“We are just getting the stall started,” says Ton Díaz. In a corner of the Ninot market in Barcelona’s Eixample district, Tonet del Mercat—or just Tonet—has been set up for a few weeks now. It bears Ton Díaz’s name because he is the axis around which this project revolves, based on nose-to-tail cooking, such as offal and other meat by-products. “This week we are adding sweetbreads and kidneys with sherry and onions,” says a thrilled Díaz.

Virgilio Martínez (Lima, 1977) is one of the most renowned chefs in the world. His restaurant Central, in Lima, was considered the best in the world in 2023. It was a milestone that no one had ever achieved in Latin America. And he achieved it by placing at the center the ingredients used in all the ecosystems and altitudes of Peru. Many of them, safeguarded by indigenous communities. “When I was a child, they told me that these people were poor. Later I understood that they were rich,” says the chef. In addition to Central, he has the Mil restaurant, where he cooks Andean cuisine at 3,800 meters, and a multidisciplinary knowledge center called Mater. Martínez speaks to ARA at the Andorra Taste congress, dedicated to high-mountain gastronomy, where he was awarded the career achievement award. An award previously received by Michel Bras, Gastón Acurio, Ferran Adrià, and Carme Ruscalleda.

These are major festival days in the city (with the permission of Santa Eulàlia). So, I am taking the opportunity to make a list of highly recommended restaurants in the city of Barcelona. A question I am asked very often is “what is your top 10 restaurants in Barcelona”. I am not a big fan of rankings. Besides, there are too many factors that make them impossible to compare. To go with a partner? To celebrate an anniversary? To go with children? What budget are we talking about? So, take this compilation as a handful of restaurants that I encourage you to visit.

At the Andorra Taste congress, dedicated to high-mountain cuisine, a large group of chefs comes together to define what this cuisine made at altitude is. They ask themselves what territory is, what tradition means, and, ultimately, a space for debate is generated to help grow the gastronomy of the small country in the Pyrenees and of the chefs from other territories present. In a round table held at the idyllic Borda del Pi titled "From territory to identity" and moderated by Benjamin Lana, director of the congress, the chefs present made several statements that may be controversial. We review them in the form of a list:

Joan is 82 years old. This means that seventy years ago, when he was twelve, he started working. First in a hardware store in his neighborhood, La Barceloneta. Later, to earn a little more money, he started washing glasses on Sundays at the bar next door, Casa Pascual. The owner saw he was sharp and told him to work there full-time. He went from earning 75 pesetas a week to earning 150. Imagine what a raise and how happy they were at home! He kept working hard until one day he realized he needed to have one day off a week: Sunday. They already had two daughters with Soledad Martínez, and a third one was on the way. That is how Bar Joan was born, to be able to have 24 hours of rest.

“This summer, on several occasions, I have been asked for half a glass of wine,” explains Camila Espinoza. She is a sommelier and owner of Pepa Bar a Vins, a restaurant that is always packed on Aribau Street in Barcelona. Faced with my look of astonishment, she tells me that it is not an isolated incident. In some cases, it is to save money. They ask for one glass of wine and an empty one, and they share it. In others, it is not an economic saving but a way to be able to taste more wines without needing to drink so much alcohol. She confirms this herself with water orders. Before, she used to order four cases of water a week, and now she orders six. “Regarding water, obviously there is also a key factor, which is the heat we have had this summer. This has combined with the general drop in alcohol consumption and the drop in purchasing power, but also the infernal heat,” she clarifies. “I think it’s fine that people want to take better care of themselves, right? It’s just that everyone has lost purchasing power. We have too.” However, she has decided not to incorporate non-alcoholic wine references in her restaurant, despite the trend. “Instead of serving non-alcoholic wine, we prefer to offer water or a kombucha made in Gelida,” Espinoza concludes.

