On the Costa Brava, between secluded coves, fishing villages, and farmhouses near the sea, the gastronomic offer swells every summer until it becomes very difficult to choose where to have a good lunch or dinner. There are restaurants for all tastes and budgets, but not all that glitters is worth it: between the tourist pressure and summer opportunism, there is a range of establishments where cooking is done with discernment and passion.

His name is Hidenori Futami. He was born in Osaka, studied gardening in Tokyo, and for the past ten years has been cultivating three vegetable gardens in the town of Pals, which have become the pantry of the best Catalan restaurants. It all started when he and his wife thought about changing their careers because they didn't like what they were doing. "My wife worked as a cook in the town of Kobe; I worked as a waiter, but we both wanted to work in the fields," Hidenori explains one bright Sunday morning as we begin our tour of the first of the three vegetable gardens he rents in Pals. I tell him that there isn't a chef I interview who doesn't talk to me about him. I make a list: "He's talked to me about you in Carlos Pérez de Rozas, the Roca brothers, Rafa Peña, Jordi Cruz, Albert Raurich, Albert Adrià; and I have more names written down, but you already know them."