A Catalan who returns home brings Thai haute cuisine to the middle of Cambrils

CambrilsSergi Palacín walks around Cambrils greeting everyone. Anyone would think that he had never left, but the fact is that this chef has spent ten years in Thailand, the place that, as he explains, is where he has spent the most time of his life. There he worked at the Gaggan restaurant, one of the most renowned on the Asian continent. In this charismatic establishment he was head chef and head of R&D. The fact that Palacín comes from a haute cuisine restaurant, Thai but with Indian roots, will help to understand the genuine proposal that he now offers in his restaurant in Cambrils: Hiu.

Palacín is originally from Barcelona but when he was a child he went to live in Cambrils because his parents, who are surgeons, were assigned there. So when he returned to Catalonia to open his project he did so in the town that he considers his home, where he has set up a restaurant that has no replica on the Costa Daurada and that is already two years old. It combines two menus, one more traditional and the other creative. The creative aspect is where the chef lets loose. There is Thailand, but also Japan, Korea and India. And a lot of the Mediterranean. The vast majority of products he uses, in fact, are local.

Of course, he applies the techniques he has learned everywhere. Fermented foods appear, which can be seen in the restaurant (on a shelf on the wall), drunk and also eaten. For example, one of the delicacies on the menu, which consists of three solid ferments and one liquid, which is a kefir water with raspberry. The solids are a surprising nigiri of koji with caviar; pickled sea fennel in tempura with canyut from the Delta, and a temaki of cured meat with Catalan kimchi, which has a base of romesco and calçot.

The presentation of the dishes is exuberant, and recalls the places where he has trained. He seeks to make the dishes very balanced through reductions and stir-fries. "With hints of flavour," he explains. He plays with curries, which he knows a lot about, and above all with a lot of local produce, for example vegetables from Verdcamp, an example of regenerative agriculture that he has ten minutes from the restaurant and with which he is starting to design dishes. Who says we can't eat flowers or the so-called weeds? And, as you can imagine, there is also a strong presence of the fish from the Cambrils box.

Ambition and exploitation

The kitchen is in the middle of the restaurant. Here you will see a highly motivated team working with enthusiasm and ambition. And that will grow when Palacín's sister, Judit, joins this summer once she has finished her sommelier studies. The fact that everything is in view shows that he wants to work in the most sustainable way, both in terms of the use, in which the fish are cooked from head to tail, and in the human part of the workers who accompany him.

There is means "I'm hungry" in Thai. A language he uses to get by, since his wife is from there. And indeed, you have to go hungry. The classic menu, which costs 50 euros, is very popular with the people of the town. But more and more people dare to try the creative proposal, which costs 80 and consists of 14 courses.

Sergi Palacín wants to excel, and works tirelessly to make his project grow. He is so involved in the restaurant that he lives above it. The restaurant has the tree of life as its logo, so he has metaphorically planted it where it has its roots to shake off the frustration of other projects in which he has participated that have not finished filling it. When he started the works, which he did himself, some neighbors told him that it would not go well. Now they are going to eat.