It's Monday at noon, and on the terrace of the dining room of Hotel Almadraba in Roses, the wooden cart with wheels where rigatoni, the iconic dish, is prepared, moves from one table to another. Perhaps it is one of the most well-known dishes of the Subirós family, or perhaps it is because everyone wants to watch their dish being prepared in front of them. If one table orders it, be sure that the ones next to it will too. "It all started in the city of Lugano, in Switzerland, on the trips my father made with the Almadraba team to work in the winter," recalls Lluís Subirós, the youngest son, who says he must have been nine or ten years old when the Almadraba cooks went there.

I interview Gemma Urgell and Jordi Bertran at Xerigots' headquarters, in Vilafranca del Penedès, who this year celebrate fifteen years since they started as cheese maturers. There they show me the cellars where the cheeses mature, which are as Catalan as those from other countries around the world. Especially impressive is the quantity of Mahón cheeses they have, all neatly aligned. Xerigots works for the hospitality sector, for four hundred restaurants, to whom they serve cheeses for a thousand and one dishes, savory, sweet. They prepare them just as requested so they can be served. As we walk through the cellars, they tell me that artisan cheese is in crisis. And with this question I begin.

Hard-boiled eggs can be found in the refrigerated section of supermarkets. I'll write it again. Half a dozen boiled and peeled eggs, in the refrigerated section. There is a wonderful recipe, traditional to our region, made with hard-boiled eggs, which are deviled eggs. They are cut in half, the yolk is mixed with tuna and its olive oil, and then the filling is placed back inside the concave part of the egg. A little egg white is grated on top (from another hard-boiled egg we have). An important detail: the price of a package of hard-boiled eggs is similar to fresh eggs; it's around two euros for half a dozen.The question is: can't we make hard-boiled eggs or peel them? Is our culinary knowledge so meager that we can't put a pot with plenty of cold water on the stove and put the eggs in it? When the water boils, put the fresh eggs in with the help of a spoon and after twelve minutes they will be cooked. Let them cool, and then peel them. A note: if we leave the eggs in boiling water for six minutes, we will have soft-boiled eggs. If they stay in for three minutes, poached eggs. You don't have to have studied at ten cooking schools, or even one, to boil and peel an egg.Industry anticipates our needs, and what it gives us is time, because that's what we shouldn't have when we buy hard-boiled eggs. Nutrition specialist doctor Montse Folch tells me that a hard-boiled egg bought at the supermarket is "nutritionally very similar to one cooked at home." Dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols agrees, adding that supermarket hard-boiled eggs, like homemade ones, "provide high biological value proteins, fat-soluble vitamins such as A and D, B group vitamins, choline, selenium, and other essential minerals for health and sports performance. The mere act of cooking, peeling, and packaging it does not significantly alter its nutritional value." She also adds that there's no need to be alarmed "if ingredients like citric acid (E-330) or lactic acid (E-270) appear, as they are intended to maintain the microbiological stability and pH of the product." Among all the packages of boiled and peeled eggs you find, there is a warning: pay attention to the amount of salt. "If it provides more than 0.8-1 grams per hundred, it's better to look for another one, because the ideal salt quantity would be a maximum of 0.5 g per hundred," states doctor Montse Folch.Peeled with nutrients

Regarding the fact that eggs are peeled, the dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols also sees no problem. “It does not involve a significant loss of nutrients; the same are lost as if we did it at home, which are some water-soluble and heat-labile vitamins, but their nutritional impact is minimal”. So science applauds the invention; industry gives us time and consumers don't even boil eggs so we don't have to cook. But, alas!, there is one thing we will never have if we buy a package of hard-boiled eggs: taste! The flavor, the smell, the texture of a hard-boiled egg from a plastic supermarket package will not be the same as the one we made at home on an exhausting day, when all you feel like is a fresh lettuce salad with a boiled egg that you prepare in that pot you have designated for boiling. While you boil the eggs, you can put on your comfortable house clothes and slippers. Set the table with your tablecloth, the plate, the cutlery. Peel the eggs with your hands. If you are very hungry, you will burn your fingertips a little if the eggs are hot; if you have had the patience to let them cool, you will peel them in a moment. Some people place a glass bowl in the freezer while the eggs are boiling, because that way, as soon as the twelve minutes have passed, they can take the empty bowl out of the freezer and place the boiled eggs in it. Then the egg cools down immediately. Everything is easy if we want to do it right. We gain a lot, we gain taste, which no invention of the food industry will ever beat us in.

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Chef Joan Roca explains how to prepare a sardine escabeche to make and eat the same day. Although the technique is known because it helps to preserve food well from one day to the next, the chef from El Celler de Can Roca suggests seeking the freshest point of the fish. And for this reason, he suggests that it is a preparation that if made and eaten, much better.

