcast, Joan Roca, stars in episode number 65 of this conversation space. The eldest of the brothers from El Celler de Can Roca (Girona), who has just celebrated his 60th birthday, reflects on how he faces the passing of the years, on what getting older means to him and on his desire to undertake and continue achieving El Celler is different and excellent. Also about how to prepare for the day when you are no longer in the media spotlight.
After the years in which they competed on the list of the best restaurants in the world, which they topped twice (now they are part of The Best of the Best category, along with all those who have been number one), they talk about the spirit of cooperation who reigned among his colleagues until the rankings emerged, and who believes he is returning and explains that the important thing is not to be the best in the world (something impossible to quantify) “but unique in the world.”
Joan Roca talks about the difference between competitiveness and ambition – “without ambition the gastronomic revolution of which we have been part would not have occurred” – and about that concern that has led to Spain having starred restaurants distributed throughout its geography, when Years ago the stars were concentrated in Euskadi, Catalonia and Madrid.
He also explains the example of effort and hospitality that they have had in their own parents – “they are our heroes” – and wonders if they have been able to transmit those values ??that they received. At the same time, he points out the importance of understanding young people who “although they may have grown up in hardships,” face a future that is not easy. “Young people of 25 face a world where it is not so easy to undertake, prosper, be able to buy a home and you have to know how to understand that, on the one hand, they have been very protected, but on the other they suffer from that harsh society where the only thing that “They have is freedom.” For that reason, he explains, although it cannot be generalized, “many times they prioritize free time more than thinking about work, making sacrifices.”
The chef from Girona also talks about the boom moment that his city is experiencing, “we are trying to manage that success”, and about the mark left on his family by the suffering that he himself recounted in the first chapter of this podcast, when Three years ago, her teenage daughter suffered a very serious accident from which she fortunately managed to recover. “The blow is there, and now, although I am still excited, with projects; Although there are countries that I still want to visit, markets, cultures that are on the list to do, it is evident that he approaches it from a playful perspective. I want to have fun. I no longer do things because no one imposes it on me, but because I want to continue doing them and I feel like it. And I do many of those things with my daughter, Marina, because she loves it.”
Among other topics, Roca gives his opinion on the phenomenon of the holistic experience of the Danish restaurant Alchemist, whose seed he places in the gastronomic opera El Somni, an artistic installation through which, together with his brothers, he tried to explore the limits of sensory perception. about the problems in the agriculture sector or about his vision of what the restaurants of the future will be like.