It was in 2022 when a giant chocolate elephant introduced Lluc Crusellas (1996, Santa Eulàlia de Riuprimer) to the whole world. To win the most prized award in the cocoa world, the World Chocolate Masters, you need the mindset of an elite athlete. A well-adjusted head that Crusellas already had, who even now, as he is at the pinnacle of the pastry excellence pyramid, finds time to participate by bicycle in the Titan Desert. He has already been in the four previous editions and explains that, if the dates allow it, we will see him pedaling there again. From the desert to desserts, since the village boy –a village that has named him a favorite son– is requested all over the world to give courses. This very year, he is expected in Poland, France, Belgium, Italy, China, and Japan. That is why he has also been in charge of designing the Barcelona box of chocolates. They are called Gaudeat and can be bought at the architect's iconic buildings. There are nine chocolates inspired by his work, including the dragon of Park Güell. Crusellas has also made his way into the Chocolate Museum, located in the Born neighborhood of Barcelona. There is a majestic replica of the famous chocolate elephant sculpture with which he won the contest. Although it is a meter and a half high and weighs 100 kilos, it is a smaller version made to scale. The original was around 200 kilos of chocolate.

“Haute cuisine is dead. I am closing Table. On December 22nd I will do the last service,” announced the French chef Bruno Verjus by surprise this Tuesday on Instagram. The reason he gave was just as blunt: “I don’t feel comfortable with the fact of excluding people from my table. Because the idea of haute cuisine is to bring people to discover extraordinary food and service. But more and more I felt that I was doing things that belonged to the past. I need to move somewhere else. I want to feed people, but not just a few.” His Parisian restaurant has fourteen years of life and two Michelin stars and in 2024 it reached the third position of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

It is a gateway to Vietnamese cuisine for anyone who wants to discover it. Or a return door for those who already know it and miss it. This is how the co-owner of Món Việt describes his restaurant. I look around the dining room and see many Catalans, of very diverse ages. Also a Vietnamese family. A few months ago I visited Món Việt, located on Sepúlveda street in Barcelona, because as New Year's approaches, they make a special menu to let us know what is eaten during Tết, as they call the holiday in this Southeast Asian country. I was impressed by the quality of their homemade food. Without going any further, they served a whole boiled chicken. It was tender and tasty. An apparently simple dish but absolutely succulent. How did they manage to make a humble meal worthy of celebration? Since then, I have followed the trail of this restaurant and have ended up getting the answers I was looking for.

It's funny when you've been in a property, let's say at friends' apartment, and you return some time later when other people live there. It's inevitable that your mind starts playing the game of differences, seeing what is there and what is no longer there. The same happens with restaurants – aggravatedly, I would say – because Barcelona's voracity for opening and closing businesses is greater than that of Saint George's dragon eating sheep. So you often go to places where you've been before, but with other tenants and other furniture. Today we are in a place where we've been when it was called Tickets, when it was called Teatro (a more modest change, as it was as if someone from the family had taken it over) and now, it's called Osteria Condal, and it's starting a new chapter. They have done extensive renovations, and if it weren't for the fact that it's on the same corner of Paral·lel, we wouldn't recognize the space. The investment has been significant. We see it in all the details, from the menus to the imposing open kitchen.

Viviana Varese (Salerno, 1974) is a force of nature. A chef who has made her mark in a potentially hostile environment, that of haute cuisine, without compromising her values. She now runs the gastronomic offering of a luxury hotel in one of Italy's most exclusive corners, Passalacqua, on Lake Como. She also has a rebellious grill restaurant in Milan, Faak. She grants an interview to ARA at the Gastronomika congress, where she gave a lecture that left us stunned.

Dreta de l'Eixample. We are on Bailèn street, between Mallorca and València. Here a chick is the sheriff of the corner. It is the yellow and recognizable logo of Billy Brunch, which has three locations at numbers 113, 115, and 129. In addition, its vehicles can be seen parked, red and with the chick superimposed. Between the three locations, they serve 900 people on weekends, and about 500 during the week. The one in the middle of the corner, the one at 115, is the first one that opened, out of the six in Barcelona (then two more opened in Madrid and two in Seville). This first location, which was a resounding success, has just been expanded by adding a slide and a ball pit, red and yellow, which can be seen from the street. The pool was installed after the one in Madrid in the center of the restaurant was a great attraction. This one is more discreet, though. "Adults can go in, right?", the owner tells me, inviting me to try it. In Barcelona, it seems we don't dare as much and leave it for the kids and the influencers.

