Els Casals, blow on the spoon again

Visiting restaurants like Els Casals is like returning to the kitchen, to eating, to reconnecting with nature. It offers a clear and unmistakable approach, understanding cooking as the act of love it always has been and always will be: processing what you have in the most respectful way possible. The magic of Els Casals? Impeccable ingredients and the expertise to work with them.

In their philosophy of closing the circle, it cannot be said more clearly: farmers and cooks, in that precise order in which the cooking begins long before setting up the table, and for which the cooks - although it sounds like marketing discourse - begin their dishes in the garden, when in summer, for example, they harvest their more than 20 varieties of tomatoes for an unparalleled festival of celebration of plant life.

Els Casals is about remembering, from the Latin re-cordis (to pass through the heart again), the cuisine of home. It's about serving yourself a freshly cooked stew from a casserole dish. It's about blowing on that spoon again. These are acts we take for granted, but they are becoming increasingly rare in trendy restaurants.

It is a restaurant worthy of a menu (it has two), where you can taste its entire offering and understand the radical nature of its philosophy, and it is a temple of the menu, understanding it as the great opportunity it is to offer the best product at its ideal time.

Because if in the summer he's capable of offering a festival of the 34 varieties of tomatoes planted in his gardens—a catalog of nuances (floral, apricot, strawberry, melon, green, watery, juicy, gummy)—during the hunting season, Oriol Rovira might be unrivaled. Driven by his profound concern for origins and his sacred respect for the product, he receives the whole tomatoes and treats them with the precision of a surgeon and the care of a farmer.

Understanding anatomy, with a clean cut he breaks down the meat by - as he says - muscle groups, obtaining pieces that support his entire philosophy to propose a feast that is a reason for travel for many of his customers.

In truffle season, in a region known for its mushrooms, Els Casals is a beacon, a meeting point. Perhaps because of the enduring nature of his ideas, perhaps because of his 25 years of connecting cuisine to the environment, Oriol now calls not the truffle hunter who brings him the prized truffles by name, but the dog he works with. And in Sagàs, the mushroom pickers he has relied on each season for years take over. Perhaps this is why, even in years when finding a mushroom in the forest seems like a mirage, autumn remains palpable in Oriol Rovira's kitchen.

Standard-bearers of the classics. Marathon runners of perseverance. Els Casals is a rare bird that grows in strategic value with each passing day: a unique project that began a discourse—closing circles—that seems to have been on everyone's lips for over 20 years. A paradigm shift in which the restaurant industry restores, recovers, stirs, and reconciles. The perseverance in closing the circle, throughout all these years, translates into a gastronomic experience that has no expiration date, and which we hope will continue eternally, in that constant cycle, in that unwavering belief in what one does in the way one believes it should be done: self-sufficiency in grains, production of their own animal feed, pig farm, sausage workshop, restaurant, hotel, home.

Among the cured meats, their renowned sobrasada is served with bread baked in their kitchen and honeycomb. In season, they also offer squid from the Blanes fish market—a testament to their close relationship with fishermen in selecting their catch—or lobster served tableside, in the old-fashioned way, in an iron pot, still bubbling slightly.

Putting yourself in Oriol Rovira's hands means enjoying every last breath, and culminating with some simple - and precisely for that reason unbeatable - strawberries with cream and his flan with honorary cause.

Far from purism and reactionary thinking, what Els Casals champions is continuity. And to endure, a natural and inevitable element is the team, the family. Oriol Rovira's mind and energy are joined by a young and vibrant brigade led by Aleix, head chef, a disciple of the great Jordi Vilà's technique and skill, and Joe, head pastry chef, formerly with Nandu Jubany, guardian of the house sourdough and its "babies": loaves that are always offered, along with water, as the foundation of their philosophy: at Els Casals, neither water nor bread is overpriced because they are restaurateurs, and a restaurateur should never charge extra for such basic necessities.