The Roca’s have a wonderful storytelling. A trio of brothers runs a three-Michelin-starred restaurant, each in charge of the kitchen, dining room and desserts, respectively. The three, humble, grew up in their mother’s restaurant, where the workers eat a menu of homemade and traditional Catalan cuisine every day.
Their mother is present throughout the history of the Roca family, and that is why they are now opening a new restaurant that will bear their mother’s name and will be dedicated to the traditional cuisine that she herself taught them.
A restaurant on the highest point of the highest castle
Fontané (by Montserrat Fontané) will offer “a classic cuisine, strict but not fundamentalist, dignified, powerful, qualitative, accessible and with a touch of sophistication and elegance”, more formal than the Normal Restaurant, highlighting traditional recipes.
And if mothers are put on a pedestal, so are their restaurants. Fontané is in the Castell de Sant Julià de Ramis, at the top of the Sants Metges mountain, in the same place as Esperit Roca. But unlike Esperit Roca (which is on the first floor), Fontané will be located in the main dining room of the Hotel Esperit Roca, at the highest point of the Castell de Sant Julià de Ramis.
The restaurant’s inspiration will come from great works of Catalan cuisine such as the Cunyera Catalana (1835), the Llibre del Coch ( 1520) by Robert de Nola and the Llibre de Sent Soví (14th century), the first known recipe book written in Catalan and one of the oldest in Europe. The menu, which will vary according to the season, will include dishes such as carpaccio of pig’s feet, veal fricandó with mushrooms, cod with samfaina, honey and mató, and Catalan apple cream.
The Fontané Restaurant will open on April 27, coinciding with Santa Montserrat. Reservations are already open on the website: www.restaurantfontane.com.