The rigatoni that are the most requested dish in the history of the Hotel Almadraba in Roses

RosesIt is Monday at midday, and on the terrace of the dining room of Hotel Almadraba in Roses, the wooden cart on wheels where rigatoni, the iconic dish, is prepared, moves from one table to another. Perhaps it is one of the best-known dishes of the Subirós family, or perhaps everyone wants to watch their dish being prepared in front of them. If one table orders it, be sure that the ones next to it will too. "It all started in the city of Lugano, in Switzerland, on the trips my father made with the Almadraba team to work in the winter," recalls Lluís Subirós, the youngest son, who says he must have been nine or ten years old when the Almadraba chefs went there.

Jaume Subirós saw it being made in the Swiss city, and upon his return, he made it his own. In forty-seven years of work between the Motel and the Almadraba, it is clear that there are many dishes of his making. And rigatoni is one of them. With an added success: "It is a generational dish that is enjoyed by both young and old at the same table," explains Lluís. Both for him, for David Huguet, the head waiter, and for the waiters, the preparation offers a moment of calm to interact with the customers: "We can talk face to face, because the dish allows us to ask them how spicy they want it, if a little or a lot, and it's a way to converse," adds Lluís. He himself remembers the time when they used to prepare the dish in the restaurant's dining room and not on the terrace. At that time, the smell of the dish, which contained fried food, garlic, parsley, and chili pepper, reached the reception through the air conditioning, and from there many customers would already make their reservations for lunch or dinner. "It's the dish we've made the most of all since the eighties; more than rice," comments Lluís.

The sauces, essential

And how exactly do they make them? On the one hand, they boil the rigatoni al dente in the kitchen. Then, at low temperature, they prepare the all'amatriciana sauce, that is, fried tomatoes with bacon, parmesan cheese and black pepper, in the Almadrava version. Jaume Subirós points out that they prepare it every day at eight in the morning. Then, on the terrace overlooking the bay of Roses, the waiters prepare four extra sauces as accompaniments that contain the following ingredients as a base: garlic, parsley, chili pepper, and cream. Also butter. They can put more or less of each according to taste. There is still one more ingredient, which is orujo, the shot of orujo they throw in to flambé all the rigatoni. This is also the signal that marks the synchrony with the rest of the dishes that the diners have ordered: “Just when I flambé the rigatoni is when the waiters who see me do it press a button on the tablet connected to the kitchen, so that the dishes that the diners have ordered start to come out”. Regarding the orujo they consume, he adds: “The winery that serves it to us, in Galicia, tells us that we are the ones who buy the most, and it may well be because we know how many rigatoni we prepare each season,” comments Lluís Subirós.

With the dish made, the anecdotes begin. Lluís recalls the first day he prepared them. He must have been nineteen years old, and he made them for Lluís from the restaurant Els Pescadors. He had each of my older brothers beside me guiding me. Fortunately, it turned out well, but he felt the pressure of the first rigatoni. In recent years, they have been refining the dish, he assures. They have changed the tableware with which they serve it, which is from La Bisbal, the way they plate the rigatoni, in the shape of castles one on top of the other; and they have added a sample of the sauces on the side. "It's a dish that I also really like to eat, and it's at night when they ask for it the most."

And almost always at night, when demand is highest, they have to adapt to the weather conditions. We are in Empordà, the tramuntana can blow, and the stove of the wooden cart must have a constant flame for the dish to be finished in front of the diner. "We have designed the cart to open the carburetor and have a flame if the tramuntana or the garbí blow; we have strategies in place to be able to dodge the wind, because it is clear that the most spectacular thing is the flame we make with the orujo."

Rigatoni are not the only dish they prepare in front of the diner: they also make steak tartare, crêpe Suzette, and all with only two carts. "It requires good management of the kitchen and dining room team when so many dishes are requested that require a single waiter in front of the diner." They have calculated the minutes needed for each dish. Even with strong tramuntana, then the rigatoni will need eight and a half minutes.

To finish, about the carts that move up and down the Almadraba dining room, there is a beautiful story, linked with artisans from Figueres. The first carts were made by the carpenter Sayó, and he made them for Josep Mercader. "After years it broke from the inside and we ordered two new ones from the grandson of the same carpenter," says Lluís Subirós, who comments that they are robust; they hold up well to the coming and going.

Memories of Lugano

Jaume Subirós recalls that in winter, with the team, he used to make business trips to work in restaurants in Switzerland. "We would inform our clients that they could find us there when we closed Almadraba," he says. All this was in the late 70s, 80s, 90s, and until the early 2000s. They would spend three weeks in one restaurant; three weeks in another. In Switzerland, they cooked Almadraba's dishes, and the team was happy because they were working in January and February, when the hotel in Roses was closed. "It served to motivate the staff, and also to see new things that we wouldn't have seen if we had stayed home." It was like this, during one of these stays in Switzerland, in Lugano, at the Gambrinus restaurant, that they saw the dish being made. It was 1981, and the following summer, in 1982, they already prepared it at Almadraba, filtered through Jaume Subirós. "At Gambrinus, which has since closed, they prepared it with grappa; I preferred orujo," points out Jaume Subirós, who assures that what he liked most was being able to make it in front of people. "The rigatoni are also more subtle, the sauce is delicious, and children can eat it because the alcohol evaporates when we flambé it".