Carles Gaig, a chef easy to love who still doesn't have the Sant Jordi Cross

BarcelonaThe Boqueria Market has named Carles Gaig alongside other great figures, as it has included him in its Council of Sages. A recognition also received by Juanito Bayén (from Pinotxo), Jean-Louis Neichel, Isidre Gironès, Josep Lladonosa, Jaume Subirós, or Francesc Fortí. The history of the Gaig family and gastronomy began in 1869 in Horta, when his great-grandmother created a "little tavern", in the chef's words, with chairs and a watering trough for horses. People passed by there to avoid entering Barcelona, where they had to pay a few cents to pass. So, to avoid the tax, many people used this route to go from Sant Andreu del Palomar to Esplugues and save themselves the fee. The great-grandmother, with a commercial nose, began to offer simple dishes, and that's how the business started and predestined Carles Gaig's future long before he was born. Today, he receives this tribute with his wife, Fina Navarro, National Gastronomy Award for her work in the dining room, and their daughter Maria, the fifth generation who has already joined the restaurant, seated in the front row.

Back to Horta. The mother was the sole cook. The whole family did everything in that inn for working-class people with marble tables. Carles, the youngest of three siblings, helped with whatever was asked of him, such as filling wine jugs, watching the cod, or rolling cannelloni. And he has rolled a lot of cannelloni since then. Although cooking wasn't something that called to him, in the 70s, after he had done his military service, his parents became blind due to diabetes. “For my parents, work came before everything else. Nowadays, that's not understood. I joined out of necessity. When you're young, making noodle soup every day, fricandó, doing the same thing every day, doesn't appeal to you. You have dreams,” he explains at La Boqueria.

A book by Bocuse

“I have always been self-taught. I have never worked in a kitchen that was not ours. Because I couldn’t”. And then a book appears. “There was a bookseller in the Horta neighborhood, a learned scholar, who brought me a book. «You have to look at it because it is your philosophy» he told me”. The book was La cuisine du marché, by Paul Bocuse. He read it, and saw that traditional cuisine can be updated without losing its origins. And this has been the basis on which everything Carles Gaig has done has been founded. With or without a Michelin star. In all the projects he has been involved in, whether in Barcelona or Singapore. At the airport, where he had Porta Gaig, which was considered the best restaurant in the world in an airport. “It wasn’t very difficult”, says Gaig, amused. Or in the restaurants he currently has, Gaig or Petit Comitè, which his great friend Nandu Jubany ceded to him.

Speaking of Jubany, Gaig went to Dakar this year to help him cook a rice dish for everyone participating. The next day he was already at the restaurant ready to attend to whoever came, which shows the chef's commitment to his clients and the energy and desire he has to do things. “If I didn't have Fina, I would possibly be retired. Because I do the kind and pleasant part of the job. All the rest, administration, staff... she takes care of all that. That is a heavy burden.” But the Gaig who as a young man went to France every week with Santi Santamaria to buy products he couldn't find here maintains the same energy and enthusiasm.

A wave of affection

The tribute also served to receive the esteem of the profession. “You are an easy person to love”, said pastry chef Christian Escribà. Paolo Casagrande, from Lasarte, thanked him for his good advice. Toni Jerez described him as “the great defender of Catalan cuisine”. “A master like few others”, said Pep Palau. “An example for all of us”, added Mateu Casañas, from Disfrutar. “The best way to influence is to set an example”, insisted Jordi Mas, president of La Boqueria. Finally, a plea made by the director of the Alicia Foundation, Toni Massanés: “I tell various governments to see when they give you a Creu de Sant Jordi”.

To conclude the event, Gaig is asked if he has any enemies after this great display of affection. “I must have done something wrong”, says the chef, smiling. And he ends with advice, in this case already wise advice: “There is no country in the world that has our diverse pantry. This small continent called Catalonia. And it is based on the networks that Barcelona has, the markets, the stallholders who are loyal to this product. Offal, for example, we must never lose: brains, sweetbreads, tripe or head and trotters”.