While Barcelona's gastronomic offer is shifting towards market trends, with all kinds of foreign restaurant proposals appearing in corners of the city, there are those who keep up with the trends with a firm commitment to local, proximity, and quality cuisine. El Corte Inglés Diagonal is one of the defenders of this commitment, and it demonstrates this with the inauguration of the new Club del Gourmet. An opening that is a true statement of intent: more than 750 square meters on the fifth and final floor of the shopping center located at the confluence of Avinguda Diagonal and Plaça de Maria Cristina, destined to offer specialized gastronomic shopping and a tasting space.

Once you arrive in Llívia, leaving behind the streets and the bell tower and heading out into the fields, you will find Llivins, the winery that has two hectares planted with Sauvignon Blanc and produces four white wines, four thousand bottles in total depending on the year. As soon as you observe the vineyards, you can see that you are among different vines: they are protected by rigid mesh, covering the entire plant, just as is sometimes done with apple trees. It is a resource to combat hailstorms, especially frequent in summer, which would damage the grapes. And another detail: the grapes have not yet been harvested. They will not do so until well into October. The result of all this is four transgressive wines, just as the producers planned from the beginning, which are made at an altitude of 1,225 meters. The sale prices range between 25 and 48 euros, and they are not attached to any designation of origin.

It does not matter if you call them meatballs or 'pilotilles'. With this recipe from the Semproniana chef Ada Parellada, you have no excuse not to make these succulent little balls of happiness that are so traditional in Catalan cuisine.

The chef of Semproniana, Ada Parellada, makes a good, healthy, and affordable sardine dish. A very Mediterranean bite that is prepared quickly.

I interview the chef Julià Bernet (Olesa de Bonesvalls, 1992) at his restaurant, Vilagut, in Vilafranca del Penedès. Vilagut is about to turn seven years old since it first opened its doors and has become a benchmark for good cuisine for the capital of the Alt Penedès and also for the country. There are dishes that everyone highlights, such as the roast cannelloni and thepithivier, which is the round puff pastry pie. I especially highlight the wine and sparkling wine list, which shows appreciation for the nearby landscape, for the twelve Catalan denominations. It is also a menu designed for different budgets and to be tasted by the glass: with the Coravin, everything is possible. Let's start by talking about the dishes you cook.

We have had a day that was as dark as a wolf's throat, we arrive home and think we will solve it with chocolate. It is not the first time we have turned to it, and it has worked for us. That is why we thought of it quickly. Perhaps even when we were already imagining ourselves sitting on the sofa eating it, we started to feel better. We eat it and manage to make the sadness, anger, and boredom of the day go away with that piece that we know perfectly well we have stored away. Behind this action there is a reason. Science says that chocolate stimulates a pleasant state because it has phenylethylamine, and linked with the memory we have of it, it makes us seek it out to leave behind an unpleasant mood.

The alarm clock rings. You go through the shower and smear yourself, at the very least, with about seven cosmetic and personal hygiene products, including creams, soaps, deodorants –if you are a woman, the number rises to nine–, according to data from Cosmetics Europe. You wear a polyester shirt for the first time, nice and cool. You leave the house and grab a coffee to go and a tray of cut fruit. You walk to work along a street with heavy traffic and quite a bit of noise.

When we think of pollution, images of exhaust pipes, factory chimneys spewing smoke into the sky, or beaches overflowing with plastic waste most likely come to mind. It does not occur to us that there is part of the pollution caused by human beings that ends up traveling to our table. And yet, we eat it every day and, in the long run, it can end up undermining our health.

Rabbit stew is a traditional dish that makes you want to eat bread with it. Ada Parellada, chef at Semproniana, makes this succulent dish with a main ingredient that is cooked less and less despite being very local and very healthy.

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:

It is Tuesday, it is six in the morning, the sea is as flat as a plate and the fisherman Oriol Serra (Barcelona, 1978) is sitting on his boat, the Fila, at the Port d’Aiguadolç in Sitges. Everything is dark, the street lamps are still on. In the sky, a thin moon, concave like a slice of watermelon. Oriol unties the moorings from the dock, where the only two fishing boats in the port are, and we head out to sea, into the blackness. While the boat is sailing, we leave behind the red serpentine made by the cars passing on the Garraf coast road in the direction of Barcelona. Also the breakwaters and the bell tower of the church of Sitges. Everything is left far behind our backs, because we are heading to the 'galls' (roosters), the markers with a red flag that Oriol placed in the sea the previous afternoon to cast his artisanal nets. The goal of the day is to catch prawns. Will we find any?

Fashion designer Teresa Helbig (Barcelona, 1963) receives ARA at the showroom that the brand has on Mallorca Street in Barcelona. Each piece and each object has a story that Helbig explains with passion, vitality, and joy. Happy with the reception the retrospective dedicated to her by the Museo del Traje in Madrid has had –and hoping to be able to bring it to Barcelona as well–, the designer shows an imaginary that has been nourished by everything she has seen, felt, tasted, and drunk.Have you ever heard of Terra Remota? How did you get there?

The RíasKRU restaurant in Barcelona (c. Lleida, 7) "is not for sale for more than two million euros despite what a real estate agency says," states manager Borja Iglesias, who adds that he has asked the agency to remove the advertisement stating that it is for sale, and that, if they do not do so, they will take legal action." It is a fact that this year marks forty years since the Rías de Galicia was inaugurated by the Galician couple Cándido Iglesias and Purificación García. Later, their three children took charge, but during the covid pandemic they took the restaurant into insolvency proceedings, and it was bought by businessman Manuel Lao, the current owner.The RíasKru is the fusion of Rías de Galicia, which is located on the ground floor, and the Espai Kru, on the first floor, both specialized in fish and seafood, and both restaurants have marked an era of fine gastronomy in the city of Barcelona.

