Catalan cuisine will have its definitive recipe book next year.

Vilanova i la GeltrúXavier Mestres (Vilanova i la Geltrú, 1944) arrives at the port of Vilanova with his Scoopy. He says his back is hurt, but you wouldn't know it, riding on the motorbike. He cooks, and today we've gathered them first at the port, where we're joined by the head skipper, Jaume Carnicer, and then at the house of a Vilanova fisherman to talk about what will be the big news for next year's Sant Jordi: the last Corpus Christi of Catalan cuisine ~Let's cheer for the photos you admire right in front of their boats. Both are good cooks; Xavier comes from a family of lifelong restaurateurs in Vilanova, and at one point they explain the two dishes they would make today. The angels will sing. For dessert, orange crickets with candied orange and vanilla ice cream, which Xavier Mestres himself will prepare.

After admiring the octopuses, Xavier and Pepa stand in front of the fishermen's sea tools; each one is marked with the names of the boats they belong to. And at this point, we begin to talk about the smells produced by the port. "The sense of smell is very exciting; I wish I could put into a tablet the smell I remember when I went out on the boat to fish for sardines," says Xavier Mestres. On top of his fishing friends' boat, the smell he remembers was of iodine, burning oak charcoal (for cooking), and the caulking from the boat itself. This tablet, if it existed, Xavier would buy it. And Pepa Aymamí tells him that perhaps one day he will be able to do so, because the Catalan Institute of Cuisine Foundation is currently planning to work with world experts in aromas and flavors to try to discover and identify those of Catalan cuisine. Next, we address the topic of the Cuina Catalana brand, which they registered in 2000, and in 2002 as a guarantee brand, and they give me the opinion, which we have already reported well in another article.

We continue the conversation. And now we talk about Xavier Mestres' family restaurant. It was called The Palm Trees, which years later was called The Peixerot, which was the nickname given to the men of the family, who had dedicated themselves to the sea, but left because they were tired of working. They then opened the Cal Rayo tavern, which was a few meters beyond the Peixerot. The Mestres family transferred it to the Albà family nine years ago, who did not acquire their name, and that is why the current restaurant is called 1918And since we're still in the paragraph where we talk about the Mestres family, Xavier mentions that, when he was 38, together with his wife, Dolors, they left Peixerot to open the Avi Pau restaurant in Cunit, which became a great reference for Catalan cuisine. Ferran Adrià in his restaurant, and right in Xavier Mestres points out that this was the last great xatonada he organized.

We've finished taking the photographs, and now we've settled into Vador's house. A long table is set up, where Xavier and Pepa explain where they met for the first time. "At the Atalaya restaurant in Barcelona, ​​when Carles Abellan was cooking, at an event in which the late Llorenç Torrado was present". That day, which they no longer remember the year, Pepa explained to Xavier that the work that the association Conocer Catalunya was doing with the sardana could also be applied to the kitchen. "I knew that Conocer Catalunya was investigating the sardana as an element of the country's identity, and I thought the same could be done with Catalan cuisine," explains Pepa Ayma. forty-five restaurants from all over Catalonia to join in and with such prominent names as Isidre Gironés being added, and together they created the Institut Cuina Catalana Foundation. It was 1997. They met with lawyers and signed it before notaries. The first president was Joan Pedrell, a chef from Cambrils; the second, Carles Gaig; then, Xavier Mestres, who served for twenty consecutive years. And linked to the Foundation, they promoted the Sent Soví Chair at the University of Barcelona, ​​​​which Pepa assures was so important, because "I kept hearing chefs say that their children didn't want to continue in the profession because they wanted to study; it was as if the profession had an inferiority complex, and that's why I created an extension course."

Corpus Christi, the definitive

Now, the most important work of the Catalan Institute of Cuisine Foundation was Corpus Christi, which has been published over the years by different publishers. The first, in Vienna. The second, by RBA. The third, by Arpa Editors. The fourth, next Sant Jordi, will define it. "And it will be because of our age, and because we have incorporated information sheets for all the ingredients that appear amended in the recipes, and this is precisely the big news," says Pepa Aymamí, who adds that the news will not be new recipes, but rather information sheets for products and marine animals, which have been created thanks to the collection. Xavier and Pepa comment on Corpus Christi, who have been published by the University of Barcelona and Jordi Lleonart, from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

Regarding Corpus Christi, Xavier and Pepa comment that over the years, they have been told everything. "The first comment was that there were already many cookbooks in Catalonia; but we always commented that the same thing was said to Pompeu Fabra when he wrote his grammar," they say, adding that it's such a fundamental work that 5,000 experts in the various disciplines of gastronomy worked on it, and that the cost of every Aymamí corrido wouldn't have required a portion of his personal inheritance.

To continue, the methodology the Foundation used to create the Corpus Christi is approved by UNESCO, with established criteria indicating that a dish is included in the vademecum book if it has had oral and written references for fifty years. This is the case of the controversial gazpacho, which was included in the latest edition of the Corpus Christi based on this criterion. Some may still think it's impossible for it to be included, that it's not Catalan cuisine, but UNESCO endorsed the Foundation's study method, and under these criteria, gazpacho had to be included.

"The Corpus Christi is the first in Europe, and the Sorbonne University in Paris has recognized it," explains Aymamí, who recalls that to create the first one, they conducted surveys in 800 restaurants to ask them which dishes they considered to be Catalan cuisine. They then made a selection and shared the results. "It was an anthropological project," they comment, adding that over the years the Corpus Christi has evolved. "We must accept the Thermomix, for example," they point out.

With the Corpus Christi under their belt, they haven't forgotten the efforts to have Catalan cuisine declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. "We have been fighting for the identity of Catalan cuisine for 20 years; we have never tired, but the Corpus Christi that we will publish in April 2025 will be the definitive one for part of our team, who are already of a certain age," they conclude.