I was once talking to a film expert who told me that the settings of films set in the 60s, 70s, or 80s were not realistic. The reason is that these recreations sought objects from a single period, the one in which the action took place, and that in general this never happened in houses. Homes are like an archaeological site, there are many layers. I think about this when I enter Casa Natalia, in Sant Ferran de ses Roques, in Formentera. When you enter this restaurant, it feels a bit like you are in their home, as the establishment is full of objects that Natàlia Juan and Carles Abellán have acquired throughout their lives and travels.

That the iconic El Racó d'En Binu, in Argentona, was born in a hotel is no coincidence. Francesc Fortí traveled and saw that hotels could be fertile ground where a great restaurant could flourish. In fact, the hotel has not been operating for years, but the restaurant has. Catalonia is a land of good restaurants and also of great hotels – these yes, in full operation – and charming landscapes. If we put all these elements in a shaker, we will see that there are a lot of places that defend these attributes. From historic establishments to spaces that were once private and to which we can now access to have a great meal and, if necessary, to sleep there. Let's review a few.

Sometimes they ask me if I've been to this restaurant or that one and I don't remember. Then I look at it carefully and often the answer is yes. There are many bland places. Correct, but they leave no mark. This is not the case with today's restaurant, the Cooperativa de Porrera. Anyone who has been there recognizes it in a second. You remember the blue of the walls, the flowered tablecloths, the wine bottles on the table and Mia coming out with her tiara to take notes or serving a steaming dish. It's a genuine restaurant, with essence and personality.

The sea, on the day I am here, is choppy. And this does not detract one iota from the charm of the restaurant where I am, which is located right on the coast, quite the opposite. We are at Es Còdol Foradat, in Formentera. In a place with great produce and a lot of skill. And needless to say, in an unbeatable location that screams vacation from all four sides. Free time for those of us sitting at the tables, of course, because those who attend us, with a wide smile, know perfectly well what they are doing. This is one of the four (or five, depending on how you count) restaurants Nandu Jubany has on the island, and this year is its seventh season. Very close by, he has El Pecador, a more gastronomic version.

The butters of different colors like jewels, the bread cart, the impressive wine cellar, the exquisite service, the wrought-iron sculptures decorating the tables... If anyone wants to try a restaurant with class, elegance, and where all the dishes will be excellent, perfect, and well-rounded, what you are looking for is called Lasarte. This year it celebrates twenty years of existence, a not insignificant figure in current times when haute cuisine is suffering. The restaurant, located in the Monument Hotel, was Barcelona's first three-Michelin-starred establishment. Since 2017, when it achieved this, the city now has four.

We begin a five-week journey through Brazil with gastronomy as the common thread. If I tell you to close your eyes and imagine a restaurant in Brazil, it's possible your mind will take you to Rio de Janeiro. It's a magnetic city and a unique enclave in the world. However, despite being the most popular image, it's not representative of a large part of the country. Gastronomically (and sociologically), what does Rio have to do with the miner cuisine of Minas Gerais, the Bahian cuisine of Salvador, or the ancestral cuisine of the Amazon? Very little.

The new restaurant in Poblenou catches the eye as soon as you pass by. Located at Pujades street, 133, it occupies a single ground floor. It's part of one of those blocks of houses in the neighborhood that used to be cheap. In fact, through a side door, you access the interior of these narrow streets full of plants and their own life, away from the hustle and bustle of the main street. But let's return to the main street, we find a polished façade, cream-colored with painted letters that say: Finca Nebot 1924. The Nebot family used to be there then, hence the name, which its current owner, Leo Chechelnitskiy, wanted to revive as a tribute.

We are at the Baix Llobregat Agrarian Park, amidst tomato plants and under a blazing sun. "We have planted 540 varieties of tomatoes," says Jaume Torras, owner of SoulBlim. He grows and supplies fruits and vegetables for the restaurant industry (he previously had a market stall and sold to individuals through his website, but for several years now he has only worked for professionals) and has recently become part of the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition (ACGN). Today he presents his project, we taste all kinds of tomatoes, we discover things we didn't know and confirm others we suspected, like the fact that many tomatoes have tougher skins than ever. Why?