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La Gracieta is the new restaurant of the Juncà brothers Joan, Isabel and Jordi, who have just opened on the road to Vall de Bianya, which connects Ripollès with Garrotxa. The establishment is very close to their restaurant Ca l’Enric (one Michelin star) and l’Hostal, and when you take the turn-off from the road, there is a clearing where you can park well. “In the region, there is a great tradition of hearty breakfasts, and La Gracieta, the owner of the restaurant, who lives upstairs, proposed that we take over the premises,” explain Joan and Jordi just as they are putting the finishing touches on before opening the restaurant. The siblings believe that taking over La Gracieta is a gift: “We are returning to our family origins, to a bar, where our parents started, and which Joan, the eldest brother, remembers. I, who am seventeen years younger, didn't experience it,” explains Jordi Juncà, the chef.

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I interview Sílvia Subirós i Mercader near the office where she works, in Barcelona. She tells me that her son is three years old, his name is Guiu, and between work and family, she has snatched time from time to write the biography of her grandfather, Josep Mercader. The creator of the Motel (Cal·lígraf). It is a book like no one has ever written it because she has been able to access unpublished material: recipes dictated by word of mouth by her grandfather and especially the films he had recorded. A large part of this material was already used for the documentary La cuina dels homes. In the book, there is the information that she could not fit in.

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The restaurant Tapas 24 (c. Diputació, 269) has turned twenty, and in all this time it has experienced all sorts of things. It was opened by chef Carles Abellan, with a career that has passed through the restaurant El Bulli and has been awarded Michelin stars in different restaurants, and is currently run by the employees. Since its beginnings, Tapas 24 has been a successful formula. Due to its location, its dishes, its product, and because it attracted a tourist who was precisely looking for dishes to share, which they were told was common in Barcelona.

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Guests staying in Barcelona hotels ask receptionists what they can visit, how they can get tickets for shows, and also where they can eat. They are usually more insistent with this last question because, of course, we all like to find a good table to taste the typical food of the country we are in. If the receptionists make the reservation for them from the hotel and call a taxi for them to go there, even better. And it is in this reservation made from the reception where the game begins: each reservation made at a series of restaurants in Barcelona from hotel receptions brings them benefits, which can be a fixed commission (a percentage of the final tickets or a fixed amount of money) or free meals at the same restaurant. What are the Barcelona restaurants that receptionists recommend? They tend to be those belonging to chains, those that are always full of tourists and have a high average ticket. They tend to specialize in fish and seafood, seafood cuisine, also in sushi, and have a lot of service turnover. These restaurants get in touch with the receptionists of some hotels in Barcelona, especially those with between four and five stars, and propose an exchange to the receptionists. They have muscle, that is, economic power, to be able to offer this treatment.One summer morning, in the middle of a heatwave, I interviewed the head of concierge and the management of a hotel in the center of Barcelona, which has other hotel establishments in the same city and also in nearby regions. I speak to them near the reception and I see the number of tourists entering with suitcases. I cannot describe the hotel in more detail because, otherwise, they warn me that it will be possible to deduce who they are. "We consider ourselves ambassadors of the hotel, and we want tourists to get to know the city through gastronomy," they explain without wanting to give their names. They add that both of them are up to date with the restaurants that are opening in the city because they know it is valuable information for their work. "Tourists staying in our hotels constantly ask us where they can eat paellas; it is one of the big questions." Each of the recommendations, whether or not linked to commissions and free meals at the restaurant, they guarantee, that is, they have investigated it well. They comment that they want to give quality advice, that when the tourist returns they tell them they have had a good time, that the food was good. "It's not recommending for recommending's sake, and we don't always focus on whether we have a commission in that restaurant or not; if we do and we know it's very good, perfect," they continue to explain.Paella, sushi and Catalan cuisine

After the request for where to eat a good paella, there is a second one: where to eat sushi. In Barcelona, yes. Tourists want to eat paella and sushi. And they also want to sign up for express courses to learn how to cook paella. “We encounter this constantly, and that's why the reception dedicated to 'city experiences' is important at the hotel,” explains the head of Concierge, who also does not want to reveal his identity. They organize the activities they want to do in a day in the city. “We also tell them the precautions they should take in the city; for example, if they want to go eat in El Raval, we recommend a door-to-door taxi and without watches on their wrists," they affirm. The advice seeks the same objective as when recommending a restaurant: the safety of the people staying at their hotel. “Daily, we check how they have fared after the recommendations we have made,” because they want everything to go well for them, he points out.

