The heartfelt tribute to Santi Santamaria reconciles the great family of Catalan cuisine

{ "ops": [ { "insert": "Calldetenes\n" } ] }“It is very important for me to be here”, said Ferran Adrià. “Today we have become a family again”, affirmed the chef. We are at Can Jubany, at an event in tribute to Santi Santamaria, organized by his son Pau, fifteen years after his death. Everyone has come today. “How nice that we are all here”, said Roser Torres, the woman who has organized the biggest gastronomic events of recent decades. She is known as Mama by many chefs. And like a good mother, she looked happy today that, finally, a battle that was hard and bloody for those who lived it and that time has finally reconciled was being brought to a close – posthumously, of course. has ended up reconciling.

On February 16, 2011, Santi Santamaria died in Singapore. He was 53 years old. He left abruptly, leaving Pau and Regina, Can Fabes, and also those who defended his precepts in the conflict that divided the great talents of Catalan (and world) cuisine into two camps orphaned: on one side, the chefs of El Bulli and their revolutionary, techno-emotional, molecular, whatever you want to call it, cuisine, and on the other, the defenders of product and tradition. These postulates were confronted in vehement lectures, very harsh press articles, and books. Especially one by Santamaria published in 2008, La cocina al desnudo.

. It is very nice that Pau goes around and feels at home”.

heavys. It is very nice that Pau goes around and feels at home”.

Time, which puts things in their place, also relocates them, and has made this unvarnished tribute possible. For Joan Roca, chef at El Celler de Can Roca, Santi's philosophical and conceptual postulates continue to be "current and important" today. "When we lived through the controversy, what he was saying is what everyone is talking about today. Seasonal produce and valuing Catalan cuisine," stated the chef from Girona, one of those who can have enough perspective. "Today's tribute is necessary, heartfelt, and respectful. It puts the legacy and history of gastronomy in its place because Santi made us reflect, even though at the time we experienced it with contradictions. Because the world was looking this way and the conflict was uncomfortable. But looking back, it must be recognized that his reflection was interesting.

The first three-star restaurant that loved fuet

Santamaria was the first three-Michelin-star restaurant in the country. And he accumulated quite a few more in many other projects. There was a time when he was everything. And, as the Basque chef Martín Berasategui wanted to recall in a text read very emotionally by the sommelier Joan Carles Ibáñez, for him, Santamaria was a person who valued a good chorizo or a good fuet from Can Bossoms or Can Pere Serra more than a lobster or a tin of caviar. The relevance of his dishes was seen in the meal, where some of his signature recipes were made: shrimp ravioli with boletus oil made by Paolo Casagrande from Lasarte; turnips and marrow with lentils and caviar, by Albert Adrià, or an extraordinary cod tripe with black pudding and sausages by his disciple Xavier Pellicer.

For Carles Gaig, a chef who is also a bastion of traditional Catalan cuisine and conciliatory in nature, Santamaria was “one of the promoters of refined modern gastronomy. A scholar, a true Catalanist. He worked to ensure that the national identity of cuisine would not be lost”. For Gaig, “it wasn't necessary to reach this point. Tradition and innovation can go hand in hand perfectly. Both things were absolutely compatible”. Finally, Gaig wanted to thank Adrià. "My thanks to Ferran, who has given us a lesson." Berasategui, in his writing, also remembered other names, whom he considers to be with Santamaria on "the dark side of the Moon": Juli Soler, Xavier Sagristà, Ivan Soler, and Fermí Puig. Fortunately for all, Berasategui claims to have kept the key to the cellar for himself.

As Santamaria was a man who favored excess if there was quality, the event began in the morning at Can Jubany and ended in Tona, at Santamaria Gastronòmic. There is the cuisine of Can Fabes and some characteristic objects from the restaurant. On the premises, the company director, Pere Font, and Pau Santamaria gathered a great many people. And even more showed up. A drawing power worthy of Santi himself, who also always ended up with more guests. Everyone wanted to be there. And everyone wanted to remember that Santi is no longer here, but his cuisine lives on. That is why a book will be reissued for him, the ethics of taste, and a tribute book dedicated to him will be made. Ferran Adrià will write the prologue.