How the province of Girona became one of Spain's gastronomy stars
High on a Catalan hilltop just beyond the city of Girona's medieval old town, the maître d' at the Roca brothers' newly opened restaurant, Esperit Roca, draws back a heavy curtain and ushers me into a cavernous, domed wine cellar.
There's a sense of theatre as the haunting aria from Handel's The Triumph of Time and Truth oratorio announces my arrival and I'm guided past a city's worth of wine racks into a high-ceilinged, industrial-chic dining room that's been stylishly converted from a 19th-century fortress.
Esperit Roca is the latest restaurant from chef Joan Roca and his brothers, sommelier Josep and pastry chef Jordi, whose three Michelin-starred El Celler de Can Roca has twice been awarded the number one spot on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list.
A selection of exquisitely presented amuse-bouches is a sign of great things to come. The eight-course tasting menu includes a dish called 'cigala artemisa' — an elegant combination of tenderly grilled langoustine enveloped in a warm blanket of sauce made with vanilla oil, gently browned butter and artemisia, a bitter, aromatic herb that's also known as white wormwood.
'That dish is about our geographic location,' Joan tells me. 'We make a liqueur from the artemisia, which grows freely around here, and use it as a base for the sauce to convey that herbal, slightly bitter idea of our landscape. And at the same time, the sauce is also very much like a French beurre blanc. We're just on the other side of the Pyrenees from France here, so there's a lot of influence from French cooking.' Esprit Roca is the latest restaurant from chef Joan Roca and his brothers, sommelier Josep and pastry chef Jordi. The eight-course tasting menu includes a dish called 'cigala artemisa' — a combination of tenderly grilled langoustine enveloped in a warm sauce made with vanilla oil, browned butter and artemisia, a bitter, aromatic herb.
With the French border to the north and Barcelona around an hour's drive to the south, the province of Girona takes in both the lush, amazingly fertile winemaking region of the Empordà and the rugged, pine-clad coast of the Costa Brava.
The Catalan writer Josep Pla famously said that 'a country's cuisine is its landscape in a pot', and it's an adage that's certainly true in this area. I've been visiting for over 20 years and it's hard to find bad food — it's invariably good wherever you go.
As with the Catalans' French neighbours, food here is much more than simply something to snatch hurriedly in order to refuel — it's an important part of day-to-day life. And dining out isn't just reserved for special occasions.
'This region has been a bit like a sponge,' says Joan, 'absorbing the culinary influences of lots of different cultures. Iberians and Romans, Arabs and Jews have all passed through here and there's a very powerful connection with food.'
The Roca brothers helped put the province on the world's gastronomic map, but they weren't the first to do so. About an hour's drive north east of Girona city, the small town of Roses was where Ferran Adrià — the chef widely credited with having invented molecular gastronomy — opened his groundbreaking three Michelin-star restaurant, El Bulli, which went on to win the title of The World's Best Restaurant five times between 2002 and 2009, before it closed in 2011. The province of Girona now has no fewer than 15 Michelin-starred restaurants — and they have a total of 20 between them. Not bad for a region with a population of only around 750,000.
Twenty years on, the province of Girona now has no fewer than 15 Michelin-starred restaurants — and they have a total of 20 stars between them. Not bad for a region with a population of only around 750,000 people. It's perhaps little surprise that the wider area of Catalonia has been designated 2025's World Region of Gastronomy. But fine dining is only one part of the story around here.
Roadsides are regularly punctuated with smartly converted country farmhouses where you can tuck into traditional Catalan dishes such as hearty, saffron-laden fish stews and punchy rabbit casseroles. And my next stop is a case in point.
I head out east from Girona city towards the coast, through the wide, open fields of the Empordà, ablaze with radiant yellow rapeseed and laced with poppies, the petrol-blue Pyrenees hazy in the distance. Half an hour later, I arrive at the tiny, walled medieval village of Ullastret. Here, the Cateura brothers — David, Enric and Gerard — run Restaurant Ibèric, which their father Tomàs originally opened with four tables in 1978.
As I sit in the traditional dining room, a warm, toasty aroma wafts up from my dish of exceptional-looking langoustines. I scoop out the sweet, supple flesh from their shells and find they taste as good as they smell. They've been roasted over hot open coals in the restaurant's specially imported Italian oven, David explains.
