A few weeks after Nestlé confirmed the successful removal of artificial colors from its products in the United States, the company has announced that it will extend the measure globally. Thus, the multinational has committed to eliminating these additives from all its products before the end of 2026, as confirmed by Nestlé's chief technology officer, Stefan Palzer. With this news, Nestlé would become one of the first major multinationals in the food industry to take this step.

Victor von Schwarz (his surname in German means "black"; Sabadell, 1988) is the artistic name of the fashion designer who has dressed some of the most popular artists on the music scene, such as Aitana, Lola Índigo or Rosalía, and who is part of the Shein X program. The designer has matured an androgynous style —influenced by his time in Taiwan—, with a constant presence of pink and "cute aesthetics, which was reflected in the pink jersey-top that Rosalía wore in the music video for Milionària. For wine, Von Schwarz is true to his brand: when he can choose, he chooses black.

It is called Torre Glòries. For many Barcelonians it will always be the Torre Agbar or other popular names inspired by its shape, such as the suppository. And it is the only building that allows you to see the entire city of Barcelona, 360 degrees. The reason is that it is in the center planned by Ildefons Cerdà, in Plaça de les Glòries. Designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel, his intention was to emulate a geyser, as it was to be for the water company. Now it is an office building, but the 30th floor and the entire top cap, at 125 meters high, have been enabled as a privileged viewpoint.

There are people who exude optimism, and a way of understanding work based on enthusiasm and perseverance. Joan Carles is one of them. After a professional career linked to Empordà, three years ago he decided to shape the most personal project of his career. Thus, three years ago, Descarat was born, a restaurant that deliberately moves away from the canons that have marked a large part of his journey.

“A restaurant should not be opened out of enthusiasm, nor kept open out of pity”, says Rafa Zafra, who recently closed the restaurant Per Feina in Barcelona. We are at a round table organized by The Fork on profitability in gastronomic businesses. Its participants, Nandu Jubany, Rafa Zafra, Carlota Claver, and Gary Llempén, have very different businesses, but one thing in common: they work and make money. “A restaurant that works earns between 250,000 and 300,000 euros a year,” says Zafra. All of them exercise transparency and share advice that can be useful to anyone who wants to enter the restaurant business. Let’s list some of the learnings they shared along with data from a study conducted by The Fork.

Four generations of Batlló lived on the third floor of Casa Batlló, this modernist gem on Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia designed by architect Antoni Gaudí that amazes everyone who visits it. The descendants of the Batlló family had lived in this apartment for more than a hundred years, until 2019, which is why had been preserved with an "exceptional authenticity" and now, the property has been opened to the public and you can have a meal there, after a meticulous renovation, in which all the original elements have been respected and restored – even a previously unknown handle designed by Gaudí has been discovered–. In the renovation, the talent of Italian architect and designer Paola Navone, from OTTO Studio, was chosen to make a proposal that was respectful of the place where it is located, but at the same time revised, as in the green mosaic counter that welcomes you.

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.

Budget, time, knowledge, and experience. This is the blend that has made the Perelada winery possible, a RCR project that 22,000 people visit each year. It cost 47 million euros and took 20 years to complete. "A winery that will not go out of fashion," says Perelada's oenologist Delfí Sanahuja, who has been present in each phase of the winery's construction, inaugurated in 2022. "I knew zero about architecture, and they knew zero about wine. Now I could be an RCR intern after two decades with them," the oenologist jokes, "we understood each other very well," he affirms.

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.

At the gates of the summer season, bars and restaurants in Port de la Selva (Alt Empordà) are returning to normal. Last August, the season ended abruptly with the suicide of a local business couple who had been managing a dozen establishments for decades through an investment group. The businesses, which were struggling with financial problems, closed overnight, leaving a hundred workers jobless. They represented 20% of the town's hospitality businesses, and the offerings along the entire promenade were severely affected.

On April 20, 2024, the Banco de Boquerones group took over a historic restaurant in the city of Barcelona: Casa Leopoldo. And this Sunday they will close its doors, as communicated by the group's owner, Bruno Balbás, on the restaurant's Instagram. The iconic establishment in the Raval had been through a lot since its charismatic owner, Rosa Gil, passed away. It had a new period of splendor when chefs Òscar Manresa and Romain Fornell took over, but the project was cut short by the pandemic. Afterwards, a Chinese family took over, who served Asian food and dispensed with some of the architectural elements that had made the place very recognizable. This venture did not work out, and it was then that the Banco de Boquerones group – owner of other restaurants such as Casa Ràfols, Can Framis, and Casa Lolea – took on the challenge. Their intention was to bring back the original gastronomic proposal and serve the classic oxtail. In addition, they personalized two private rooms, one dedicated to Rosa Gil, and preserved the table dedicated to Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, accompanied by a commemorative plaque.

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.

Stuffed olives are one of the great successes of the food industry, which we have become accustomed to, knowing that they can be more expensive than if we bought olives with a pit. Furthermore, not all fillings literally correspond to what is stated on the label. So it could be that they do not contain pepper, anchovy, tuna, salmon or cheese, but rather "a reconstituted paste, formed by crushed pepper, thickeners, texture enhancers, flavor enhancers and food stabilizers that maintain its shape and preserve it for months," states dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols.

The Mervier Canal pastry shop on Calvet street in Barcelona, the first one, has reopened its doors after the fire last December. "We thought that in two months we could save the Christmas turrons, and in the end it has been a full six months that the works have lasted us," explains Lluís Estrada, son of Mercè Canal (78 years old), who together with his brother Xavier (81 years old) owns the pastry shop. The display window is full of all kinds of Sant Joan cakes: filled with cream, truffle, fruit, or cracklings. They have lost the Christmas and Easter campaigns, but they are arriving in time for Sant Joan.

Júlia Colom (Valldemossa, 1997) went in search of the melodies that were sung in the villages of Mallorca. From that search emerged Sempre dijous (Joan Porcel, 2020), award for best national documentary at the In-Edit Festival, and the foundation for the albums Miramar (2023) and Paradís (2025), best album of the year according to the critics of Enderrock.