Àlex and Pau are two friends and former classmates from the Joviat School, with a shared gastronomic background in both the professional and personal spheres. One day, in La Barceloneta, they decided to set up a business together. The chosen place was Llívia, and this is the short story of the birth of the Trumfes restaurant. That was seventeen years ago.Since Easter, however, the partnership has dissolved. Pau has decided to seek new personal and professional incentives outside of Llívia, while Àlex has opted to provide continuity to the project, bringing freshness and new ideas to it. Àlex Molas is a fighter and a tireless worker. He does what is necessary at every moment to feel good about himself, his family, and a team fully committed to this project so deeply rooted in the territory.Trumfes' cuisine is based on the product and seasonality, to which it adds talent and unexpected connections. We ask Àlex to prepare a menu that allows us to discover, in a single meal, the gastronomic proposal of this benchmark restaurant. We start with a salt cod brandade and an anchovy with aged meat fat. It is a risky combination, because the anchovy has a lot of personality, but the contrast works. In this case, the surf and turf is very well executed. Next, we are served a Russian salad with red prawn tartare; a fig coca with salt-cured foie gras, candied pine nuts and duck ham, and a tiradito of aged old cow with marinated tuna, teriyaki sauce and fresh sprouts. They are tasty dishes that connect very different universes.We stop for a moment to talk about wine. Àlex is an enthusiast and a great connoisseur who tastes, searches, buys, and continues learning every day with the goal of offering a complete experience to the diner. “I always think about what I would like to find in a restaurant, but, above all, I try to understand the customer. It is true that there are wines that I am personally passionate about, but my job is to find what fits with the food and with the person I have in front of me”. He explains this to us while serving us a bottle of Vèrtebra de la Figuera 2022, a fresh Garnacha from the winery Terroir Sense Fronteres. It is a wine we did not know and are grateful to have discovered.Classic dishes and triumphant reinterpretations

We continue with one of the new proposals on the menu: pork jowl with sea cucumber. Àlex and Javi, the head chef, have been adjusting the flavors until finding the perfect balance with the chanterelles and the pil-pil sauce. After this novelty, comes a classic that has been triumphing for seventeen years: the octopus carpaccio. They prepare it by slicing the legs very thinly and serve it with potato foam and olive oil. It is their personal interpretation of Galician-style octopus. We finish the main courses with a grilled sea bass from the Blanes fish market and a cut of Asturian meat. And, for dessert, the famous hazelnut coulant and a cheese board from the Catalan Pyrenees.Once this magnificent meal is finished, Àlex shows us the cellar. We are on the floor below, in a reserved space that is a delight. Since we don't have to drive today, we take small sips of Grandma's ratafia while we chat with him for a while. During the conversation, he especially highlights the role of his team in carrying this successful project forward.Javier, Helena, Ekaterina, Ivan, Camelia and Naia are fundamental pieces to achieve what Alex is pursuing: “We want to provide good food and have people come to enjoy it”. We can assure you that they succeed. The food, the service, the space and the surroundings make the Trumfes restaurant an essential gastronomic destination. The new stage looks very good.

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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.

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Peanuts deserve a lot of reverence and also four clarifications. The first: botanically they are a legume, but we eat them as if they were nuts. The second: they do not generate cholesterol, as has probably been said and believed. In fact, from bags of mixed nuts, it has become customary to believe that peanuts were the worst. “No food of plant origin contains cholesterol, which is only present in foods of animal origin, because it is a molecule that is part of the membranes of their cells”, explains dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols. And the third: peanuts not only do not generate cholesterol, but they help to regulate it, as demonstrated by one of the most important clinical trials on nutrition and cardiovascular health, carried out in the State with the participation of the Rovira i Virgili University, among others.

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“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.

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Ada Parellada, chef at Semproniana, explains how to make a simple yet effective zucchini and goat cheese omelet.

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I am interviewing Diego Alías (Sant Joan de Vilatorrada, 1977) on a summer day when I need to put on a jacket. It is early in the morning, which in Josa de Cadí is experienced with mild temperatures and leaves a green landscape, clear of clouds. In the kitchen of Ca l'Amador, as Diego's restaurant is called, the fires have been lit for a while now. They have all the tables full, as is usual in high season. Ca l'Amador has become a desired restaurant, and that is why they are full every day. Everyone knows that in Josa del Cadí there is a very good cheese shop, Serrat Gros, and Diego, who is cheerful, welcoming, and energetic. The day we speak with Diego, he is very busy between the daily menus and the 'pianatada' he is preparing, a piano concert on the restaurant's threshing floor. He lacks hours. We begin our conversation about the school where he trained, the Joviat of Manresa.

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Let's start with a comparison. The feeling of a diner stepping onto the red floral carpet of the Via Veneto restaurant in Barcelona (c. Ganduxer, 10) must be similar to what a football player feels when entering a historic stadium. Respect. And it is not because of the bellhop who took our coat and opened the door for us, Carlos Fernández. It is not because of the carpet, always spotless. It is not because of the greeting we will receive from the manager, Pere Monje, who will lead us to our table. Nor because of Xavier Regàs's modernist decoration, with that elliptical glass that allows one to observe who is in the dining room from the lobby. Nor because of the elegant white curtains with ruffles in the room. It is not just because of all that. It is because we find ourselves in a unique place, where fifty people work who seek to serve hours of happiness with the finest tableware, those that are not measured by a clock. Seated at one of the tables, with the waiters and maîtres dressed in tuxedos, we will forget the coordinates of space and time. You enter Via Veneto thinking about your daily chores, and you leave grateful to life for the hours spent. In between, there is a family of owners and a team that we have interviewed so they can explain the inner workings of a restaurant that will turn sixty years old next year.

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