Alfred Romagosa: "We will open Fonda Balmes in July, serving Catalan cuisine as a tribute to Fermí Puig."

BarcelonaI interviewed the head waiter Alfred Romagosa at the ESHOB cooking school just the days when The staff of forty workers has learned that the Restaurant and Hotel unions have sold the school to Education, which will launch new public cooking studios on September 1st. Alfred studied at the school like many other renowned chefs. Since the Fermí Puig restaurant (c. Balmes, 175) closed, we've met in different places several times, always to talk about Fermí, the anecdotes they shared together, the dishes they cooked, the great stories they shared in the first great hotel restaurant, Drolma, which became a benchmark in the country and the world. Lately, what we've talked about the most is the new restaurant he's about to open, Fonda Balmes, together with chef Josep Maria Masó. They've been preparing it for a year, and everyone is already very excited about opening the new restaurant, which will be a tribute to chef Fermí Puig. Alfred and Fermí spent 25 years of friendship and work together; they got along, were partners, and above all, Barça fans. We've filled ten pages with everything Alfred remembers, which I'm summarizing today.

Do you remember the first day you met chef Fermí Puig?

The first day I heard about it, I was working at the Can Fabes restaurant. The chef Santi Santamaria was talking to me. and also the head waiter I worked with, Cándido Tardío Peña, who told me a story that I found surprising: Fermí had declined to work as head chef at El Bulli because he wanted to go with Jean-Paul Vinay to his restaurant, Cibulet. I know exactly what Fermín told him. to his friend Juli Soler, whom he knew because they were both from Granollers: "I'm not staying on as head chef, but I'm leaving you a friend, Ferran Adrià, whom I met while doing my military service. You'll like him."

Fermín's military service in Cartagena has become a myth.

— There he met Ferran Adrià and also the sommelier Juan Carlos Ibáñez. He told me many times what happened in Cartagena. He realized that the military, the high-ranking officers, ate very poorly, and that this made them grumpy. So he played his cards right: he offered to cook for them, using a shipment of canned food he asked his parents to send him, and thus he quickly gained the trust of the commanders. Since he couldn't handle everything alone, he asked for help from this young man named Ferran Adrià. He chose him because he realized he learned quickly, that he remembered everything he told him. Later, he would say that he nailed the recipes just as he had taught him. And he had only seen him do it once. Fermín was a talent scout. What would have happened in Catalan and international gastronomy if Fermí and Ferran hadn't met in Cartagena, if Fermí hadn't recommended Juli Soler to hire him?

I'm jumping ahead. There was a day when Fermín called him at home.

— It was 1996, I was 21, and I was taking a shower when Fermí called home. My wife, Cristina, answered. I was working in London at the time, and Cristina and I had made plans to go to Monaco, and from Monaco to Australia. It was the route we planned as a life project. The fact is, I managed to speak to Fermí on the phone, and he told me he wanted to meet me, that everyone had told him about me, that he was opening a new restaurant inside the Majestic Hotel and that he'd taken the liberty of booking me two open tickets, Barcelona-London and London-Barcelona, ​​and that he'd also booked me a room. I accepted, went the following week, and I remember Fermí waiting for me at the door of the hotel lobby. He had such a beautiful way of speaking! He explained everything to me simply: "We'll get along because we have friends in common and because we're both Barça fans." After this sentence, he asked me how much I wanted to charge, I answered, we shook hands and set a date for me to start working.

He decided right away that he would.

— Yes, Fermín was very convincing. I said yes without speaking to my wife or even my boss at the Ritz Hotel in London, where I worked and had a pre-arranged contract until the end of the year. It was April 1999, and I won't tell you now that it was a struggle to tell my partner and my own head, but I can tell you that I'm still doing very well with both of them.

In Drolma they began one of their great professional chapters together.

— We inaugurated the first service on June 5, 1999, but we had conducted tests a month beforehand. Fermí invited sports journalist Joan Patsy, Johan Cruyf, and their partners, because he believed strongly in symbols, and having them seated at the tables at Drolma was a good way to start. We had a great time; we met a lot of people.

Famous people too. Tell me a few.

— Actors Michael Douglas and actress Catherine Zeta-Jones had dinner, but when they left and the restaurant was empty, Michael Douglas returned and told us that his wife had lost a very valuable necklace. I had served them and told him that the wife wasn't wearing it, because I had noticed, but that we would still look for it. We looked everywhere. We lifted everything, and when we told him again that there wasn't one, Douglas told us that the necklace was in the bedroom. Fermí suffered the whole time. We all suffered, and I was the only one who firmly maintained that the actress wasn't wearing a necklace!

In Drolma people went to eat to propose to couples.

