At the Hotel Almadrava, located on Almadrava beach in Roses, the sea and sky are the landscape that captivates your eyes at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's as if you're inside a painting with all shades of blue. Restaurateur Josep Mercader liked this landscape when he built the hotel, and also because it was close to his hometown of Cadaqués. This is the assumption made by his four grandchildren (Albert, Jordi, Lluís, and Sílvia), his daughter, Anna Maria Mercader i Baret, and the son-in-law, the great and wise cook Jaume Subirós (Figueres, 1949). Together, they have preserved the legacy of the man who lived life to the fullest, worked tirelessly in restaurants in Girona and France, and founded two hotels: the Motel Empordà in Figueres and the Almadrava in Roses. Next year, in 2026, he would have turned one hundred. His son-in-law, Jaume Subirós, has worked at both hotels longer than his father-in-law did—sixty-five years, which is exactly the same age as the Motel Empordà and ten years less than the Almadrava. His children work with him in management, in the kitchen, and in the dining room. And his youngest daughter, Silvia, is making films and writing her grandfather Josep Mercader's biography. Together, they form one of the great families of Catalan cuisine.

Love is love if it is not unidirectional. This is stated with a mythical image by the actress Emma Vilarasau in the film The House on Fire When the daughter tells her that "to love is to give without expecting anything in return," and the mother responds with the expressive "Fuck you" raising her middle finger. That is, the gesture that the French saydo a good deed of honour, and in our house we complete the gesture with a sausage. In the grain: the journalist Xavier Febrés (Barcelona, ​​​​1949), perhaps one of those who is best known for the great restaurant that is the Motel Empordà (which we know as the Motel), says that he has always felt affection and love when he has gone to eat, and that he has done so at different stages of his life. Hence the title of the book he has written, Motel Empordà, praise of stable love, published by Gavarres publishing house (editor Àngel Madrià), in which he has wisely explained why everyone feels "comfortable".