'Originally, everyone in Catalonia cooked on coals over an open fire,' he says. 'It keeps the food moist and succulent and it was a technique widely used across the Mediterranean. Modern gas and electricity give a much stronger, more intense heat, so it can dry the food out.'
David's father was one of many other local restaurateurs in the area who opened restaurants in response to the tourist boom of the 1970s, when visitors began discovering the Costa Brava's unspoilt beaches and coves. Decades on, Ibèric's menu still features the same traditional recipes.
'We're presenting classic cooking that dates back years,' David tells me. 'Until the 1960s and 1970s, people lived off the land here, in country farmhouses, using pigs and hens that they'd reared themselves, as well as homegrown vegetables. Because we're close to the sea, you ended up not just with good meat produce, but fish and seafood too.'
Then, once tourism arrived and people like David's father started opening their restaurants, they were cooking the food that their mothers had prepared, he explains. 'So in a way, what we're doing — even now — is preserving the traditions from our grandparents or even before.' "This region has been a bit like a sponge, absorbing the culinary influences of lots of different cultures. Iberians and Romans, Arabs and Jews have all passed through here and there's a very powerful connection with food," says Joan. Most small towns around these parts still have their own superb food markets, but one of the most impressive is Girona's Mercat del Lleó. Photograph by Getty Images
Most small towns around these parts still have their own superb food markets, but one of the most impressive is Girona's Mercat del Lleó, which is where I meet Gina Guillén of Girona Food Tours for an action-packed, three-hour exploration of the city. Less than 10 minutes' walk from the steep, narrow, cobbled streets of Girona's old town — famously used as a filming location for Game of Thrones — the market is like a smaller, less touristy version of Barcelona's famous Boqueria.
Purposeful-looking chefs and shopping trolley-wielding grannies are busy eyeing up stalls selling everything from the plump red tomatoes used in pan con tomate (bread with tomato) to superb-looking hams and homemade sausages hanging high up on hooks, sparkling fish glistening on ice and pert olives in every shade of green.
At cheese stall La Formatgeria, owner Eduardo Orozco invites me to try dainty slices of madurat de sora — a firm but tender and tangy goat's cheese that's the colour of ivory — from the nearby Garrotxa region, just north west of the city. Alongside the cheese, he offers me a mix of walnuts and dried apricots as well as an organic homemade pear and wine jam.
It's a glorious combination and once again, as Eduardo explains, it's all about the land. 'Our produce reflects the richness of the soil and the land that we have here,' he tells me. 'The quality of the soil has a big impact on the grass where the animals graze, so in turn you get top-quality milk, butter and cheese.'
Leaving the market, Gina takes me on a fascinating walk through the old town, regaling me with tales of medieval merchants, pioneering Jewish physicians and noblemen's feuds. The streets are packed with restaurants, including several from the new generation of chefs, many of whom have trained at El Celler de Can Roca. The newly Michelin-starred Divinum is one, as is the more low-key Terram.Both serve cutting-edge culinary creations, often in stylish interiors, but whether you choose fine dining or more traditional cooking, it's the food that will always take centre stage. Where to eat in Girona
Restaurant Ibèric
Serving dishes from Girona's Empordà region, Ibèric's seafood favourites include saffron-laced fish stew, grilled Palamós prawns and anchovies from nearby L'Escala. Regulars travel from Barcelona and beyond for the signature fideos a la bogavante — lobster noodle casserole. Mains around €25 (£22).
Casa Marieta
You won't find any gels or foams at this stalwart on Girona's Placa de la Independència. What you will find is great-value, traditional Catalan cuisine. Join locals tucking into dishes like duck with pears, Catalan-style broad beans or chicken with prawns. Two courses from €20 (£17).
La Taverna del Ma
Expect spectacular sea views and super-fresh seafood including lobster, prawns, oysters, langoustine and ray at this spot overlooking the beach in the smart resort of S'Agaró. The salmon tartare with avocado is exceptional. Two courses from €60 (£50).
Esperit Roca
If you want to get a taste of the Roca brothers' legendary El Celler de Can Roca but can't wait two years for a table, this new, Michelin-starred venue north of Girona city offers the 'greatest hits' from El Celler. Try 'turbot trilogy', featuring grilled turbot fin, turbot loin and turbot carpaccio, along with 'toda la gamba' ('all of the prawn'), which focuses on the part that diners often discard: a crispy prawn head in a silky fish velouté. Eight-course tasting menus from €139 (£115). To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
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