Els Casals vuelve a soplar la cuchara: cocina tradicional con producto de su huerto
En un mundo cambiante, los guisos contundentes y los ingredientes que trascienden las modas convierten a Els Casals en un manifiesto de la cocina tradicional.
Visiting Els Casals is like returning to the kitchen, to food, and to nature. The concept is clear and unmistakable: to understand cooking as an act of love, as it always has been, processing what you have in the most respectful way possible. The magic lies in the impeccable ingredients and the mastery with which they are prepared.
The restaurant's philosophy is to close the circle: farmers and chefs, in that order, because the cooking process begins long before the table is set. The chefs start preparing their dishes in the vegetable garden, where they harvest their tomatoes in the summer.
The name, from the Latin re-cordis (to pass through the heart again), evokes home cooking. It involves serving a freshly made stew in a casserole dish and blowing on the spoon again, gestures we take for granted but which are becoming increasingly rare in trendy restaurants.
It's a restaurant worthy of a menu (it has two), where you can sample everything on offer. The menu is a great opportunity to showcase the best produce at its peak. In season, the garden yields 34 varieties of tomatoes, with floral, apricot, strawberry, melon, green, watery, juicy, or chewy notes, and chef Oriol Rovira receives them whole and treats them with the precision of a surgeon and the care of a farmer.
In the heart of truffle season, in a region famous for its mushrooms, Els Casals is a landmark. Oriol Rovira no longer calls the truffle hunter by name, but rather the dog he works with, and in Sagàs, the seasonal mushroom pickers take over. After 25 years of linking gastronomy with the environment, even in years when finding a mushroom seems like a mirage, autumn remains ever-present in their cuisine.
The entire operation is self-sufficient: they produce their own grains and animal feed, run a pig farm, have a sausage workshop, a restaurant, and a hotel. Among their sausages, their famous sobrasada is served with bread baked in their kitchen and honeycomb. In season, they offer squid from the Blanes fish market and lobster served in the traditional way, in a cast-iron pot, still gently bubbling.
The team is young and led by Aleix, head chef and a disciple of Jordi Vilà's techniques, and Joe, head pastry chef, who previously worked with Nandu Jubany and oversees the house sourdough starter. Neither water nor bread are overpriced: for a restaurateur, such basic necessities shouldn't be charged extra.
Far from purism and reactionary thinking, what Els Casals champions is continuity, sustained by the family and the team. To finish, some simple strawberries and cream and their top-notch flan.