One hundred years since the birth of the man who invented modern Catalan cuisine: "Josep Mercader died of a heart attack in a motorway rest area on his way back from the cardiologist"

RosesAt the Hotel Almadrava, located on Almadrava beach in Roses, the sea and sky are the landscape that captivates your eyes at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's as if you're inside a painting with all shades of blue. Restaurateur Josep Mercader liked this landscape when he built the hotel, and also because it was close to his hometown of Cadaqués. This is the assumption made by his four grandchildren (Albert, Jordi, Lluís, and Sílvia), his daughter, Anna Maria Mercader i Baret, and the son-in-law, the great and wise cook Jaume Subirós (Figueres, 1949). Together, they have preserved the legacy of the man who lived life to the fullest, worked tirelessly in restaurants in Girona and France, and founded two hotels: the Motel Empordà in Figueres and the Almadrava in Roses. Next year, in 2026, he would have turned one hundred. His son-in-law, Jaume Subirós, has worked at both hotels longer than his father-in-law did—sixty-five years, which is exactly the same age as the Motel Empordà and ten years less than the Almadrava. His children work with him in management, in the kitchen, and in the dining room. And his youngest daughter, Silvia, is making films and writing her grandfather Josep Mercader's biography. Together, they form one of the great families of Catalan cuisine.

"He was a very hard worker," explains Josep Mercader's daughter, Anna Maria, who recalls that her father "loved his job." At the age of 12, he was already working in a restaurant in Portbou, and from there he moved on to French restaurants. What's interesting about Josep Mercader's work is that he suffered from asthma, so he couldn't be in the kitchen during peak hours because it was difficult to breathe due to the smoke: there were no exhaust fans, and they cooked with charcoal. "He would come in between 5 and 8 p.m., when things were slow, and that's when you could say he was doing research and development," says Jaume Subirós.

The daughter, Anna Maria, recalls that her father died at the age of 53 from a heart attack at a rest area on the A-7 motorway near Barcelona, in Figueres. "He was returning from a cardiologist appointment in Barcelona with his brother, and on the way back, he died." Anna Maria and Jaume don't want to go into more detail: "Going into details won't bring him back to life." So we move on. We start talking to Josep Mercader's grandchildren, Anna Maria and Jaume's children, and focus the conversation on two of them, the eldest and the youngest.

Albert Subirós (Figueres, 1976) is the manager of the Hotel Almadrava in Roses. He's the one who puts the guests to bed at night, as he likes to introduce himself, "while Mr. Subirós, as he introduces himself, is the one who wakes them up every morning." He says this because Jaume Subirós is always present at breakfast at the Hotel Almadrava. When the service ends, he gets in his car and goes to the Motel in Figueres for the lunch service. "In a single day, he can make up to four or five trips between Figueres and Roses, sleeping between the two towns," his eldest son, Albert, continues. The youngest is...in Silvia, film director, and author of the documentary The men's kitchen.

We return to Albert. He studied cooking while working in Barcelona in the kitchen of the Jean Luc Figueras restaurant. He continued studying tourism and, finally, entered the École Hotelière in Lausanne, like his mother. Then he traveled the world, working in five-star hotels in Geneva, Lake Como, Hong Kong, Dubai, Qatar, Santiago de Chile, and finally returned to El Born, at home. "I'm changing the hotel procedures: I'm making them do cost breakdowns, checklists, and records, which they weren't doing." Because of all this, he says: "I'm the black sheep of the family, because I'm making them computerize everything we do both at the Motel and at Almadrava." Lluís is in charge of managing the food and drinks in Almadrava's three dining spaces, except for the fish and meat, which "Mr. Subirós handles." Almadrava's three dining spaces are: the restaurant, the cocktail bar (with cocktails by Manel Vehí, who belongs to one of the great families beloved by the Subirós) and the poolside restaurant, offering grilled meat and fish. "The job of a hotel manager is so broad and diverse. They have to be aware of everything, even the weather, the sea temperature, and the pool temperature," says Albert.

