The story that the restaurant La Caleta in Sant Vicenç de Montalt is experiencing has three protagonists: Adif, the State Coastal Demarcation (in Barcelona), and the Casado family, who have been serving seafood dishes there since 1955. Since Albert Casado's grandfather, the current generation in charge, opened the restaurant located between the beach and the road, they have paid a semi-annual rent to Adif, who represented that they were the owner of the land. However, without the Casado family knowing, in 2017 the owner of the property was transferred to the State Coastal Demarcation in Barcelona, an agency that depends on the Ministry of Ecological Transition. And this is where the big mess begins.

It is Wednesday at noon, and at the bar of the Hermós fish bar, located inside the Llibertat market, in the Gràcia neighborhood, there are two couples sitting talking whether they choose razor clams, mussels, or scallops. At the stall of six numbers (which means six meters) that the Hermós bar occupies, the cook Alexis Peñalver and the waiter Alejandro are living farewell days. They explain to regular customers that this Saturday will be the last day of Hermós, the fish and seafood restaurant in the Llibertat market, which has been four years full of joys and also "losses, especially linked to the restaurant's opening hours, which can only be from 12 to 4 p.m.". And they also tell everyone that there will be a new restaurant, which will be directed by the cook Carles Ramon, who will cook new fish and seafood dishes with other techniques and will do it very well. And what will happen to all the dishes that Alexis had made during these four years at Hermós? They will not disappear: "I am returning to the La Pubilla restaurant, which is about to turn sixteen, and there we will continue making them," he says.

The Gramona winery, from Corpinnat, began this morning the earliest harvest in the history of Penedès, on July 22nd. A unique and exceptional event that has broken all records, if one can say so, that there had been in the harvests in the territory. If in 2023 the same Gramona winery started it on July 26th, a date that was already very advanced because we came from a tradition of harvesting in mid or late August, this year it is still four days earlier. And that's despite the fact that last year it seemed like this advancement was slowing down, because July 31st was the first day of harvest in Penedès. Climate change has broken all our schemes, and if this year it is July 22nd, it could be that soon everything will change again.

I am interviewing oenologist Bruno Colomer (Barcelona, 1964) at the Codorníu winery on one of the hottest days of the summer. We enter the tower built by architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch, which houses a restaurant open to the public, and the temperature is more pleasant. The oenologist is very passionate about his work, to which he came through his vocation for nature, landscape, and urban gardens. Bruno has just rejoined the board of the Denominació d’Origen Cava after years of absence. Codorníu has its ownership divided, with 38% belonging to the family and the rest to the American investment fund Carlyle. The company has just announced that it commits to buying an additional 20% of grapes to strengthen its commitment to winegrowers.

The flavor that we all people in the world like the most is vanilla, according to the scientific journal "Current Biology". As the industry is aware of this, it uses it for custards, ice creams, infusions, and much more. Vanilla seems to be infinite, but it's not possible to use so much of it, because it's one of the most expensive spices in the world. "Its pollination is practically manual; cultivation is slow and production is very vulnerable to droughts, cyclones, and market fluctuations, so its price can be 500 euros per kilo", says dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols, who adds that vanilla comes exactly from an orchid, generally Vanilla planifolia". "Its pods don't smell when they are picked, but, on the other hand, when they are cured and fermented, they do, and this smell can last for months", she comments.

I interview the hotelier Cristina Cabañas (Lloret de Mar, 1974) at Guitart Grand Passage, the hotel she manages in Barcelona. Cabañas, a pharmacist by training, took over Guitart Hotels following the death of her husband, Climent Guitart. She has presided over the hotel chain for twelve years, and does so with the intention of passing the baton to her three sons, who confessed to her as children that they would like to dedicate themselves to their father's work. In parallel to her business work, she presides over the Climent Guitart Foundation, in memory of the businessman, to preserve his legacy in the world of tourism, as well as collaborating with other foundations. Through the foundation, she has managed to have over a thousand young Ukrainians visit Lloret de Mar and Catalonia so they can breathe away from the war their country is experiencing.

Do you know the white shrimp? It is that small one, larger than the plump one, which until about ten years ago was from the south, from Andalusia, and was prepared breaded, fried, and eaten as a tapa or as an appetizer. And how good! Well, the white shrimp is now Catalan, we can say it that way. Meridionalization, the scientific term that explains the phenomenon, has caused species from the south to move north, where they seek suitable temperatures to live and reproduce. And the fact is that in our country the white shrimp has found them. Miquel Mir, patron mayor of the fishermen's guild of the port of Palamós, assures that during the months of March and April each boat has caught 200 kilos per day this year.Marine scientist Anna Bozzano explains that white shrimp has always been traditional to Andalusia. "It used to be found in the west of the Mediterranean, near Gibraltar, and the resulting cuisine was battered and fried," and it was eaten whole. Since white shrimp needs a higher sea temperature to live, it has moved north, where it has been found. "If it's comfortable there, then it can reproduce more," and hence the large quantity caught by boats from Catalan ports. In the markets, it is a shrimp that is well-received, and in homes, it is easy to cook and eat. Furthermore, the price is usually low, so we have all the arguments to understand its good acceptance: abundance and low price.

