Joan Jordà: "By wanting to be like Ferran Adrià, our role model when we were kids, we've lost 75 percent of our youth."

Castellón de EmpúriesIt's a late summer morning, and twin brothers Joan and Màrius Jordà (37) are preparing the menu for the two restaurants they run inside the Hotel Empòrium (c/ Santa Clara, 31, Castelló d'Empúries), where their parents also work. The brothers can easily move from one restaurant to the other because they're separated by a wall. Being two of them, and getting along well, they share the work. In fact, customers who don't know they're identical twins might think the same person does everything. The Hotel Empòrium has just turned sixtieth, and its two restaurants are in great shape: since last November, the informal Bistrot 1965 has had a green star and a Bib Gourmand award, which means it's recognized for its good value (it costs 40 euros). To continue, the Empòrium, with two tasting menus, has had a red star since 2016 and a green one since 2023. The chefs were 27 years old when they received their first stellar recognition from the French guide.

We interviewed them on the outdoor terrace, surrounded by aromatic herbs, which serves as a refuge between life outside and that of the restaurants. The parents work at the hotel. A curious fact: the father is 23 years older than his children, and more than once it has been felt that he is the older brother of the twins. The resemblance between the three leads to these misunderstandings. Elena Giró, the mother, on the other hand, is a restless woman, with boundless energy, and she is in charge of leaving all the hotel rooms perfect, which is no small task.

The Emporium restaurant is the dream of two brothers.

— Yes, but also from our father, who, ever since we were little, took us to iconic restaurants in Girona, Catalonia, and around the world. He introduced us to the cooking of great restaurants, and we began to try and learn about it.

Who cooked at the hotel when you were little?

— Our grandfather and my father helped them. Then they made a simple menu.

How old were you when you told them you were going to work?

— We were 21. We had finished Tourism at the University of Girona and since we were sixteen we knew we wanted to stay at the hotel.

So, at 21, you go into the kitchen, and what do you do?

— We create dishes. We design, think, and prepare them. We must say that without the help of our father, Salvador, we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing, because if you want to go far, you must be accompanied, and because he always gave us something from day one. He believed in what we proposed.

When you joined, did you start making the gastronomic menus?

— It was gradual. We wanted to give the restaurant a different look, but we did it gradually. However, there was a day when we realized we had gotten too wrapped up in it, that we had strayed far from what Grandpa did at the restaurant.

I'll pause on this mess. What were the dishes that, at twenty-five, made you realize I was making a different kind of cuisine?

— In the early years, we copied ideas without having a specific approach, but later, through hard work, we began to develop our own approach. We then set a goal: to become a beacon of the Empordà region, shining a light on the region's producers. We wanted the Empòrium to be mentioned whenever people talked about Empordà gastronomy.

And in this lighthouse, what identifies you the most?

— Sea and mountain cuisine, and especially today, we are highlighting products that were forgotten, that had fallen into oblivion.

How now?

— Savoy fennel, which we preserve ourselves and bring to the table so customers can see how we make it. It's an ancient tradition for us, coming from Cadaqués, where our mother and her family are from. We also preserve grapes, samphire, and many other preserves, including lemon.

This year he has started to recover vegetable seeds.

— Yes, we're very excited. It all started because we wanted to start our own vegetable garden, but we couldn't have one. And in the end, it was a good idea not to have one. We contacted our usual vegetable suppliers, like Jeroni Falgàs, and told them our idea: to collect vegetable seeds from the Empordà region so they wouldn't go to waste. We save them, but we also grow them. And we've already seen results, like the black-eyed beans, native to Torroella de Fluvià, which are small and have a black eye in the middle. They're different from other similar legumes, and they were being lost because they couldn't be sold. So, we decided to replant them, grow them, and bring them to our plates.

This year the Hotel Empòrium celebrated its sixtyth anniversary.

— We're very happy. Our great-grandfather founded it, and over the years it's changed. Before, all cars could park here in front of the door, but with Covid, we decided to change the entrance. We're not lucky enough to be in the middle of the Empordà countryside, but right next to Castellón's main street, which is equally an advantage as a disadvantage. The fact is that now the entrance features the same vegetation as in the Empordà marshes: orchids and aromatic herbs. And so, from the moment the customer sets foot in the door, our local universe begins, which means we bring what's around us, twenty-five kilometers away, to our plate. To continue, we water the plants with rainwater, collected in tanks. And all the materials we use in the furniture are recycled fibers.

There is also a recycling project with glass bottles.

— We return 90% of the bottles we use to their source, meaning we don't put them in the green bin. We turn the remaining 10% into ashtrays, candle holders, decanters, and other utensils we use on the tables. For example, we have large vases where we serve local water from Maçanet. These are made from glass recycled by us and by one of our suppliers, Juan. The same goes for local water; it's important to us. It costs more than any other drinking water on the market or through osmosis, but for us, having water from Maçanet means sustainability.

Last November you were awarded a new star, a green one for the Bistrot 1965 restaurant.

— And we're very proud. Of the fifty-seven Green Stars that exist in Spain, two are in our house, which is small, we have limited resources, and we do what we can, because there aren't that many of us. What does happen is that we're always thinking and searching for ideas. When we returned from Murcia, where we collected the Green Star, my father was driving—he always acts as our chauffeur—and my brother and I started looking for new ideas.

You already have them in progress.

— Yes, we start the menu with three different varieties of extra virgin olive oil and salt, and six breads made with ancient wheat grown around the Empordà marshes. We do this in both tasting menus, the Local Universe and the Sea and Mountain, and we believe this way we better place our guests in the place where we are.

Finally, I return to your dream. What remains for it to be complete?

— The real dream was to be like the chef Ferran Adrià, and with the help of my father, mother, and grandparents, we've gotten to where we are. We'd also like to tell you that by wanting to be like Ferran Adrià, we've lost 75 percent of our youth. We've given that up because we've always been here, working. We didn't even go to the first Michelin gala where we were awarded the first star, because we had work. We received the invitation to go to Galicia, but we didn't go.

Does it have relief?

— We're the fourth generation of the Emporium, and there's a fifth, yes, who's my daughter. If she ever decides to stay, we want to make it easy for her.

From everything you've told me, I think you're in a good place.

— Yes, we do what we think we should do, what we feel; we're in a sweet spot. Each of our dishes can have up to sixteen different preparations. Did we mention we're working on a kind of turbot and sea bass bacon? And we're looking at how to prepare our salted fish. All with the aim of always making the most of the food we use.