The secret side of the Roca brothers

I know perfectly well, and have known for some time, that if you dine at Celler de Can Roca, at the three Roca brothers’ in Gerona, you’ll be envied as never before. This happened on Wednesday 16th March. A sunset-less evening, with thick clouds and pouring rain. Yet my authentic luck was not dining here. This is the most evident element, one that isn’t even worth the mention: my real satisfaction came from meeting once again three exceptional people, regardless of stars and prizes. Joan, Josep and Jordi, kitchen, cellar and pastry making, deserve all the success they’ve been enjoying for quite a few years now, thanks to what they’re like on the inside.

Then of course most people will be interested in finding an available table and lose their way in the best restaurant in the world according to the World’s 50 Best. A titanic challenge. In around ten days’ time, on Friday 1st April, reservations will be open. Good luck. Basically Celler books tables 11 months in advance (11 and not twelve because in August everything’s shut). Those who win the lottery (100/110 guests per day, between lunch and supper) must note the date in the calendar and return to their normal life, knowing that on a particular day they’ll have to drop everything and go to the Catalan town.

This is thanks to thirty years of work following passion, humbleness and of course talent, an infinite vision, the desire to experiment and grow, but always keeping their feet firmly on the ground. A unique dinner testimonies this, unique because it sums up the latest seasons, ending with two desserts that floor you like the notes of a rose scent studied by Jordi during a recent trip to Turkey and a sphere so beautiful you almost don’t want to break. The name of the dessert: orange chromatism.

What can I say? Bravo is predictable yet when the standards are this high, it’s not always easy to find new stimuli. Josep said: “The three of us develop as much as possible what we call the protection from success. We know perfectly well what we have reached, the goals everyone knows but which only form an exterior success. Then there’s the interior one, which is much different. We do all we can to keep these two things separate and don’t let what surrounds us devour us and certainly not condition us”.

The second of the Roca brothers, born in 1966, two years younger than Joan, likes to remember that their restaurant is “in a suburban neighbourhood, in a poor area, with lots of problems. When desperate people fleeing from distant countries arrive, their shelter is in this area of Gerona. We’ve been doing charity for thirty years, it’s the right thing to do. I can always picture my mother passing a food parcel to those who arrived in the back shop and you could see their sufferance by the look in their eyes. And it’s right for the three of us to still live here, where our roots are. This also helps us protect ourselves from success just like visiting the catering school where Joan and I studied, the Escola d'Hosteleria de Girona. Those who taught us are there, and today we need to do the same”.

Since January, the big brothers are also the UNDP food ambassadors: “Please note it’s about sustainable development. We chose to work in Nigeria, it’s a long term project, lasting around fifteen years. We have no intention of bringing technology to Africa but we want to understand how to preserve food in extreme territories, where’s there very little of everything”.

The word technology pronounced by Josep evokes the image of success connected with their revolutionary studies and ideas, especially those on vacuum cooking and distillation. Roca sighs and opens up like a book: “This is no longer the time to focus on technology and leave men in the background. Technology will always be necessary, but it should no longer be considered the prevalent element. Up to ten years ago you could have fun by serving special effects. Today everything’s changed. We now need to take care of the people using the technology. It is also for this reason that on our closing day, especially on Mondays, we meet with a psychologist and tell everything to each other. Not just the three of us, but all the 70 people working at Celler, divided into groups. It’s good to bring out everything we think didn’t go well during the service and avoid a trivial problem becoming a huge difficulty”.

The 70 people still don’t include the four children, two are Joan’s and two are Josep’s, who must all still turn twenty: “What they’ll do when they grow up, we still don’t know. Our grandparents opened their restaurant almost one century ago, in 1920, in San Martì de Llémena, and our parents opened Can Roca in 1967. We did the same in 1986 next to their trattoria, the first Celler del Can Roca and then moved to our current location nine years ago. What I mean is that they need to understand what road to take. Of one thing we’re sure though: this restaurant belongs to us three, we didn’t do it for them”.

Still, being the children of an innkeeper is much different from having multi-awarded parents: “If they’ll be good enough, they’ll be able to reach the third Michelin star, it’s up to them. One thing’s for sure: they’ll never be the first in the world, as has happened twice to us. It’s something unimaginable. After all, in what world will they live? Just think of how the world has changed in just a few years. Think of communication and the twitter revolution. There are so many pictures and notes being sent around now that those who visit us have no more surprises, they already know what awaits them. I was speaking about this with Ferran [Adrià]. He closed El Bulli in July 2011 when social networks still weren’t as powerful as today. All the big things he did coincide with a different period. Who knows how the new generations will live and communicate”.