The summer night when Carme Ruscalleda lost her voice

There is a summer night that forever changed the life of Carme Ruscalleda: July 1, 1988. “It was the day the Sant Pau restaurant opened its doors, and my husband, Toni, and I made our debut as restaurateurs. It's a night etched in memory.” Over time, Carme Ruscalleda would become the woman with the most Michelin stars in the world – seven, no less – but on that July 1st, success still seemed far off.

“I don't know how we managed to pull off that first service. I remember everyone arrived at once, as if they had come by bus. We had no experience, and neither did our team. I was so shocked that I lost my voice and didn't get it back until everything was served and cleaned and in its place,” recalls the chef. That first night, they started with very simple cuisine, mainly using products from the family shop: fresh pasta, croquettes, cured meats, pig's trotters with ratatouille, or fricandó.

Sant Pau was the adventure that Carme Ruscalleda and Toni Balam had decided to embark on after years of working in the family shop, which they had transformed from top to bottom thanks to their “inquisitive and nonconformist spirit.” The couple had a very clear vision of the quality they wanted to offer at the restaurant; they knew they were doing something “much special” and, despite that, at many times they had to rely heavily on their ability to succeed. “We had periods of really tough times, with the place empty. We made ourselves a promise, a gentleman's pact: we would dedicate ten years to the project, and if we didn't succeed, we would return to the shop.”

Stubbornness, not giving up, and being very clear that what they were offering was good was, ultimately, the key to Sant Pau's success, with which they would later achieve three Michelin stars. “Self-taught people like us learn through trial and error, and by working very hard. In the early years, we went through real customer deserts, with days of returning home exhausted and sad, while at the same time hopeful that on Tuesday we would open again and things would go better. We were confident it would work because we didn't want to deceive anyone,” says the chef.

For her, summers have always been times of hard work, ever since she was little. “In my house, we children were made to lose sleep very early on, we had to help, and I have practiced the same with my children.” Now that she is 74 years old and has slowed down, she admits that vacationing doesn't come easily to her. “I have always attended to vacationers, it feels strange to me to take holidays,” she concludes.