Gastronomic Catalonia - Fine food & wine, art & architecture
- Eat well, drink well: Michelin-starred meals, award-winning chefs and quality wine producers.
- Sightseeing ranges from mediaeval to Modernist art and architecture.
- Led by Gijs van Hensbergen, author of books on Spanish art and food.
- Also includes the lesser-visited city of Girona, and a day in the northernmost reaches of the region, crossing into France.
INTRODUCTION
a street in Barcelona wood engraving 1865.
Food is at the very core of Catalan existence, and the glorious variety of Catalan gastronomy reflects both the universal passion for food and the diverse cultural history of Catalonia. Food culture, husbandry and interest in medical and dietary matters reach back to the period when the Greeks first settled at Empúries to worship the healing image of Asklepios. The Carthaginians followed, bringing lentils, chickpeas and fava beans; the Romans introduced the vine and olive.
Four centuries of Moorish domination brought a passion for sweetmeats, spices and aubergine. The Catalan larder expanded further in the late Middle Ages when control over Mediterranean trade routes brought pasta from Naples and the discovery of the Americas introduced the key ingredients for the Provençal and Catalan table: tomato, potato and paprika.
The Barcelona food markets are among the most beautiful and enticing in the world. Set out in cartwheels under ceilings of Art Nouveau stained glass, the stalls fan out from their fresh fish hub. Marble sinks soak the milky salt cod; cornucopia of fruit and vegetables are displayed with the subtlety of a still-life; butchers offer specialities and recipes upon request; the mushroom man has thirty varieties, fresh and dried. At the outer edges are the dealers in frutos secos and artisan cheeses that never find their way out of Catalonia.
In the city of the exuberance and riotous colour of Antoni Gaudí’s architectural confections, it is but a little way to the tour de force of a zarzuela fish stew, shot through with a firework display of saffron, bright red peppers and the creamy smooth burnt allioli sauce. The mar i muntanya dishes – the original surf and turf – marry together a remarkable blend of game, fowl or rabbit with langouste, enriched with a subtle chocolate sauce. The pioneering Nouvelle Catalan cuisine offers new tastes and complex techniques which find their echo deep into France, even to the Lycée Palace. The chefs that create them are some of the most talked about in and outside Barcelona. Sergi Arola is the former assistant of Ferrán Adriá and a proponent of authentic Catalan cuisine. Jordi Cruz mixes tradition and creativity at his 2-Michelin-starred restaurant ABAC in Barcelona, voted the best in Catalonia in 2011. Michelin-starred chef Nandu Jubany grows his own fruit and vegetables to serve in his restaurant, a converted farmhouse near Vic. Two-starred Fina Puigdevall, one of the finest female chefs in Spain, uses the stunning produce of the mountainous region surrounding Olot in her sophisticated restaurant, Les Cols.
However, there is far more to Catalonia than Barcelona, and historically the region extends into France. There are the fishing ports and the countryside, the Pyrenees and the Vallées Orientales, and the wines: Priorato, rich and tannin-steeped; Cavas which demonstrate brilliance and clarity; sweet Moscatel, peasant foil for the great Gewürztraminer experiments of the last decade; Penedès reds, as good with meat as slightly chilled with fish. Catalan wine is enjoying an extraordinary renaissance.
- Eat well, drink well: Michelin-starred meals, award-winning chefs and quality wine producers.
- Sightseeing ranges from mediaeval to Modernist art and architecture.
- Led by Gijs van Hensbergen, author of books on Spanish art and food.
- Also includes the lesser-visited city of Girona, and a day in the northernmost reaches of the region, crossing into France.
a street in Barcelona wood engraving 1865.
Food is at the very core of Catalan existence, and the glorious variety of Catalan gastronomy reflects both the universal passion for food and the diverse cultural history of Catalonia. Food culture, husbandry and interest in medical and dietary matters reach back to the period when the Greeks first settled at Empúries to worship the healing image of Asklepios. The Carthaginians followed, bringing lentils, chickpeas and fava beans; the Romans introduced the vine and olive.
Four centuries of Moorish domination brought a passion for sweetmeats, spices and aubergine. The Catalan larder expanded further in the late Middle Ages when control over Mediterranean trade routes brought pasta from Naples and the discovery of the Americas introduced the key ingredients for the Provençal and Catalan table: tomato, potato and paprika.