— Sometimes they didn't get it right. A client asked us before he and his partner entered the dinner, asking if we could put a gold ring with diamonds on a plate, covered with those silver bells we had, and we would all lift them at the same time. We did it just as she asked, and she said no. We all froze, because the moment we had created in the room together was beautiful.

He says that Fermí liked symbols, Barça was one, and for the team, Drolma was one too.

— There were important decisions about Barça that were made at the Drolma. Johan Cruyff told us that part of the board had considered José Mourinho as coach, but then Jan Laporta asked Cruyff who they should sign, and Cruyff replied that they should sign Josep Guardiola, that the coach already had him at home. And so it was. In a private meeting at the Drolma, one of the best decisions the Blaugrana club has ever made.

All this ended in 2011.

— In 2011, the hotel management told us they had new projects, with profits, which they made every year. They realized their future had been decided in an office, and they never wanted that to happen again.

So they start looking for a place to open their own restaurant.

— It took us two years from the time we closed until we opened Fermí Puig on Balmes Street. Finding a location, finding investors, and defining the menu was hard work. It wasn't easy because we didn't want to create another Drolma on Balmes Street, as it would have been impossible to replicate what we'd been doing, where six waiters would suddenly open six bells at the same table. At the Fermí Puig restaurant, we were starting a new story.

Again, a new symbol. Opening June 5th.

— Yes, we opened on June 5, 2013, with a menu featuring dishes from Drolma and Catalan cuisine. We did a 35 euro package with drinks included, open bar, and generously portioned dishes.Fermí always wanted to serve large plates, because he believed there were restaurants with very affordable dishes, but they were cheating, because, to be good, you had to eat four of the same dishes to make a serving.

Fermí always had very clear ideas.

— I'll add another characteristic: he always stood up for what he thought. From his home to work, he would argue a few times with someone who didn't understand him because he was speaking Catalan. We had daily routines, which consisted of him coming to pick me up—we lived nearby—and then we would walk to the restaurant. Along the way, we would buy bread. Then, Fermín would ask for a loaf of bread, and they would tell him they didn't understand it. We were done. Fermín would leave, tell him it wasn't that difficult to understand "a loaf of bread," and walk away. I'm being honest. In recent years, he had set up some great cider bars when someone told him they didn't understand him. He didn't want to feel like a stranger in Barcelona, ​​as he thought he was made out to be. He would get out of the taxi if they told him they didn't understand him. Then he would reply, "Stop here, I'll get out right now." And he would get out.

We must mention the reserved menu at Fermí Puig restaurant. How did they do it?

— It all went like this: one day, Fermín and I were going to buy a cold storage room we needed. We still didn't know if we wanted to build a private one. Anyway, we went to Consell de Cent Street to see an antique dealer recommended by the writer Sergi Pàmies. And that's where we saw a piece of the railing that had been installed at Barça's Corts stadium. We didn't think twice. We spent all the money we'd earmarked for the cold storage room on the railing. We left happy, but we also knew we had to prepare to tell the families: how would we tell them we'd spent 6,000 euros on a worm-eaten railing? We thought about how to make the most of it. We debuted the private room with a lunch with Johan Cruyff, where we also invited the sports press, and then the private room, the explanation of what it was like, was published in all the media.

They started a new symbolism in the restaurant, linked to Barça.

— I must tell you, we kept filling it up with donations. Friends and clients brought us documents and ticket collections. Photographer Pedro Madueño gave us the original photo of Ronald Koeman's goal, as well as Johan Cruyff himself, and Messi celebrating his goal at Paris Saint-Germain. Josep Guardiola and Cruyff kept coming for lunch. I remember that at one lunch, Cruyff found out that Ferran Adrià was charging more money for the lectures he gave, and he raised his rate. The moment he found out what Ferran Adrià had told him he was charging, he called Joan Patsy and said, "I want to charge double what I've been charging per lecture so far." And all of this happened in our private room. We even have a video in which Ferran Adrià, Fermí Puig, and Johan Cruyff all three play soccer.

In October 2024, Fermí wanted to retire.

— Yes, because He would have been 65 years old. He died in JuneAnd we'd both talked a lot about what the future Fermí Puig would be like. We'd change his name; instead of Fermí Puig, it would be Fonda Puig. We will preserve the legacy of Fermí, with his chef friend at the helm, Josep Maria Masó, who has fought hard to open it.I'll also be the head waiter. And I'm very happy because we've spoken with the owners of the Hotel Majestic, and they'll let us use the carts we used at Drolma. We're very excited about this idea. We'll also have a bar at the entrance where you can have a drink in the evenings, outside of lunch and dinner. We'll be open in July, and we'll also be open in August, because we can't open in July and go on vacation in August. We owe everything to Fermín. And because of him, we'll continue.