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Interview
10 October 2021 2.00 h

Vicenç Fajardo

President of La cuina de l'Empordanet

“We have a loyal clientele, and that’s our Michelin star”

"The guide aims to publicise and promote the 17 restaurants in the Cuina de l’Empordanet group" "I want to enjoy what I do; that’s the best reward. And if the customer also values you, then you can’t ask for anything MORE"

Vicenç Fa­jardo is the pres­i­dent of La Cuina de l’Em­por­danet gas­tro­nomic col­lec­tive, which brings to­gether a group of 17 cui­sine and cater­ing pro­fes­sion­als in Baix Em­pordà. They re­cently pub­lished a guide to pub­li­cise the restau­rants in the group (three of which have Miche­lin stars).

How long have you been pres­i­dent of La Cuina de l’Em­por­danet?
Just over four years. We were based in La Plaça restau­rant in Madre­manya, but a few months ago we opened Saó, in Fonteta. With the change, I made the po­si­tion avail­able to the mem­bers be­cause to be part of La Cuina de l’Em­por­danet the restau­rant must be open for at least two years. But they said they wanted me to con­tinue as pres­i­dent be­cause they knew we wouldn’t open a Mc­Don­alds.
The group’s pub­lished a guide.
Yes, the guide aims to pub­li­cise and pro­mote the 17 restau­rants in the group. It’s a use­ful tool not only for vis­i­tors pass­ing through the area, but also for local peo­ple, so that they can enjoy most of the most pres­ti­gious and renowned es­tab­lish­ments in the re­gion. They are restau­rants with very di­verse cuisines, three of them with a Miche­lin star (Bo.​Tic, in Corçà, which has two; Els Tinars, in Llagostera, and Casamar, in Llafranc, each have one).
Have you met any cus­tomers who have been to all the restau­rants in the guide?
The other day some cus­tomers came who had been to all the restau­rants in the pub­li­ca­tion and had each chef sign their page. They were very happy and told us that they’d had very pos­i­tive ex­pe­ri­ences and that they would never have imag­ined that they could have eaten so well in Platja d’Aro or L’Es­cala.
Speak­ing of Miche­lin stars, do any of the restau­rants in the as­so­ci­a­tion de­serve any for the qual­ity of food they serve?
One shouldn’t get ob­sessed about these things. I opened a restau­rant to enjoy my work. I’m lucky that the restau­rant is part of an­other busi­ness, be­cause my forte is cater­ing. I don’t think a restau­rant with nine ta­bles like the one I just opened will give me that hol­i­day in Hon­olulu. But that doesn’t worry me. What I want is to enjoy what I do, and that’s the best re­ward ever. And if, in ad­di­tion, the cus­tomer also val­ues you, then you can’t ask for any­thing else.
So you don’t think about Miche­lin stars?
We have a loyal clien­tele, and that is our Miche­lin star. In the end the best restau­rant is the one that has a loyal clien­tele that comes back again and again. About 15,000 peo­ple a year passed through La Plaça restau­rant in Madre­manya, de­spite our sched­ules: in Au­gust we only opened at night, we closed three days a week in win­ter, and yet we served a bunch of cus­tomers. Proof of the loy­alty of our clien­tele is that al­though we’ve only re­cently opened Saó, we have al­ways filled it with re­turn­ing cus­tomers.
Do you come from a lin­eage of chefs?
No, but I’ve al­ways loved cook­ing. I re­ally like my pro­fes­sion; I can ded­i­cate many hours to it and not no­tice the time go by.
You are not from Em­pordà.
I am an out­sider, but in a good way. I’m from Salt, with a mother from Madrid and a Cata­lan fa­ther. We em­i­grated to Aus­tralia when I was lit­tle, and that in­stilled in me a very open cul­ture be­cause we lived among many dif­fer­ent na­tion­al­i­ties. But I’ve al­ways loved Em­pordà.
Why’s that?
We are the way we live, it’s the cli­mate, the cul­ture, the na­ture, the calm, the air, the moun­tains and the sea. It has every­thing. I’ve been asked a thou­sand times to go to work in Barcelona but I don’t want to leave Em­pordà. I live in La Bis­bal d’Em­pordà, my restau­rant is in Fonteta and my other busi­ness is in Foral­lac. It’s grat­i­fy­ing to be able to see the wheat fields in the morn­ing, and the or­chards and na­ture while you go to work or come home. Many peo­ple are happy to have that on a week­end but I have it every day.
And what about the food?
We have some re­ally good restau­rants in the area, while the local winer­ies are doing re­ally good things. When we still hadn’t opened the restau­rant but were look­ing for local sup­pli­ers, we learnt that we had an or­ganic win­ery three doors from the restau­rant. We have al­ways been com­mit­ted to lo­cally-sourced pro­duce and we have al­ways be­lieved, both in Madre­manya and here, that we must help each other.
Back to La Cuina de l’Em­por­danet. Last year the group turned 25.
Yes. The aim of La Cuina de l’Em­por­danet is to pro­mote the re­gion, its cul­ture and gas­tron­omy, be­cause in the end these three things go hand in hand.
And how is the re­gion and its cul­ture pro­moted from a restau­rant?
When I come up with a menu, you pair the dishes with local wines, and that means pro­mot­ing the re­gion, and if you also know who made the wine, you can ex­plain its his­tory. And cul­tur­ally we spread the word be­cause in Em­pordà there are good artists and a lot of her­itage, and this is easy to sell.
Has gas­tron­omy room to grow here?
I don’t think there are any prob­lems about more restau­rants open­ing in Baix Em­pordà; the prob­lem is in the win­ter months, when it’s harder for every­one. In the sum­mer there is enough busi­ness for every­one. In fact, the prob­lem is that here there are times of the year when the re­gion can’t ab­sorb the large num­ber of peo­ple who come. Proof of that can be seen in places like Cadaqués, Calella, Llafranc, Tamariu or Begur.
How have restau­rants han­dled the pan­demic so far?
Ter­ri­ble. The vast ma­jor­ity of restau­ra­teurs are self-em­ployed and have not re­ceived any help from the au­thor­i­ties. I’ve made a ti­tanic ef­fort to keep smil­ing when you see the busi­ness sink­ing. You know it’s sink­ing but you don’t know if the water is up to your feet, neck or head. It’s very hard feel­ing help­less and hav­ing no so­lu­tions; you don’t know where to turn. Now you can open, now you have to close, now they make you close at three and then at five, now there needs to be two me­tres be­tween ta­bles, now masks have to be worn then they don’t. It’s been hard.
Now that sum­mer is over, how do you see things evolv­ing?
What might hap­pen in au­tumn wor­ries me. We’ve no­ticed that peo­ple seem to have more money to spend, as if the months locked down had cur­tailed peo­ple’s spend­ing and now they’re let­ting go. Peo­ple want to go out. We’ll have to see how it all goes.

in­ter­view food

Promoting cuisine

In 1995, a group of restaurateurs who had been organising the Cuina de l’Empordanet gastronomic shows since 1983 decided to form a non-profit association to work “every day and at all times, individually and collectively” on the improvement and dissemination of the cuisine of Baix Empordà. This work has now been going on for 26 years and it is one of the few gastronomic associations that have endured for so many years. The following restaurants are currently part of the association: Diferent, Mas dels Arcs, Aigua Blava, Casamar (one Michelin star), Sa Cova, Aradi, Aurum, Vicus, Es Portal, Saó, Bo.Tic (two Michelin stars), Terrassa Terramar, Godard, Tinars (a Michelin star), El Roser 2, Aquamare and La Blanca.

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