The Barcelona food markets are among the most beautiful and enticing in the world. Set out in cartwheels under ceilings of Art Nouveau stained glass, the stalls fan out from their fresh fish hub. Marble sinks soak the milky salt cod; cornucopia of fruit and vegetables are displayed with the subtlety of a still-life; butchers offer specialities and recipes upon request; the mushroom man has thirty varieties, fresh and dried. At the outer edges are the dealers in frutos secos and artisan cheeses that never find their way out of Catalonia.
In the city of the exuberance and riotous colour of Antoni Gaudí’s architectural confections, it is but a little way to the tour de force of a zarzuela fish stew, shot through with a firework display of saffron, bright red peppers and the creamy smooth burnt allioli sauce. The mar i muntanya dishes – the original surf and turf – marry together a remarkable blend of game, fowl or rabbit with langouste, enriched with a subtle chocolate sauce. The pioneering Nouvelle Catalan cuisine offers new tastes and complex techniques which find their echo deep into France, even to the Lycée Palace. The chefs that create them are some of the most talked about in and outside Barcelona. Sergi Arola is the former assistant of Ferrán Adriá and a proponent of authentic Catalan cuisine. Jordi Cruz mixes tradition and creativity at his 2-Michelin-starred restaurant ABAC in Barcelona, voted the best in Catalonia in 2011. Michelin-starred chef Nandu Jubany grows his own fruit and vegetables to serve in his restaurant, a converted farmhouse near Vic. Two-starred Fina Puigdevall, one of the finest female chefs in Spain, uses the stunning produce of the mountainous region surrounding Olot in her sophisticated restaurant, Les Cols.
However, there is far more to Catalonia than Barcelona, and historically the region extends into France. There are the fishing ports and the countryside, the Pyrenees and the Vallées Orientales, and the wines: Priorato, rich and tannin-steeped; Cavas which demonstrate brilliance and clarity; sweet Moscatel, peasant foil for the great Gewürztraminer experiments of the last decade; Penedès reds, as good with meat as slightly chilled with fish. Catalan wine is enjoying an extraordinary renaissance.
ITINERARY
DAY 1
Barcelona. Fly at c. 11.15am from London Heathrow to Barcelona, capital of Catalonia and cosmopolitan market place. Take an afternoon walk and visit a chocolate emporium. Dinner has a 1900s theme with recipes from the gent de bé – Barcelona’s legendary good families – at the neo-Baroque Casa Calvet designed by Gaudí. First of three nights in Barcelona.
DAY 2
Barcelona. Spend the morning in the Art Nouveau Boquería with its extraordinary displays of fresh produce. The Barri Gòtic is the most complete surviving Gothic quarter in Europe is still the location of some of the finest eating establishments and food suppliers in Catalonia. A wine tasting includes rarities from the Priorato and Penedès. In the afternoon visit the Palau de la Música, the highly ornate concert hall designed by Gaudí contemporary Domenech i Montaner. Dinner takes the form of a tapas walk. Overnight Barcelona.
DAY 3
Barcelona. On the slopes of Montjuïc are the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, which houses the greatest collection of Romanesque frescoes in the world, plus fine Gothic and modern collections, and the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion. Lunch is in the rooftop restaurant of the stylish 5-star Hotel Arts where Sergi Arola has added yet another twist to contemporary Catalan cooking. In the afternoon visit Gaudí’s La Pedrera building of 1906–10.
DAY 4
Barcelona, Sant Celoni, Figueres. Take a morning walk in Gaudí’s Parc Güell before sampling Jordi Cruz’s 2-Michelin-starred, avant garde cuisine at ABAC. Leave Barcelona and drive up the coast to the outskirts of Figueres. First of three nights in Figueres.
DAY 5
Girona, Vic. Girona has a compact mediaeval Jewish quarter and Gothic cathedral towering over the river. Important illuminated manuscripts and tapestries are displayed in the chapterhouse. Lunch is at Michelin-starred Can Jubany. A light dinner takes the form of cheese and olive oil tasting in Figueres at the restaurant of Artur Sagues, who designed and constructed El Bulli’s cheese trolley for more than a decade.
DAY 6
Collioure (France), La Selva de Mar, Olot. Drive into France to the pretty port of Collioure, a favoured retreat for Matisse and the Fauves. Light lunch of anchovies, a key local industry. Return to Spain, and the coastal town of La Selva de Mar to visit the vineyard of one of the Empordà’s finer producers. Dinner in the two-Michelin-starred restaurant at Les Cols in Olot, home to Fina Puigdevall, whose modernist restaurant is attached to a 16th-century masía farm.
DAY 7
Figueres. Free time in Figueres to visit the Dalí museum. Drive south to Barcelona for the flight to Heathrow, arriving c. 5.30pm.
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