The restaurant located on the first floor of a castle with a green landscape that pays homage to our mothers' cooking

Saint Julian of RamisIt's Friday, the weather is good, the train to Girona has gone reasonably well despite the delay, and when I arrive at the Fontané restaurant, located on the first floor of theEsperit Roca Hotel, in the Sant Julià castleI find myself in a brightly lit room, tables with white tablecloths, waiters and waitresses dressed in black trousers and jackets, and diners who have filled every table. There are entire families, couples, and colleagues, and I sit next to the large window that projects the green of Sants Metges Mountains onto the table.

On May 15th, chef Joan Roca told a packed auditorium of businesspeople, politicians, and Girona's civil society representatives who attended the 9th Tourism, Territory, and Society Conference that the Fontané restaurant had served el nido à la carte. The dish, el nido. Suddenly, an "Ooooooh" was heard, meaning that he had touched the core of seduction, because that sea and mountain experience is part of the collective imagination, and will make many of us travel miles to try it. The tourism conference was organized by the Jordi Comas Matamala Foundation in the auditorium of the Cap Roig gardens.

The fascination of the nest

In 1966, the writer Josep Pla assured What we have eaten who was capable of traveling two hours to taste the best nest, along with two other dishes: "There are three dishes from the country, above all, that make people's heads spin. The fascination they produce is so great that many people, to have them, would travel two hours, without what we call here black with the sound, rice; rice; fish, cod guts, a pigeon and aioli; Two years later, in the book My country, Pla complained that the nest was no longer cooked, because the basic products, neither the fish stick nor the tripe, existed, but, instead, it had caused a new result: "From the basic idea of the nest, from the magnificent result obtained by the mixture of heterogeneous elements of this dish, the later combinations were born, the lobster lobster with snails. These are risky dishes that if they are tied they are good and if they are not tied it is better to let it go."

For his part, chef Joan Roca explains that they have been orthodox in their preparation of the nest, but have lightened it up to make it contemporary. It includes sofrito, picada, cod guts that give it gelatin, pigeon, sausages, and black pudding. "It's a baroque dish, which is also an idea, one that seeks to unite the sea and the mountains, and that is precisely what can be seen from the windows of the Fontané restaurant," says Joan Roca.

And now we describe the set menu. It all starts with mint soup, which the waiters bring you as an aperitif. The soup is accompanied by Encuentro mountain shoots, and the salad is accompanied by Ermessenda cheese cream and confit tomato. Catalan. The price, €70, includes water, bread (delicious), bread with tomato, coffee, and infusions.

Those who prefer to create their own menu will find excellent dishes on the menu, including starters, soups, fish dishes, rice and pasta dishes, meat dishes, and desserts. For starters: the salad from the menu, as well as pork country pâté with foie gras; sardine terrine; pig's foot carpaccio; and quail with escabeche and cod. I prefer the sardine terrine, and it's a success both in presentation and in the flavor of the bluefish, which, lasagna-style, combines with red pepper, a Chardonnay shallot vinaigrette, olive juice, and a salad of tender shoots with pickles, such as cauliflower florets.

For my main course, I choose the marinated and grilled scorpion fish stew, semi-dried tomato with black olives, orange, and pine nuts, which I can dip into the slices of country bread. I was torn between the stew and the meatballs with mushrooms or the rice in a casserole with pork chops, sausage, cuttlefish, and asparagus, but since there are more days than languor, I'll leave them for another day.

For dessert, the rich options make it even more difficult to choose. There's fruit, chocolate with bread with oil and salt; a musician's dessert, and two others I choose: the ratafia countess, with a ratafia reduction, walnuts, and chocolate, which at first glance resembles classic ice cream but in the mouth is a world away—the ratafia plays its role well. Perhaps a little too ice cream when it arrives at the table, so you'd be wise to order another dessert, which in my case, out of admiration for the farmers and cheesemakers, was the Fonteta cloth requesón (cotton cheese) with honey, medlars, and a honey crunch. A success.

It's worth mentioning that the Roca brothers opened the restaurant that bears their mother's surname, Fontané, a month ago. Specifically, on April 27th, the day their mother made "a sort of wedding list to invite family and friends, and also wrote down where they should sit," recalls chef Joan Roca, who adds that since Fontané opened, there have already been two uses specifically for lunch. The helipad at the Hotel Esperit Roca is open 24 hours a day.

Finally, on the wine list, you'll still have thousands of options, because on the ground floor of the restaurant is the Hotel Esperit Roca's large wine cellar. Since we're in Sant Julià de Ramis, I order a wine from the DO Empordà, specifically from the Olivardots winery, the Gresa blancaAnd for dessert, another Empordà wine, the sweet Bac de les Ginesteres, which the waiters tell me is made with overripe grapes from Vinyes dels Aspres, in Cantallops. On the label, you'll see a photograph of rows of demijohns. In the glass, you'll find a reddish-sky wine, the truly sweet culmination (without added sugar) of a meal in a restaurant that pays homage to the cuisine of the Roca brothers' mother, Montserrat Fontané, the cuisine of our mothers.