And having reached that point in the conversation, I ask him about his grandfather. What do you remember? "Almost nothing; I was three years old when he died, so I can only recall one day I was in the car with him, and little else," says Albert. His memory is shaped by the explanations of his mother and father. From them, he knows that Albert Mercader created "a recipe book, one savoir faire "which we maintain." And, furthermore, Albert has points of connection: "Grandfather opened sixty rooms at Almadrava; father expanded them to ninety, and I would like to go back to having sixty, like when grandfather opened, because I would like to make suites. Today's luxury implies having larger rooms," he explains, and continues revealing the dishes he likes most from Almadrava and the Motel: the thyme soup, the partridge in cabbage and the fig mousse with anise, three of his grandfather's recipes, and the cod rice with vine shoots, from the...

As Albert finishes speaking, the third brother, Lluís Subirós (Figueres, 1989), begins. He is the head waiter at the Hotel Almadrava and the Motel Empordà. "I'm the youngest of the brothers, and I've had to learn everything, both in the kitchen and the dining room. When I'm in one space, I'm thinking about the other, and vice versa," he says. The company asked him to adapt to both the kitchen and the dining room, but when he was fourteen, he was already carrying guests' suitcases and taking ingredients to the kitchen. He did this in the summer, and it was at fifteen that he first entered the kitchen. "I also worked at the Espelt winery, where I cleaned the tanks and barrels, and did other winery processes that I didn't fully understand until I was older." At 18, he returned to the Motel's kitchen in the mornings while studying for his baccalaureate at night. He then went on to study tourism at the University of Girona, and the sommelier course taught by Josep Roca, from El Celler de Can Roca.

Albert's mother, Anna Maria, says that once the Manel Puigvert, from the restaurant Les Cols de OlotHe told him that Lluís resembled his grandfather, Josep. "That was the first person Manel told me, and then other people have said the same." But at this point, Lluís says nothing. He smiles. It's difficult for him to confirm this when he didn't know him. Lluís does explain what the service is like at the restaurants in Almadrava and the Motel. "We have a generation of young people who want to try our cuisine," he points out, and mentions his favorite dishes: hare in the royaleThe tomato salad; the tuna tartare with salmorejo on top. The mother also has favorite dishes from all those cooked by her children and Jaume: baked fish in a fisherman's pan, rigatoni Amatriciana Just like Jaume, her husband, cooks them, which is one of Almadrava's great recipes: they cook it in front of the customers from start to finish. "I learned it on a trip to Switzerland, at a cooking workshop, and when I returned I started making it at Almadrava and at the Motel," says Jaume.

Since we're talking about recipes, Anchovies and their fried bones are a must; they are Josep Mercader's signature dish., which all the grandchildren wear as a badge on the lapel of the jacket they wear during service in the form of a pin. They've made anchovies in brine, using the Cadaqués recipe, the one their grandfather knew how to make.We mentioned another legendary recipe: broad bean salad with mint, which was one of the great revolutions in Catalan cuisine, "and still is," says Jaume Subirós: "We went from making a hearty dish with bacon and sausage to making it refined, with broad beans cooked for just three minutes, and mint." The refinement of broad beans with mint exemplifies the first revolution in Catalan cuisine.

To continue, Jaume Subirós states that he disagrees with what he has written the scholar Xavier Pla on Josep Pla"We knew him well at home; he was a friend of my father-in-law and of mine, and I assure you it was impossible for him to have been in charge of the family finances; I'm sure Pedro was." He also laments that Pla's extensive reading and travels are not highlighted; in his youth, he was very tall and handsome. Instead, "now only photos of him in his later years are published, and his farewell speeches are explained." When he was ill, they went to see him, Subirós says, and the writer's sister, Anna Maria, told them that he had recognized who had made the broth he had been given for lunch. "He always had a good palate."And about Josep Pla, Subirós could talk for hours and hours. So many, in fact, that we agreed I'd focus the interview solely on him another day.

Finally, the conversation turns to the future. Then all eyes turn to Josep Mercader's great-granddaughter, Paula Subirós. "She's Jordi's daughter, born on the same day as her great-grandfather Josep Mercader, April 14th, and she's been by my side since she was little," says Jaume. She wants to study hospitality and has worked both in the dining room and the kitchen. She's the next generation in the family, and everyone lights up when they speak. Everything points to the great-granddaughter, accompanied by her family members still working in the industry, taking up the mantle from the man who revolutionized Catalan cuisine, Josep Mercader.