I ring the doorbell of Pilarín's house, and she herself opens the door. It's Saturday afternoon, she has just turned eighty-five, and we have arranged to have a snack and talk about food, one of the topics that the artist from Vic enjoys. Wherever she goes to sign books, there is always someone who brings her food. She herself has given away thousands of times Vic sausages. In Vilafranca del Penedès, where she has presented the books of the Castellers de Vilafranca, the Xerigots cheese shop gave her a box full of cheeses. “I’m taking them to my son’s house tomorrow for lunch,” she tells me as she prepares a nice tray on which she places Vi De Muller (she says the ratafia broke the other day), some biscuits from Reus, and the sponge cake that I have brought her. “I have sugar limited because I have had diabetes since I was 70, but having it limited doesn't mean I can't eat it from time to time,” she comments.

Chef Òscar Manresa has created the Catalina Foundation, named after his mother and the restaurant he has in Gavà Mar. "One day I told myself that I wanted to do something more than cook at the restaurant," he says, and above all he explains that he saw it clearly during the pandemic, six years ago, when he then had Casa Leopoldo in Barcelona along with chef Romain Fornell, and there he began to prepare lunches for hospitals, for associations. When restaurants were able to reopen normally, he cooked meals for organizations once a week from the Catalina restaurant instead of every day, as he had done until then. "And I took it to the San Lorenzo residence." That's when he thought that, in addition to distributing dishes, he wanted to go further: "I thought I wanted people to have a day where they enjoyed the food, where they learned to make recipes at home, and all this that I was thinking about I had to do with a foundation".

I am interviewing oenologist Bàrbara Mesquida (Porreres, Mallorca, 1979) at her own winery, Mesquida Mora, which she inaugurated in the summer of 2012. On both her father's and mother's side, her family has always been dedicated to vineyards. On her mother's side, it is documented, for more than two hundred years; on her father's side, it is the fourth generation. Bàrbara studied oenology at Espiells, in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, after graduating in Catalan philology and working at Grup 62, where I happened to meet her. She is passionate about language, wine, and Mallorca. Her entire family has always lived in Porreres, and she also settled there in 2004, where she has put down roots with her own winery and a daughter. This past weekend, Bàrbara was the guest winery at La Nit del Poble, the dinner organized by Vall Llach winery (DOQ Priorat).

It has happened to all of us at some point. You take a slice of bread, put it in the toaster, don't pay attention to the heat setting indicated by the dial, and suddenly, when you retrieve it after hearing the sound of the toast popping up, you realize it's been toasted too much: with some parts burnt black and others, not so much. What do you do? Do you eat it? Do you scrape off the black part and try to save the golden part? Or do you put another slice in the toaster, lowering the power so that the slice of bread comes out all golden without any black parts? Nutritionally, the recommendation is the third option, and we'll explain why.When a slice of bread goes from golden to dark brown or black, the taste of the bread changes, it will be unpleasant to the palate, but in addition, "in the process of toasting towards black, aggressive phenomena of thermal degradation have occurred, which can lead to the formation of harmful compounds for health", states dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols. One of the most studied compounds is the dreaded acrylamide, which is generated especially in starchy foods when cooked at high temperatures, meaning above 120°C. By starchy foods we mean french fries, cookies, cereals, cakes, pies, pizzas, sandwiches, wraps, crepes, waffles, bread. And it can not only happen with the toaster, we can also blacken foods with or without starch (meat carries the same risk) with the oven or the pan. To understand what acrylamide is and why we should fear it, we rely on what the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has explained, which has said that acrylamide is a genotoxic and potentially carcinogenic compound. "If we eat a toast that is too well done one day, it will not cause us an illness immediately; the advice is to avoid eating it repeatedly over the years", says Grífols, and, for her part, dietitian-nutritionist Anna Costa affirms that it accumulates in the body, and therefore it must always be avoided.We also lose our taste

Besides the appearance of acrylamide with toasting, there are other qualities we lose when we eat an overcooked slice of bread, which are the organoleptic ones. It is not the same to eat a well-toasted slice of bread, that is, uniformly golden brown, on which extra virgin olive oil will slide well, and we can rub tomato on it so it becomes well soaked, than to bite into a blackened slice, which will make it impossible to put any food on top properly. To continue, the original nutritional qualities of bread also disappear. "So not only do undesirable compounds appear, but nutrients that were initially present also degrade," states the dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols, who recalls that in the United Kingdom the Food Standards Agency has popularized the message “golden, not burnt” (golden, not burnt) so that the population understands that bread and its derivatives should be eaten this color, and thus they aim to reduce exposure to acrylamide. For all this, if the slice of bread you have toasted has turned black instead of golden brown, do not scrape it to save it; the advice is to try again with a new one, at a lower temperature, so that it is only golden brown. Golden brown, yes; burnt, no.

