The chef who will open a new Catalan cuisine restaurant and who has closed a Michelin-starred restaurant

BarcelonaThe Aürt restaurant served its final dinner last Friday, June 27th, after six years inside the Hilton Hotel in Barcelona. There was also a cake with a candle blown out by the entire team, which could have a double meaning: "It's as much a farewell as a birth," said chef Artur Martínez, who sat at one of the tables for his restaurant's final meal with his children, Arturo and Maite. "It's a beautiful moment because a large part of the Aürt team started at the Capritx restaurant in Terrassa, with my parents, so the relationship between the chefs and the parents is very close; they know each other very well," commented Artur. He was referring to chefs Marc Cano, Pol Ruiz, and Xavi Romrero, who started at the Capricho restaurant in Terrassa at the age of 17 and are now key chefs at Aürt.

At eight o'clock in the evening, diners began arriving at the restaurant, which is entered after passing through large, mustard-colored curtains that separate the hotel lobby from the restaurant's dining room. On one side, Aürt (with a Michelin star) serves dishes; on the other, Mai serves tables and a large bar counter, offering a tapas menu based on local produce.

We return to Aurto. On the day of the last dinner for clients, the chef's parents sat at a section of the high bar, just as they had on the first day. Everyone greeted Artur and wished him luck, and a couple with a restaurant in Gijón asked him what he would do next. They had come specifically to wish him luck in his new venture. "I'm fine; I've renewed my contract with the Hilton Hotel for five years. We'll renovate the space and turn it into a Mön, a restaurant serving traveling cuisine made with local produce," he told them. Thus, hotel guests will experience local produce through dishes that nod to other cultures. "The vegetables will be from our local producers; the bread will be from Oswaldo Brito at the Pan de Kilo bakery," explains the chef, who adds that construction on this space will begin in July and is expected to open in mid-November.

Now, in September, there will be another opening: a tavern named Süca (the umlauts like Aürt have always been placed under the vowel by design). It will be located in the Eixample district, and he isn't detailing its location because he wants to reveal it as soon as it opens. "I started to say that Süca would be a tavern, but no, because it will be new Catalan cuisine," and he's entertaining himself with the concept because the chef has it very well thought out. He will serve dishes based on traditional Catalan cuisine, but taking away "the rusticity," that is, making them "lighter." They won't be large dishes, but rather small tastings. And all of this will be served with natural Catalan wines, which "add value."

Chef Artur Martínez continues to detail what he means by the concept of new Catalan cuisine. "Half of the menu will be based on familiar dishes from the cookbook, reinterpreted under the premise of lightness, and the other half will be Catalan dishes, but unknown, because we want to reclaim our culinary richness," he comments. He also mentions dishes that are not as well-known and not found on the menu: arroz en la píula, a dry rice dish from the Empordà region. "And I will also be making my own cured meats, cheeses, and preserves, all linked to a project to recover the gastronomic heritage that surrounds us, because we have been working on research for all these years and we want to bring it to informal gastronomy," he adds.

At the Informal restaurant, prices are 60-70 euros.

Tonight, Aurto's last dinner will cost 145 euros, without drinks; at Süca, the average bill will be between 60 and 70 euros. "The team that will open Süca in September will be the same as at Aürt, and will be working until spring 2026, when I will reopen Aürt," says the chef. In fact, we look at the menu and see that, probably, some of the ingredients with which the restaurant closes today, white asparagus, will be the star of the opening. He will surely cook them in spring 2026 at the new Aürt. "It seems like we will be eleven months without Aürt, but we won't be idle, because we will have a total of three consecutive openings: the first in September, with Süca; the second, in November, with Mön."

We have reached the dessert of the last supper after having gone through a aguachile del Delta, an interpretation of the Ebro Delta landscape with a Mexican perspective. The sweet part of Aürt's last supper includes four vegetable dishes. Yes, vegetables are eaten for dessert at Aürt. There's arugula, cauliflower, leeks, and ajoblanco. The chocolate appears at the very end, in the form of a bonbon, made with just two ingredients: chocolate and water. It's the pure taste of chocolate without any sugar or dairy to interfere.

The menu ends, and the chef offers final thoughts: "Catalan cuisine is experiencing a vibrant moment; it's re-emerging with various versions and formats, and it demonstrates that the level is very high." This doesn't mean it doesn't need to be revisited. It must be done, which is why Artur Martínez insists on the concept of new Catalan cuisine: "We must adapt it to bring more freshness and complexity, while always remaining faithful to the recipe book." To illustrate the theory, he takes the example of the escudilla (a traditional Catalan dish): "We will serve the Süca in three elements: the first will be a very balanced, clean, and fat-free broth; the second will be a royale of legumes and vegetables; and the third will be pot meat in the form of a flattened ball, grilled and in its own juices." In other words, we will eat the academic escudilla (a traditional Catalan dish), but in a different format and with the same old taste. Other dishes he'll be performing at Süca include fricandó, which he'll serve with a tender escalope in glazed sauce, and pickled dishes, rice dishes, empanadas, and salads, such as poti-poti de Mura (cod with potatoes). And all of this with a sense of respect for the flavor of the dishes, which is essential because, otherwise, there's no Catalan cuisine, nor new Catalan cuisine. Everything is closed today, but everything remains to be done.