L’ARA celebrates Summer Festival and Ada Parellada's return home

BarcelonaAs every year for long enough for it to be tradition, ARA invited its community to a meeting to celebrate the end of the course. A newspaper is the collective gaze and adventure of a community, and the Antiga Fàbrica Damm was once again the setting for this gathering of all those who make the newspaper, whether by producing it or reading it. The meeting coincided with one of Albert Om's monthly interviews, with a surprise guest, who turned out to be Ada Parellada, and the conversation was accompanied by happy news: the chef is joining ARA and in September will begin a weekly collaboration with recipe videos.

"I'm coming home," explained the chef. "ARA is a medium in which I feel very comfortable and with which I share ideology. I admire you all very much and I feel like I'm coming back with a good duvet, comfortably. Some omelets have been burnt preparing the videos, and that's always a good sign." Parellada championed liver with onions and shopping with purpose. And she added: "We must be aware that even though we think we are eating nutrients, we are actually feeding on emotions." Less Pilates and more football, her creed could be summarized.

With a community of over 220,000 followers on Instagram, the owner of the emblematic Semproniana restaurant argued that the most important thing when making videos “is not to know much, not to master everything, to place yourself on the same plane of uncertainty as the one who will later make the recipe”. In this sense, she assured that her recipes aim to capture those who, a priori, “are not particularly interested in paellas and cooking”, because she believes it is a “critical” moment and she does not want people to disengage from buying and cooking. “What you put in your basket daily has more impact than what you put in the ballot box”.

The party also included a particular Tinder: readers who signed up could meet some of the ARA's columnists and chat with them on a speed date. Ignasi Aragay, Jordi Nopca, Cristina Mas, Antoni Bassas, Alejandra Palés, and Empar Moliner were some of those who were able to share fresh and spontaneous conversations with readers on various topics.

Meanwhile, the more playful ones participated in an activity led by the group La punta de la llengua, responsible for the supplement Capficat and the newspaper's puzzles. Some of the hieroglyphs proposed guessing, for example, Cromagnon Man from the drawing of the bones of a hand with an outstretched finger. The answer was Falangeand the fact that the finger was precisely the middle one should be considered a strict coincidence. Another of the games asked: “What time do your parents appear”. A V appeared, a child who could look like an angel, and three letters I. The answer? Ve, nen, ales, tres: they come at three. Those with sharper (and quicker) wits could win various prizes.

And, for everyone, a final toast with Damm beer and catering offered by Forn Enrich on the terrace of the Antiga Fàbrica, to finish exchanging impressions, listen to proposals on those topics that, according to some readers, we still don't cover enough, or simply, to put faces to the signatures (and to the web comments). "You are our reason for being," explained the director of ARA, Esther Vera, at the beginning of the event. "We want you by our side, not in front or behind. Without you, the work would be much more difficult, so thank you for your support." A celebration, then, of words, games, handshakes, some hugs, exchange of phone numbers and, at the end, the soft pop of Galgo Lento to end a summer evening full of warmth.