Join a Gourmand Breaks Culinary Tour in February/March to sample this unique speciality.  Calçots were discovered by a Catalan farmer called Xat de Benaiges at the end of the 19th century. The cultivation of Calçots is a complicated process that starts at the end of the year when onion seeds are planted. Once the onion has germinated and begun to grow, it is pulled out of the ground and stored for a time before being replanted. It is only buried half way into the earth and as it grows higher, it is necessary to repack earth around the newly grown part of the vegetable. When harvested it has the long leek like appearance that most people living here know and love. 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.

Yesterday Restaurant Magazine announced the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2009 based on polls from over 800 chefs, critics, and other industry leaders. At the top of the list is none other than Ferran Adria’s El Bulli, located right here in the Costa Brava. Considering that three of the top five to make the list are Spanish restaurants, Adria accepted this prestigious award saying that it has been “an important night for Spain”. He then went on to dedicate his honorable prize to The Fat Duck’s Heston Blumenthal, at number two on the list, who he said “has shown me what honesty means in this business”.

The celebrated restaurant is open for just six months of the year, and of the 2 million patrons who request a visit each season, just 8000 will enjoy this truly surrealistic culinary experience. Surrealism at its’ best embraces opportunities to create unexpected combinations and elements of surprise and is typically characterized by fantastic imagery. The notorious Ferran Adria and his professional team at El Bulli create just these kind of unpredictable juxtapositions, some of the most curious, yet innovative dishes ever invented.  From abalone with iberian pork fat, to grilled strawberries, and gorgonzola moshi, the cuisine at El Bulli will surely indulge, surprise, and delight every single one of your senses, and perhaps even find your sixth sense as well!

The Top 10:

1. El Bulli, Spain
2. The Fat Duck, U.K.
3. Noma, Denmark
4. Mugaritz, Spain
5. El Celler de Can Roca, Spain
6. Per Se, U.S.
7. Bras, France
8. Arzak, Spain
9. Pierre Gagnaire, France
10. Alinea, U.S.

With 4 of the top 10 restaurants voted best in the world located in Northern Spain, you have to wonder if there is something in the air here! Perhaps there is some truth to the legend that the tramuntana winds, typical of this region, breed creativity. Blowing at over 120 mph and containing an unusually high amount of oxygen, the majestic brilliance of the skies that remain after this strong wind has passed has inspired some of the most creative geniuses of our time, including Salvador Dali, Gaudi, the Adria brothers, as well as the Roca brothers at El Celler de Can Roca right here at our home in Girona.

Rising 21 spots from 2008, El Celler de Can Roca has made it to #5 on the list, being the single restaurant to make the highest jump toward the top, and we at Gourmand Breaks would like to offer you the opportunity to experience this innovative cuisine yourself on our Gourmand Delight tour!  The three Catalan brothers’ varying expertise complement each other perfectly to create a special meal that will surely be unforgettable. From Chef Joan’s innovative combination of modernity and classic Catalan cuisine, to Josep’s perfect wine pairings, to Jordi’s mouth-watering desserts, you will remember your dining experience at El Celler de Can Roca for years to come.

The Picada is one of the most essential parts of Catalan Cuisine. After grinding herbs, oils, nuts or other ingredients with a wooden pestle inside of a thick yellow and green ceramic mortar, the picada’s mission is to perfectly accent the natural flavors of the fresh produce or seafood it is complementing. As one crushes and releases those aromatic flavors in the mortar, it reminds you of the basic beauty of fresh flavors from fresh products.

On a functional level, the picada is used to thicken the consistency of juices in particular recipes, like suquet (which, by the way, you can taste on our Barcelona cooking classes). In addition to being more flavorful than the flour or cream most people use to thicken cooking juices, it is also healthier. Ingrediants are usually crushed from hardest to softest, then mixed with a little liquid like wine, vinegar, or stock. The mixture is then added to the stew a few minutes before it is ready to add texture and enhance other flavors.

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If there’s one thing you’ll learn for certain as you browse cafes, fine dining establishments and the plates of all the natives around you, it’s that Spaniards are proud of their ham, or jamón iberico. With one taste of this rich specialty, you’ll already know why, but a little background on what makes it so special will further astound you. On our Barcelona Culinary Tours you will be able to taste the famous Joselito, the best Spanish Iberian Ham, but here are some basics facts about this absolute delicacy.

Instead of being crowded into dirty farms, the pigs that make jamón iberico are raised free range in a forest called a dehesa where there is about one hectare of space for each pig there. These forests, which take up 2 million hectares of land in Spain, is full of ancient oak trees with pastures that have have been kept clear and intact by workers for centuries also. The pigs only graze on fresh acorns, or bellotas, dropping from the trees and the fresh herbs growing around it. So much of their diet is made up of acorns, in fact, that some studies have shown jamón iberico has much more of the healthy kind of fat found in nuts than unhealthy saturated fat. Nutritionist Grande Covián even called the Iberian pig “an olive tree with four legs.”

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At Gourmand Breaks we frequently organize for our guests la Boqueria market guided visits, followed by private cooking classes with our chef. Located in the back of la Boqueria is the remarkable collection of Llorenç Petrás: baskets and baskets of gourmet mushrooms with different sizes, colors smells and flavours from all over the world. His stand, which has earned him the nickname “wizard of mushrooms,” is one of the best of its kind in Europe.

And now that we’re entering the best season for mushrooms—at the end of summer and beginning of fall—his collection is at the height of its diversity. Petrás’s humble stall is unique because he still sells his product in person, even though he’s made unknown fortunes selling to luxury clients in both London and Paris.

On our Culinary Excursion to La Boqueria, we make sure you don’t miss it!

It’s too bad Montserrat tomatoes aren’t grown widely out of Spain because they’re gorgeous specimens. As soon as you cut slices of this Catalonia-grown tomato, which looks like some giant mutating piece of produce at first, an elegant almost floral-like design falls onto the plate. Delicate ruby-colored pockets of juice stud its center and especially taste divine when sprinkled with olive oil and sea salt. As a Catalan specialty here, the tomato often finds its way onto the platters of the area’s innovative gourmet chefs including the world-renowned Ferran Adria. At Gourmand Breaks we do the best Montserrat tomatoes pick at la Boqueria market and then we make the most of them at our Spanish cooking classes!

Almost exclusively produced in the Emporda region of Catalonia, the seeds for this plant are created by the local farmers themselves and not commercialized as of yet. Harvesting of this tomato lasts from June until early autumn, so if you want some, hurry up and come visit!

The remarkably preserved fishing villages of the Costa Brava offer a beautifully blue and tranquil setting for restaurant visitors who want to eat the best seafood dishes available on the Mediterranean. But foodies who want to familiarize themselves more with this valuable seafood can go much farther than ordering Suquet for dinner -they can join us at our Spanish Gastronomic Tours and visit with us an authentic fish auction!

When going straight to the source at a local fish auction, like the one in Palamós, foodies can see first-hand how early local fishers set out to sea, catch fresh prawns, squid, octopus, monkfish and more then auction it to early-morning buyers. On the same day, all these fish are shipped to be sold fresh at morning markets all over the Catalonia region. If you make a dish like paella later in the day with a cooking class instructor, know that the seafood you’re cooking with was swimming around in the Mediterranean that very morning. One of Catalonia’s biggest prides is its variety of fresh, delicious seafood!