The Barcelona restaurant Disfrutar has reopened this week after the Christmas shutdown. It has been just a few days during which his partners, Mateu Casañas, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch, and their team, have been able to recover their strength and calm the accumulated emotions since they learned, at the end of November, that they had granted the third star in the Michelin guide for 2024. The news caused an outburst of joy at the annual red guide gala, this time held in the Catalan capital, which for a few days brought together the country's most renowned chefs. It was the perfect opportunity to follow their gastronomic routes, as they usually do in the host cities of this meeting.
Unlike the two Barcelona restaurants that this year have been recognized with a first star, el Quirat, from the Intercontinental Barcelona hotel, and Suto, with very few seats, where there has been an avalanche of reservation requests, el Disfrutar has not able to calculate this demand well because its international recognition (it is number two on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list) generates such interest that they have to manage reservations a year in advance. But they did feel the emotional impact and the explosion of affection. "There is a part of personal satisfaction that is unmatched and unclassifiable", confesses Casañas, who assures that the fact that the party was in Barcelona made it all the more special. "It was the most exciting moment that the three of us have shared, and seeing the audience in that auditorium celebrating it is a memory that will always be with us, because it made us feel special and loved." They explain that with the baggage of so many years of joint trajectory at El Bulli and a decade of the restaurant's life, "the third star means the consolidation of a project with a personality loyal to a line and the recognition of a very large team that we make visible three". The Disfrutar, they are very clear, owes a lot to the support of a local clientele, which in times of pandemic was a help, and which usually stands at half of diners and up to 60% at certain times of the year .
Barcelona is a city with a very high gastronomic level and the only one in Spain with four three stars; the last two additions to this exclusive group have been the last two editions, since last year Cocina Hermanos Torres entered; it was with the extreme Atrio, just as this year the third Disfrutar coincided with that of Noor from Córdoba.
The optimism of the host city that the meeting in November brought, Barcelona City Council and Tourism want to maintain and enhance. To this end, in December there was a meeting with restaurateurs to listen to their concerns and look for ideas to give visibility to all kinds of restaurants, bars and also markets or small producers in the area. As the president of Turisme de Barcelona, Jordi Clos, explained to La Vanguardia, the aim is to promote initiatives that allow synergies with restaurants to enrich the experience of those visiting the city and show the richness of the pantry, whether visiting wineries or vineyards the area or taking the opportunity to meet small producers in the agricultural area of the province of Barcelona.
The organization of the meal during the Michelin gala brought together many restaurants in the city led by Paolo Casagrande, chef of Lasarte (in 2017 the first three stars in Barcelona), and was marked by great camaraderie, according to him. "It was very easy to agree on what each of us would cook and we had the feeling that we were all going together", says this Italian chef who has been living in the Catalan capital for twelve years, a city he adores. "The third star of the Disfrutar was something that had to come, because they pave the way and are excellent people whom all our colleagues in the sector love very much", affirms Casagrande. For him, it was only a matter of time before the city got the recognition it deserves. "Time puts things in their place and in few cities there is so much talent and such a rich proposal".
The Lasarte chef was one of the attendees at the meeting that, after the guide's gala, he went to celebrate with Mayor Collboni and his team, convened by Turisme de Barcelona. "Even though things had been done, I had never seen that attitude of wanting to seek synergies with people in the restaurant industry to advance and maintain Barcelona's prominence in the gastronomic field." Mateu Casañas also has a very positive view of a meeting attended by chefs from restaurants with and without stars, in which, he explains, they felt heard and were able to share concerns and ideas to start up. From Disfrutar, they proposed promoting the city as a conservator of the gastronomic knowledge accumulated in recent decades. "We travel thousands of kilometers with a backpack loaded with knowledge that we could gather in Barcelona", explains this cook who points out the role of organizations "such as the Alicia Foundation and all its contribution in food and health, of schools or of congresses and meetings linked to the sector". There were those who came up with other practical ideas, such as the chef of Hisop, Oriol Ivern, who continues to enjoy the good reputation of being the most affordable starred restaurant in the city. His idea is to boost the city's markets and bring them closer to the star restaurants. "It could be done by giving vouchers with the purchase of local products that could be accumulated and give the option of a lunch or dinner in a restaurant with a star". For him, it would also be "the way for many people to change their perception of this type of restaurant that they imagine to be in the dark". Also Yoshikazu Sutoy and Carolina Alarcón, from Suto, consider this approach to the markets which, they explain, they already promote, to be interesting. "We do this by talking to diners about where the wines we serve are made, where they can buy the Calaf eggs we prepare or the fish we work with".
The twins of Cocina Hermanos Torres are very optimistic about the desire to seek synergies. "There is a real attempt to join forces to enhance the city's cuisine. We want to defend sustainability, which we consider crucial and that is why we have drawn up a plan, and we believe that initiatives such as visiting local producers can be very enriching", explains Javier Torres. The chef adds that they work in a garden in collaboration with their neighbors, next to the restaurant, and collaborate with small producers from Viladecans, with whom they have established an excellent relationship".
Both in Suto, where they can offer few shelters, and in Quirat, the phone keeps ringing. "For Christmas everyone wanted to give vouchers for a lunch and we didn't know how to manage it because we don't like to say no", explains Carolina Alarcón, from del Suto. Víctor Torres, chef at Quirat, who also runs Les Magnòlies (Arbúcies), explains that since November they have doubled their clientele. "We already have 200 reservations for January and a hundred for February." This chef, who regrets the problem of lack of staff, believes that initiatives to expand the experience by visiting producers or markets are interesting. "Now the customer needs to show interest in moving. Because we have become a complacent and simple society".
