The big celebration of the restaurant that refused to be awarded stars by the Michelin guide

ArgentonaIt's early Friday afternoon, and the two dining rooms at Racó d'en Binu, in Argentona, are set with a good group of tables with immaculate white tablecloths, two glasses (one for water and one for champagne, made of beautiful chiseled crystal) and silver plates and cutlery. The restaurant opened by Francesc Fortí and Francina Suriñach in 1970 has dressed up, and you can feel it in the way the five waiters move up and down the two rooms, the one in the lobby and the one inside, where the fireplace is lit. Today and until February 23, it is time to celebrate the great resistance of the Restaurant that refused to be awarded stars by the Michelin guide, and who makes the best dishes of French haute cuisine like no one else.

I go through the doors that separate the dining room from the kitchen and I find Francesc Fortí preparing the sauce for the sirloin Stroganoff. He stirs the liquid cream with the paprika little by little, and she confesses that she is happy, but we know that happiness is never complete. What a great sentence. That's life. Francina slipped in the kitchen and has still not recovered from the illness. They had lunch together at twelve noon in the kitchen, like every other day in the world, but when it was time to serve the guests, Francina went up to the top floor, where they live. "She will come down later; she will come down if she feels better, but the illness she has is a burden," says Francisco, who admits that he needs her, that she is his eyes in the living room, where he does not usually go out.

I look around the kitchen and see that Francesc Fortí, as intelligent as he is tidy and meticulous, has all the dishes for the birthday menu ready. On the one hand, the lobster with morels, which he has distributed on trays and which he will gratinate with Emmental cheese as the customers arrive. There are no microwaves or Thermomix in the kitchen; it is a kitchen where things are made from start to finish and everything goes through Fortí's hands. The aroma of the dishes is already nourishing.

Francisco tells me that on the first day the celebration begins [Friday, February 14], both rooms are full; he even has a table for eleven people. But on Saturday and Sunday he has even more reservations, and the stress will be greater. "During the weekdays people arrive at different intervals, but on the weekends they all come suddenly, as if they had gotten off a bus," he says.

Lunchtime service

It opens only at lunchtime, and Francisco is the only cook who prepares the five starters, the two main courses and the two desserts on the menu, including a birthday cake. Every day, and not just on birthdays, the chef gets up at the small hours of the morning, around three, gets dressed and goes down to the kitchen to start preparing the menu. At eight in the morning he takes a break to have breakfast with Francina upstairs, and then he continues working. And so on until the diners arrive. Then he deploys the order he has so well learned so that the dishes arrive at the table quickly. I have never had to wait more than five minutes between one dish and the next. And in the case of the celebration menu, even less. As soon as you sit down, the waiters bring you a welcome cocktail to the table, made by Javier de las Muelas of Dry Martini. It has an attractive ochre colour, and is appetising in the mouth. Each drink is made with Bombay Sapphire, fortified wines from Jerez and also Masala wine, among others. It's a nice welcome, and sets the stage for the appetizers that follow: Dutch toast, sobrasada leaf, stuffed olives in batter, Rincón de Binu sea urchin, and Welsh Rarebit (warm cheese served on slices of bread). Of all of them, the anchovy-stuffed and coated olives bring out the flavor even more with the cocktail. The sobrasada is delicate, and melts in your mouth. The sea urchin is Francisco's great classic, which couldn't be missing. And the toast in the Dutch, and the Welsh Rarebite are crunchy and tasty at the same time.

To continue, the chef explains why he has chosen lobster with morels and sirloin Stroganoff as his main dishes. "They are the ones that people ask me for the most" and he always has them written in beautiful calligraphy on the inner gazebo of the entrance door. They are not classic dishes, because Fortí does not like this word. He also does not like the term to be used. texture"It seems like we're eating a sweater if we explain the texture of a dish," he says, adding that, when talking about it, the appropriate expressions are sweetness, sponginess, that melts in your mouthBut, in any case, these are laborious dishes, and Francisco knows it. "I have made my life complicated, but I like this," he says.

As always, very clear ideas, explained with force and wisdom. The final point, the dessert. There is the orange soufflé, which the waiters bring to the table because we take a photo of it – and there is no one in the room where the fire can be heard crackling who does not take one – and the most colourful puff pastry cake with fruits from Maresme. A crunchy bite that puts the finishing touch on the birthday menu. The menu costs 120 euros, and includes a Corpinnat brut nature, from the great Torelló family. "In fifty-five years, we will celebrate it again," Francesc Fortí tells me with a smile. That is what we will do. For many years, Francina and Francisco!