In 1700, noodles were a common, everyday dish because they were inexpensive, and now they've returned to restaurant menus.

BarcelonaWe are a pacifist country, but Catalan cuisine must defend itself. This was proclaimed last year by chef Jordi Vilà when he published the manual with defensive movements., Not an attack, but a counter-offensive against the invasive dishes that dazzle us and make us forget that we have a cuisine documented for over 700 years. This year, the chef of Alkimia, together with the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition, has published a paper calendar, the kind you hang in the kitchen, with the twelve movements, three more than Vilà had planned at the beginning of last year. The calendar is sponsored by Royal Bliss; it's a gift for restaurateurs, and it was presented at the Windsor restaurant, run by Joan Junyent.

To start the year, January presents the first defensive movement, against Italian pasta and in favor of our artisanal pasta factories. "We know that in 1700 there were artisanal pasta factories, and the profession of fideuer also existed," therefore, before Italian pasta arrived in our homes, we were already eating it, and noodles in a casserole dish probably date back to this period. "It wouldn't be noodles with ribs, because that recipe is for holidays. So noodles were an everyday, recurring dish because they were economical." The best thing about January and the defense movement it represented is that noodles in a casserole have returned to restaurant menus. One example is the tasting menu of the Casamar restaurant in Llançà, by the brothers Quim and Maria Casellas. "There's also a generation of young chefs opening restaurants who have focused on traditional Catalan cuisine, and that's very good," says Vilà, who adds: "I belong to a generation where chefs wanted to be like Ferran Adrià, Santi Santamaria, Carme Ruscalleda, and now we have young people who want to do what they do best—these young people say that, with all due respect, they don't want three Michelin stars." And that's why they're bringing back noodle dishes to restaurants.

All of this leads the chef to say that currently "Catalan cuisine enjoys a good balance between avant-garde cuisine, with a strong presence, on the one hand, and young chefs, some of whom are even reviving old recipes, like those of The Sosenga or those of France by Francesca Baixas"On the other hand."

An idea by Carlos Vilarrubí

Returning to the calendar, the three months that will see the launch of a new self-defense group are July, October, and November. And since we're in January, here's what Vilà has to say: "We've fallen in love with names like barbecue, ketchup, I am willow either teriyakiAnd yes, they're good, but four days ago we didn't even know how to spell them. Meanwhile, there's romesco, one of the most international sauces in the world. And we can't forget aioli, olivada, anchovies, picadura, or sofrito. Do we want to add flavor to our dishes? Let's start with our sauces."

For his part, the vice president of the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition, Joan Font, explains that the idea of creating a calendar with Jordi Vilà was of the president, Carles Vilarrubí, transferred in December. Font also reports that tomorrow, January 21st, the Academy has scheduled a board meeting, at which nominations for the presidency can be submitted. The board will then be officially in office. After the elections, the president will be able to form their own board. If only one candidate is nominated, they will be automatically elected. "This year has been very tough; we've had seven estimated losses of members in thirteen months, so we've gone from a total of seventy to sixty-three," says Joan Font. For his part, the Director General of Agri-food Businesses, Quality and Gastronomy of the Ministry of Agriculture, Joan Gòdia, points out that this year, starting in March, twenty-four primary and secondary schools will begin teaching the subject of nutrition, one of the Ruscalleda school in particular, as well as Ferran Adrià and society in general. "We also believe that Catalan cuisine needs a Culinary Basque Center," that is, a school similar to the one created in San Sebastián with public and private capital, concludes Gòdia.