Signature cuisine and product at the new Gol Winery

On the wall of the kitchen of the Gol Winery, the four words that define the spirit of the restaurant are written in marker: order, consistency, feeling and soul. The last two are the essence of passion, something that Roger and Rodrigo have in abundance, now in charge of creating and preparing the dishes offered in the new version of a historic winery in Barcelona that began operating half a year ago. Two men whose lives have changed radically in recent times: Roger Solé was a barber until two years ago, following a long family tradition of five generations, but he said enough to focus on what he was really passionate about: "What I knew best was cutting hair, but what I really liked was cooking," he explains. Rodrigo Castillo was an engineer in Peru and in 2021 he left everything in his country to make his life's dream come true: studying cooking and becoming a chef. A hairdresser and an engineer, both driven by the passion they share: gastronomy. They met at Colmado Willmot and now they freely exploit their talent in the kitchen of the new Bodega Gol.

Among dozens of pictures of iconic football images from the eighties and nineties, there is a blackboard describing the dishes of the day that are not on the menu. We choose the scrambled eggs with mushrooms and sausage, the pig's trotters and the lamb stew. We also add the cod spill and the delicious chickpeas with ear and boiled: "The condition I set for making chickpeas is that they had to be boiled from the market every day. Every morning I buy two kilos at the Sant Antoni market," explains Roger. We finish the bottle of Blei 2018 (DO Priorat) from the Mas d'en Blei estate and we share two desserts from the menu to finish: the Catalan cream and the tropical orange: "When I was little, in Lleida, all the restaurants had ice cream from the Glas house, and it's very funny because the ice is spherical with sponge cake ice cream and fragments of caramelized almonds inside. A dessert with a strong nostalgic charge, which takes him back to Juneda, where he spent his childhood. In fact, Lleida products form part of the basis of the Gol Winery: "We use Lleida oil, sausages, snails, etc. Our essence is Catalan cuisine with local products that I select every day at the market," he points out, making special mention of and sincerely thanking the new owners of the restaurant, now in his hands, for the freedom they give him.

Rodrigo and Roger have found the perfect balance. "His past as a barber makes him crazier and more creative, mine as an engineer helps me to bring order and sanity," confesses Rodrigo, who has also left the kitchen to share the after-dinner conversation with us. They have lived through difficult times and Roger remembers with displeasure his recent beginnings in the kitchen after changing professions at fifty, because he did not find the understanding he needed. "When I started cooking I had the worst six months of my life and now I can say that I am living the best. I am having such a good time that I am even too happy" says a man who for years, while trimming beards and cutting hair, already curiously toured the thirty-nine markets in Barcelona. Now he continues to do so to offer the best product to his new clients every day. The barber who combed markets now cooks at Bodega Gol.