I interviewed chef Jordi Vilà after lunch on a Wednesday. I ate at the bar, where the team prepared some of the dishes from the tasting menu at Alkimia (with a Michelin star) and Al Kostat, the restaurant located at the back of the room, separated from Alkimia by a kind of wooden crossbow, always half-open, which some have dubbed whale ribs. The imagination is free. I would have liked to watch the chefs working for longer, but I immediately ordered Jordi Vilà's dish of green beans with potatoes and sausage from a pot that became Proust's madeleine. Why is it so hard to find a good vegetable dish on restaurant menus? I was thinking about this while I ate, and I didn't even hear what Vilà was saying, asking me if I liked the dish. As we started the interview, with the restaurant empty, Uri Costak, the chef's friend and comrade in battle, came through the door, carrying All the merchandising they have created together to defend Catalan cuisine with humor: T-shirts, mugs, posters and, soon, a recipe book.