Francesc Rovira: "When my sister died, I dedicated a menu to her, and now it is feeling her alive; every day there is someone who asks me for the Dolors Rovira menu"

Gombrèn (Ripollès)I interview chef Francesc Rovira (Gombrèn, 1964) on the day that his Fonda Xesc hosts the conference organized by Field Lab by Radicea, of which Fonda Xesc is the partner and host. Radicea is a platform that works to ensure that cooking begins again from the land: it documents the producers, chefs, and landscapes of a territory and puts them to work together. The conference was attended by Thieu Besselink, who directs the Akademie van Plaats, a Dutch institute and network for regenerative development. And also Ar van Rossum, who founded The Brothel, a bone broth workshop: he slowly cooks grass-fed beef bones and free-range chicken bones of local origin. Francesc has acted as host with meals paired with Recaredo, which has been a sponsor along with RGN architects, and the initiative is directed by Clara Boada. With Francesc, we talk about the dishes he cooks, the inn, and also about a novelty: starting September 29, he will participate, for the second year, in the initiative promoted by chef Ada Parellada, the Gastrorecup. Fonda Xesc has held a Michelin star since 2009.

Since what year do you have documentation of the inn?

— Since 1930, that is to say almost a hundred years ago.

I have seen an old photograph of the house where you are on the cover of the menu, which is large, beautiful, in black and white. I wish restaurant menus were like yours, in which the dishes are easy to read.

— We have records of the house built in 1700. This is one of the photos. My family came here in 1975, when I was eleven years old. We lived in a farmhouse in the Montgrony mountain range, and when they arrived in Gombrèn, they took over the inn. My parents and my sister Raida were in charge of it.

Why did you leave the farmhouse?

— Because my grandmother needed to live at a lower altitude; in Montgrony we were at 1,500 m. We all came with her. I also spent the week, from Monday to Friday, in Gombrèn at an aunt's house for school, because I couldn't go back and forth from school to home every day. It was an hour's walk away. The fact is that since I was little I have lived the spirit of the inn, which is one of hospitality, welcoming. I always explain that when I was little, leisure was not well regarded, therefore, I had to start working alongside my parents.

Did you train with the fathers?

— Yes, and I have very fond memories of it. I helped both my father and my mother however I could. I talked to the people who came to the bar, because the inn was like a social hub for the village. In the kitchen, I helped my mother make whatever she told me to: cannelloni, rabbit, rice. I think I decided to help my mother more because of my introverted character, which I still have, but I was much more so back then. I also saw that my mother needed a lot of help. All in all, I enjoyed it, and there came a day when I told myself that if I wanted to dedicate myself to cooking, I had to learn from others. And I thought about it even though my mother cooks very well, because she had always done it. Think about the fact that at the farmhouse, she was the one who cooked for everyone because her mother-in-law, my paternal grandmother, did not like it; she only looked after the animals.

Which kitchens did you go to?

— I enrolled in the ESHOB cooking school, and from there I went to the Reno restaurants, where I learned a lot about classic cuisine. I still remember the way they used to organize themselves: there was one person who was in charge of distributing the fresh produce; another cooked it and, finally, it would go to the salsero, the one who made the sauces, who was the one who finished it. Now kitchens are organized by stations, and each one is in charge of the product from start to finish.

How many are you in your kitchen?

— Three, and we serve about thirty or thirty-five diners. We work the most in autumn and winter, because in summer, as soon as it starts to get a little hot, everyone goes to the beach. The month of July is the worst month for us.

I have seen that you have three menus.

— Yes, they are three product and seasonality journeys. There are dishes that I have had for many years but I have been evolving them. The cuisine we make comes from a long way back, but I have been rethinking it. For example, the current zucchini salad comes from a feta cream, but now I roast the zucchini, I put them as the main ingredient of the dish, and I add cured anchovies to provide the saline touch.

In the vegetable dishes on the menu there is delicacy in the cuts and also in the combination of colors.

— It is a passion of mine. I want to take care of the products; if you have good ones, you must treat them with delicacy. The green bean, for example, which I cook with egg at low temperature and with chanterelles, well, I split it in half, but I do not do it with a knife.

How do you do it then?

— With your hands, because the bean forms two half-moons, and you can separate them with your fingers. Furthermore, the bean has two ends: one is the eye, the one that seeks the light, which I never cut; the other is the part that touches the plant, which I remove because it is hard. It is so because it has to hold onto the plant.

This dish is one of the ones I highlight the most. It also had bacon cubes in it.

— Yes; it is a mountain dish, and the bacon adds fat, which blends well with the chanterelles. Lamb is another mountain dish; I buy the meat from Josep de les Muntades, who raises the Ripollesa breed. It is a very tender, mellow meat, clean in flavor, it does not taste overly like lamb, which is a very important fact.

Do you have a network of food producers in the Ripollès?

— There are not that many. The bread, for example, we make ourselves. The vegetables, I order them from Joan Salicrú and Núria from Somecomtu, in Sant Jaume de Llierca, who go to markets, and on Saturdays they go to the Ripoll market. They also do basket deliveries. With Joan Salicrú, we meet halfway between him and me, which is in Arbúcies. Joan has his fields in Vallgorguina.

I have noticed in the dishes the respect you have for vegetables and also for the surf and turf.

— I like them, yes. I feel comfortable with them. I also think that we should eat more vegetables and less protein. There will be a day when on the menu I will list the vegetables first and then the protein. Now we do it the other way around. I am already on the way to changing it.

Will we have a mushroom autumn?

— There won't be any. Everything is very dry again. There were some porcini mushrooms at the beginning of September, but that's it. I haven't seen any saffron milk cap mushrooms, and mind you, it is a good mushroom to cook. When there is an abundance, I cook them in different ways, such as stewed with onion and tomato, just as if we were making stewed peas.

Francesc, I have seen that you and your partner make a great team in the dining room, Meritxell. Will your children want to take over?

— Gil has set up a takeaway food business, which is called Xesc Gurmet, and he is also doing catering. The other day he had one in Campdevànol. He studied at the hospitality school in Girona. Jaume has worked with me this summer. And the youngest one, Lluís, is still in secondary school.

One of the menus that can be chosen at Fonda Xesc is called the Dolors Rovira menu.

— In memory of my sister. When my older sister, Raida, left to go to Ripoll after she got married, my sister Dolors and I were left behind. We used to call this third menu The Count Arnau, but when she passed away, I changed its name. I dedicated it to her, and now, for me, it is a way to feel her alive. Every day, someone asks me for the Dolors Rovira menu, and when they tell me in the kitchen, it is like feeling her near. My sister died of colon cancer; three days later, our father died of the same disease.

Mother was cooking with you for many years.

— Until the 90s; afterwards she retired. It was a fun time, because she made her dishes, and I, mine. Both cuisines coexisted there. It might seem like a hodgepodge, because she made stew and macaroni, and I, other dishes.

Do you no longer make escudella in winter?

— It is made by Meritxell, my wife, and it is a dish for us. On the menus, I make tapas out of it, of escudella.

To finish, Francesc, do you think that Catalan cuisine is in good health?

— There has been a change of mentality among culinary professionals. We are experiencing a positive shift for producers and for local rural environments, because we previously lived through times where if you did not know how to cook tropical fruit, you were nobody. All of that has passed. Yes, there is fusion cuisine, especially with influences from Asia and Latin America, but Catalan cuisine predominates. We must try to be ourselves with our shortcomings and virtues; it is the only way to be ourselves.