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Maldon truly exists. It is not just the brand of salt that has spread to sixty countries, especially Spain, which is the second largest consumer – the first being England–. Maldon is also a town located northeast of London, about sixty-odd kilometers from the British capital. The village seems taken from a fairy tale, with exposed brick houses, local shops, independent bookstores, pubs where you could spend hours, terraces full of warm light garlands, and a small hotel (The Blue Boar), located opposite the Church of All Saints. A church – Protestant – which is a meeting point for the townspeople, young and old. The day we visited, the grandparents were singing songs in a choir to their grandchildren, who were playing up and down in front of them.

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I interview the chef Santi Colominas (Argentona, 1973) on a summer morning, a few hours before the first lunch shift starts, at 1 p.m. The restaurant Toc al Mar celebrates its fifteenth anniversary this year since it opened in a small fisherman's house during an economic crisis. Santi had spent summers in Tamariu, and when he was offered the proposal, he accepted. For the first three years, he combined Toc al Mar with the restaurant Toc de Barcelona, which was located on Girona street. They were very intense years, with two young children he had together with the head of service and partner, Sandra Baliarda (1972, Badalona). Today, their children have already confessed that they like and are enthusiastic about the hospitality world. They have the succession secured.

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Mayonnaise, the Minorcan emulsion that the French have claimed for years they invented, is easy to prepare at home: it is made with olive oil, egg, lemon, and a pinch of salt. Current nutrition views it favorably because it is considered that mayonnaise provides the body with healthy fats and a small amount of protein from the egg. The problem, as everyone knows, is that "it is sensitive to microbiological contamination.” “The raw egg can contain bacteria such as salmonella," state dietitians-nutritionists Anna Costa and Anna Grífols. And all this is aggravated in summer, with high temperatures. So, what do we do? If we want to eat a Russian salad with mayonnaise, how do we go about it? On the supermarket shelves there are a thousand and one jars; are they good?“Paradoxically, from a microbiological point of view industrial mayonnaise is usually much safer than homemade,” says Anna Grífols. The industry uses pasteurized eggs, the sauce undergoes strict acidity controls and also elaboration processes that minimize the risk of salmonellosis. However, industrial mayonnaise is made up of ingredients that we would not use at home: refined sunflower oil (at home we would use olive oil), sugars and additives. “There are industrial mayonnaises that even incorporate oils of worse nutritional quality, or quite a few technological ingredients,” points out Grífols.The industrial, more than four ingredients

If we take a jar of industrial mayonnaise, we will find that the list of ingredients is more extensive than the four we have mentioned. Placed in order according to quantity, we will find refined sunflower oil, water, pasteurized egg yolk, lemon juice or vinegar, sugar, spices, salt, and stabilizers such as xanthan gum. It is an industrial product, therefore, which imitates a simple preparation, and which is safe because the egg is pasteurized. But beware, “because it is safe straight from the factory but when we open it and, therefore, air enters, it must be consumed quickly and kept cold, because microorganisms can also enter that spoil it,” points out the dietitian-nutritionist Anna Costa.So, the paradox of industrial mayonnaise is that it assures us of food safety parameters but we lose many others in terms of flavor and tradition, to the point where a simple recipe with four ingredients becomes ultra-processed. At this point, we recommend you make it at home with all precautions and eat it immediately. We advise you to use fresh eggs, with intact shells. Do not wash them, because the bacteria on the eggshells could penetrate inside. Wash your hands and also the tools with which you will prepare the mayonnaise. Add lemon or vinegar, because both act as acidifiers. Prepare a small amount; basically what you will eat. If you have any left over, store it immediately in the refrigerator between 2 and 4 degrees Celsius. Do not keep it at room temperature. And eat it by the next day at the latest, no later.

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The chef Moha Quach, from El Terrat de Tarragona restaurant and Revelation Award of the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition, has cleaned for the second time graffiti that appeared on one of his restaurant's signs. A year ago, the word Vox was painted on the sign indicating that the restaurant adheres to the Slow Food movement, which was difficult to remove; the second time, a week ago, on the sign indicating it has a Repsol Sun. “Repsol has just sent me a new plaque so I can remove the old one, which again had the word Vox on it,” explains Quach.

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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 passed 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.

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It's Wednesday at noon, and at the bar of the Hermós fish bar, located inside the Llibertat market, in the Gràcia neighborhood, two couples are sitting talking about whether to choose razor clams, mussels, or scallops. At the six-number stall (which means six meters) that the Hermós bar occupies, chef Alexis Peñalver and chef Alejandro Serdà are living farewell days. They explain to their 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, linked especially to the restaurant's opening hours, which can only be from 12 to 4 p.m.”. And they also inform everyone that there will be a new restaurant, which will be run by chef 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'm going back to La Pubilla restaurant, which is about to turn sixteen, and there we will continue making them,” he says.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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