Did you know that there was a man who loved the mercat de la Boqueria so much that he decided to commit suicide in it?.
This is the story of Ramon Cabau, a man who was a pharmacist or lawyer, and with studies in agricultural expertise, but who was famous for being the founding gastronome of Agut d’Avinyó, one of the restaurants that has been one of the guardians of the Catalan gastronomic culture, one of the most recognized and long-lived in Barcelona (and which is still open).
His story is pure Barcelona. Cabau had his first job in Gignàs street, where he met one of the daughters of Agustí Agut, one of the patriarchs of Barcelona’s catering industry. When he married her, he began to work in the Agut of Gignàs street and then became independent and opened the Agut of Avinyó just 400 meters away, in the alley of Trinitat on the corner of Avinyó street.
The restaurant would become an emblem of the city. In the late seventies, the new place acquired a remarkable prestige, experimenting with new cuisines and offering a new air to the city, always with fresh product from la Boqueri a, where he personally bought and ended up being an essential character. The site would end up touching the sky in 1978 with the achievement of a Michelin star.
But in 1984 Cabau has to transfer the restaurant pushed, apparently, by a marital conflict. There he withdraws to his farm in Canet de Mar, to grow produce that he sells to the Boqueria itself, going from buyer to supplier.
But the gourmet often suffered from depression since he had to sell his restaurant and never recovered his spirits. The pain got the better of him, and on March 31, 1987 Cabau went to the market for the last time: he delivered flowers, sold his vegetables, left a farewell letter and took a cyanide pill that collapsed him on the spot on the floor of his beloved Boqueria, engraving his name even more strongly in the history of the market.
A week later, the market stopped its activity for a few minutes to pay tribute to him, to end up dedicating to him the entrance passage that connects the market with the Rambla. There his sculpture remains, looking forever, as he would have wanted, towards the market stalls.