The Gràcia neighborhood of Barcelona lights up every year in mid-August for its week-long Festa Major. Every town here has a charming Festa Major during the summer, but as a particularly influential city in Spain and the world, everything about the celebration is done in bigger and more extreme ways. In order to experience the Gracia Festa Major yourself, join us on one of our Barcelona Cultural Tours. You will find that during  the Gracia feast the castells—or human castle competitions–are larger, there are more aisles of fireworks to run through, but the decorations are probably what stand out the most.

Each street is carefully and creatively themed with wild decorations everywhere. The beautiful floral decorations they specialize in are called arte festivo éfimero. Within the decorations visitors find orchestras, games, theater, music, dance and other activities, which combine for one energetic week-long party.

Every Sunday, Catalans gather outside in their city’s plaza to do Catalonia’s centuries-old national dance, the Sardana. It’s a very sweet patriotic dance I’m quite enchanted by. Most of our guides, as proud Catalans,  can dance Sardana so you can ask them to teach you a lesson while they accompany you on one of our Spanish Cultural Tours. The most recently I observed sardanas it was when I was in a charming little medieval town called Besalu. Older Catalans are especially proud of doing it because the Spanish dictator Franco, a fascist who ruled from the 1930s until 1977, made it against the law for Catalans to speak their own language or do the sardana on Sundays. This dance is just one testament to the strong pride and energy Catalans Continue Reading »

In Catalunya and throughout Spain, the most important celebration during the month of June is undoubtedly the Eve of Sant Joan (St. John). This is celebrated both in private houses and in public places, and there is dancing and the typical “coca”, as well as bonfires in some streets and squares, and fireworks.  . Catalonians celebrate in their idiosyncratic way and Barcelona is one of the most spectacular places to join in the fun on a Gourmand Breaks tour,  where your private guide will introduce you all the local  rituals of this very special festivity.

The fiesta takes place the night before Saint John’s Day, which coincides with the summer solstice. Old furniture is bundled onto bonfires in the villages and towns throughout Catalonia, the fire acting as a purifier and curative element. Continue Reading »

The Roca brothers at El Celler de Can Roca, recently ranked by Restaurant Magazine as the 5th best restaurant in the world, opened their doors for private cooking class for the first time since its’ existence.

Who were the first lucky students to learn the latest culinary techniques from arguably two of the best Avant-Garde chefs in Spain, and perhaps the world? None other than Kent Rathbun, highly acclaimed Dallas chef, with his annual group of tour guests. Rathbun owns and operates a number of the popular restaurants in Texas, namely Abacus and Shinshei, among others. Each year he offers a chance to travel to different parts of the world on a culinary tour with him and his wife, Tracy.

This year’s ten day tour, organized by Gourmand Breaks, began in Barcelona, Spain, and the proverbial cherry on top was the cooking class at El Celler de Can Roca. In this case, that cherry was created from liquid nitrogen. That’s right – after the guests were greeted by Joan and Jordi Roca, head chef and pastry chef respectively, Jordi began the presentation right away and formed a sorbet of cherries into a ball. He then submerged them into a vat gelatin and a vat of liquid nitrogen and froze the entirety of the contents instantaneously; everyone’s jaws dropped in awe. He then added an actual cherry stem to the top to create the illusion of a real cherry and gave the guests the opportunity to make their own. Quite obviously an artisan of insinuation himself, Jordi creates several other illusionary dishes, which play on all five senses. For example, like watching a magician perform, he uses a blown sugar ball to produce the appearance of an apricot. The delicately thin orb assumes the role of the skin, while compacted fruit on the inside takes place of the flesh of an apricot. Absolutely delightful!

The Roca brothers’ say it best on their website – “Cooking is an art of make believe. Of appearances. Things that look like other things. Things that take the shape of what they intend to be, but with no extrapolation implied in such imitation. The art of insinuating.”

Chef Joan picked up from there and led the group to the meat station where he demonstrated the technique of cooking at a low temperature over a long period of time known as sous-vide cooking. Joan demonstrated how one of Spain’s most traditional dishes, the acclaimed Iberian suckling pig, can turn out incredibly perfect with the help of the Roner and company. The professional Roner, created by Joan, uses precise mathematical time and temperature control to cook sous-vide. These days, modern chefs around the world find the Roner absolutely indispensable to maintain the integrity of the product and to ensure a perfect result every single time. As a matter of fact, Joan has concocted another device, the Rotoval, which is a distillation machine adapted for kitchen use. It’s amazing how the traditional recipes carefully preserved by generations of Roca family chefs combined with state of the art devices lead to dishes of astonishing perfection!

The Gourmand Breaks privileged clients were later treated to the delicious lunch and witnessed with their own taste buds the perfect harmony of modern and traditional cuisine. After the unique experience of an afternoon in the Roca brothers kitchen, one can fully appreciate their enormous contribution to the development of avant-garde cuisine worldwide. It is no wonder they are considered one of the top restaurants in the world.

For additional information about visiting El Celler de Can Roca for a cooking course of your own or to get a quote for your own Spanish culinary tour, contact us at info@gourmandbreaks.com, or visit www.gourmandbreaks.com.

Ever since the Virgin of Mercy saved the city of Barcelona from a plague of locusts in 1687, the city has been celebrating the miracle she helped create with the liveliest festival it has all year. Happening at the end of September and on the 24th this year, the parties will go on for four days through the night and early hours of the morning with wild fireworks, strangely costumed giants, colorful decorations and musical concerts lining the streets. It is a kind of end-of-summer celebration, so participants usually party as hardily and as noisily as they can.

Among the events not to be missed are the huge casteller, or human-castle building, contests. You can find out more about these amazing performers here on one of our previous posts. To see the unique Barcelona Castells join us on our Cultural Barcelona Tours.

The red and yellow stripes of the Catalan flag drape windows, balconies, walls, make up flower bouquets and wave in the fabrics Catalans hold up in the street all day on La Diada, or Catalonia’s national holiday. Celebrated on September 11, the day of Catalonia’s defeat under Spanish armies in 1714, the holiday brings attention to both the defeats and the optimistic future of Catalonia.

Although it may be odd to some to celebrate one’s heritage on a day of defeat, Catalans do not think so. This is because the day comes on the anniversary of a courageous battle in which many Catalans did everything they could to protect the sovereignty of their nation and culture. We offer you the opportunity to learn more about Catalonia, its history and people on our Catalan Cultural Tours.

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Up until Jews were expelled out of Spain by its government and church in 1492, Jewish communities played a significant role in the culture, the architecture and academia of medieval Spain.

Passing through villages like Besalú, where a Jewish heritage celebrations takes place at the beginning of every September, makes this all the more evident. In addition to a gorgeous medieval bridge stretching over the Fluvia River into town, the walkways, homes and bath houses of these Jewish communities still exist and still look beautiful. We organize guided tours of Besalu Jewish quarters year round, however, so visitors can contribute to the extended restoration of these sights.

One of the most entertaining things to watch at the town festivals going on all over Catalonia from May to October are the castellers, or human castle builders, at work. As devoted admirerers of this local tradition, we always take our guests to see them, if available, during our Spanish Cultural Tours. A tradition since groups around Tarragona started it in the 1800s, teams of castellers from all over Catalonia participate in competitions to see how fast, how tall or how big they can make their castles. Their size ranges from the most common—about 6-8 stories tall—to even more suspenseful heights and sizes in which daredevil athletes risk a dangerous collapse.

Who needs bulls running in the streets when these strapping Catalans can flex their macho muscles without them?