]]>

The Solomillo bar aims to be an informal space: you can sit at a high bar or at a noble, large high table, shared with other diners. Both are comfortable and cozy, and at the table, the options are simple, but it's that simplicity that many of us want: tomato salad, with real flavor, a platter of Iberian ham, Joselito, with glass bread rubbed with tomato skillfully, and if you're up for it, a beef burger, which you'll find with different combinations: I chose mine with arugula, and, of course, it comes with a bowl of French fries, which is neither too big nor too small, just enough.

]]>

The Corpinnat sparkling wine brand extends for the first time to Baix Penedès: from July 1st, the Mas Vilella winery, owned by producer Albert Jané, will begin to label and market the two sparkling wines it produces, a rosé and a white, under the Corpinnat name. “I asked to be able to join Corpinnat in 2024, when I started producing them because my philosophy aligns with it, which means hand-harvesting, organic vineyards, integral winemaking, long aging, commitment to historical varieties, owned vineyards or long-term contracts with a minimum guaranteed price for the grape grower, and annual external audits,” explains Albert Jané, who adds that he will sell each of the two sparkling wines for twenty euros.

]]>

I interview Karin Leiz (Seville, 1938) at the Flash-Flash restaurant in Barcelona, created by her late husband, Leopoldo Pomés, and Alfonso Milà, and which this week has turned fifty-six years old. We look at the menu and count that there are currently up to fifty different omelets. During Leopoldo's lifetime, when she advised the restaurant, she managed to have up to one hundred and sixty. All different. We choose the Panadera (potato with bread with tomato inside) and the Gallega. We also eat peas with baby octopuses. And a bread with tomato that is perfectly soaked. It should be highlighted because it doesn't happen every day. When I pick up the cutlery to cut the omelet, she tells me if I knew that the journalist Nèstor Luján was allergic to metal. Karin has a prodigious memory, and the meal starts very well.

]]>

There was a time when we ate mayors for dinner (Micromesistius poutassou).We fried them, turning them over and over, with flour, and placed them on a slice of toasted bread well rubbed with tomato. It was a white fish that fell apart, with an easily removable central bone, with soft flesh, which was a delight if we poured a good stream of extra virgin olive oil over it. It was a good dinner, and with many advantages: nutritional and economic, because the sardines were cheap.

]]>

It was July 18, 1936, when Josep Ensesa Gubert inaugurated La Taverna del Mar on Sant Pol beach, in s’Agaró. It was a brilliant day, with a deep blue sky, when everything had to go well, because he had worked hard for the awaited day. By his side, the architect Francesc Folguera was happy with how that restaurant, which Josep Ensesa had named "tavern. Years earlier, he had not used the word hotel for the establishment with rooms in the s’Agaró urbanization; he called it Hostal La Gavina. As if he wanted discreet words for solemn establishments. The fact is that old Ensesa, as his friend and writer Josep Pla used to call him, went from joy to sadness in one day: the next day, July 19, the restaurant closed due to the start of the Civil War. Today, ninety years later, the Ensesa family, the four grandchildren, continues at the helm of their grandfather's tavern. They have been through thick and thin, but the present is full of novelties, such as the celebration menu they have devised to launch the summer, and which will be available all year round. It features seafood and Palamós prawn starters, and above all a fisherman's stew where the potatoes are as good as the fish, as it should be for a good stew.

]]>

Jordi Madern, cousin of the poet J.V. Foix, with two Foix patisseries in the Sarrià neighborhood, died yesterday afternoon at the age of 88. An energetic man, he had worked until the last days in the patisseries, where he attended to customers who asked for him or stayed in the office. In the workshop, located on Carrer Major de Sarrià, he has several pastry chefs, including Joe Moretones and Oriol Madern Mas, his brother, retired, and a nephew, Albert Madern, on whom he relied to continue the business when he was no longer there.

]]>

It is Friday midday and on Carrer Major in Sarrià, a few meters beyond the Foix de Sarrià pastry shop, the waiters at the Vivanda restaurant suggest to those entering for lunch whether they want to do so in the interior room, with a wooden floor and white walls, or in the garden. The answer I hear is unanimous: the garden. And I head there too. I find trees, a large palm tree, ivies, and well-distributed, spacious tables that make you think you have entered a small oasis. No traffic can be heard, there is calm, and a familiar, neighborhood atmosphere. We are at the restaurant with a green garden of the chef Jordi Vilà, the Vivanda, which he has been directing for eighteen years. As we have just started the month of June, Vilà has just changed the menu, so we will taste summer dishes.

]]>

Cherries mark the beginning of good weather, long days, and heat. They are the wise fruit, which brings a thousand and one benefits to the body, and which allows us to play with them, both as earrings and in the kitchen, with savory and sweet dishes.

]]>

I am interviewing the president of DO Penedès, Joan Huguet, the day after they unanimously approved the creation of two independent chambers (commissions) within the designation: one for sparkling wines and another for still wines. They say they will launch it in 2027, and that the objective is to build a designation that brings together all the agents of the territory, winegrowers and producers. Joan has his own winery, Can Feixes, where he makes wines and also sparkling wines, affiliated with Corpinnat since almost the beginning. With his presidency, DO Penedès has become the first 100% organic in the world, which is one of the great achievements.

]]>