Martí Juncà: "Being the son of Joan de Ca Enric isn't a burden, because he lets us do our own thing and wants to dedicate himself to making sausages."

Bianya ValleyI interviewed Martí Juncà (Olot, 2002) after a lunch service at the Ca l'Enric restaurant in the Vall de Bianya region. I saw how he waited on tables and asked diners which wines they preferred. He suggested I try the Vinya de Maiadeu white wine from winemaker Ton Mata, which turned out to be a success due to its novelty and exclusivity: they only have fourteen bottles in the restaurant. In the kitchen, I greeted his older brother, Adrià, who's in charge of the sweeter side of the menu, and in the kitchen, his uncle, Jordi Juncà. At the door, my father, Joan Juncà, greeted me with Nina, his dog. He was always attentive, always eager to share the space with the guests, showing them the wine cellar, the kitchen, the photo of his parents in the kitchen, and the dining room. It's a trademark of the house; hospitality, generosity and above all kindness. A few meters away, in the Hostel, is Joan and Jordi's sister, Martí's aunt, Isabel Juncà, another pillar of the family.

Did you want to be a waiter when you were little?

— It wasn't my life's passion; I wasn't like my brother, who always had a clear vision of it. Ours, where you see the smiles on the faces of customers.

You found yourself, but you studied a degree in hospitality.

— Yes, I completed my intermediate and advanced degrees in Girona. I also completed my sommelier degree at the University of Girona. I did internships at restaurants like Divinum, which has one Michelin star, and Lasarte in Barcelona, ​​which has three.

Your father always tells me that when he was little, he would all eat together in the kitchen with his grandparents.

— This is our family history. All of us together at the kitchen table, with our grandparents, of whom we have many photographs, and we remember them a lot. Now our younger cousins, Jordi's daughters, who are 6 and 5, make it. They both love very good food. I suppose every family has its own culture, and this is ours. My brother and I were very lucky because both grandmothers were very good cooks. Our maternal grandmother, from Girona, was a cook at Salt; she taught classes and even appeared on TV3 preparing a sweet butifarra with apple. In fact, if I had to highlight a dish I remember, I would say the macaroni made by both grandmothers. Each one made it differently, but both dishes were very good.

You and your brother Adrià are the fifth generation of Ca l'Enric. And, in age, you're close to Uncle Jordi.

— Jordi and my father have been together for seventeen years. Seventeen! Jordi is 40, and Adrià, my older brother, is 29. However, right now we're all in the restaurant, because Joan, like my grandparents, hasn't quite left. He lets us do what we want; he wants to let us, he tells us so and he practices it. He also doesn't intervene in the way we work, but, of course, everyone looks for him, especially when people come into the restaurant. Joan welcomes customers with Nina. Then they see me, and they immediately ask if I'm Juan's son. I suppose they tell me because of my physical appearance. My brother, Adrià, looks more like my mother, who is a clinical nurse. I'd say that I don't see being the son of Joan de Ca l'Enric as a burden, because he lets us do our own thing and because he's clear that he wants to dedicate himself to making cured meats.

Own sausages?

— Yes, it's a project for the present and future. He's already working with Duroc pig producers, who feed the animals corn. He handles the curing and drying process, and has ideas for introducing corn into empty butts used in sherry winemaking. So Dad has a new field to run in the gastronomy field, and he has energy, a lot of energy, to move forward. And I emphasize this because he suffered from the illness but his energy hasn't run out. He wants to make cured meats, he wants to build the new Ca l'Enric restaurant, and he also wants to start a vegetable garden.

The new restaurant will be the legacy he leaves to the fifth generation.

— It will be a different world; with the same tradition and essence of our grandparents' and great-grandparents' roadside restaurant, but different. We'll maintain the essence, which signifies the woodcock, a noble bird, which Juan, my father, constantly thinks about how to make more contemporary. This winter, we served the woodcock. Isabel, my aunt, makes a soup that everyone admires and that we can't take off the menu because everyone asks for it. In spring, stuffed morels and peas take center stage.

Explain to me what it means to be a waiter.

— Express what the chef has done in the dining room. You have to make it easy, very easy, so there's a connection, and at the same time, you have to know the dishes very well. Right now, for example, the menu is very different from the winter menu. Almost all the dishes are new, because there are broad beans and white asparagus; so we have to know them well and communicate them in the languages of the diners who come to our restaurant. I speak French and English.

Martí, Madrid Fusion nominated you this year as a finalist for the Sala Revelació award.

— I wasn't lucky enough to win, but being there was already a big deal, because I spent two days in Madrid, attended talks, and learned about products I hadn't heard of before. Nevertheless, it was a good experience.

And the nerves?

— I'm most nervous during service. Specifically, when meals begin, because I want everything to go well, because I don't know the tables yet, and I want to know how they'll respond. Each table is unique; each person needs to be served differently, and until I speak or interact a little, I'm nervous. For example, there are tables that don't want me to tell them about the dishes because they want privacy and their own space. Until I have all that information, I'm restless. So I'd say my peak nervous hour is between 1:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. After that, it calms down. And it's like that every day. And it's not because we don't have meals! During Holy Week, we made lunch menus for 200 people at the hostel.

The price of food at the hostel is very competitive.

— Twenty-three euros, drinks and coffee not included.

Finally, what are your future plans?

— Continue working at Ca l'Enric as I am now. Continue the family's hospitality saga. I want to be a great professional in the sector. And be close to my family. Did you know that my brother Adrià gave Nina, the dog, to Dad? I was little, and I didn't really notice when my father fell ill. He was older, and a truffle farmer told him that one of his dogs had had a litter. He showed up overnight with Nina, and they haven't been apart since. Nina is nervous if she doesn't see Dad. She's part of the family, and she comes with us everywhere, even when we travel. And I don't want to think about what will happen when he's gone, even though we know she's eleven now.