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Interview
4 June 2023 2.00 h

jordi roca

EL CELLER DE CAN ROCA PASTRY CHEF

“We are resolute, committed and have a solid team”

“DINERS come well prepared and you can see that means they enjoy the meal in a much deeper way”
“People should want to work in the hospitality industry because they want to, not out of necessity”
You Roca broth­ers re­cently made a com­mit­ment to con­tinue for at least an­other 10 years.
We look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing. Dur­ing the lock­down each of us was at home with our fam­ily. We’d never spent so much time apart. We talked about it and de­cided to go on for at least an­other decade.
As you’re younger than your broth­ers, do you see the man­age­ment of the restau­rant falling to you at some point?
They are very ac­tive, and we come from a fam­ily that never stops. It’s hard to imag­ine them quit­ting overnight. It’s what they’ve al­ways done and they love it. And they wouldn’t know what else to do. Pitu is hav­ing the time of his life with the new line of spir­its. He’s liv­ing a sec­ond youth, and in­stead of buy­ing a Porsche, he buys more and more wines. Joan is about to leave for Tokyo with some chef friends. He loves trav­el­ling and learn­ing about cul­tures. In the fu­ture I see them be­com­ing more in­volved in our acad­emy but they will never quit.
And where do your nephews fit in El Celler de Can Roca?
Martí, Pitu’s son, is in the restau­rant’s kitchen mak­ing starters. And Marc, Joan’s son, is at Mas Mar­roch in charge of the meat. They are adapt­ing very well. To me they seem very mo­ti­vated and eager to learn.
In a sen­tence how would you de­fine El Celler de Can Roca?
It’s hard to con­dense every­thing we do into one sen­tence, but I’d say it’s a fun and friendly restau­rant, but that at the same time gives peo­ple an ex­pe­ri­ence that is more than just a restau­rant.
In what sense do you say that?
Cus­tomers book months in ad­vance and be­fore they come they find out all about what we do. The In­ter­net means that the sur­prise fac­tor is gone, but I be­lieve that hav­ing prior in­for­ma­tion ac­cen­tu­ates the restau­rant ex­pe­ri­ence. It’s like what hap­pens with the opera. Cus­tomers come well pre­pared and you see that means they enjoy the meal in a much deeper way. This also cre­ates pres­sure on us, be­cause peo­ple come from the other side of the world who have booked a year ago and have very high ex­pec­ta­tions. But we also ap­pre­ci­ate see­ing that they have pre­pared so much for the visit and come with such de­sire and de­ter­mi­na­tion to have a good time.
You have a rep­u­ta­tion for sen­si­ble busi­ness not al­ways seen in haute cui­sine.
Every­one does what they can with what they have. Main­tain­ing a restau­rant like this is dif­fi­cult, and we sup­ple­ment it with other busi­nesses that give us the fi­nan­cial peace of mind to con­tinue. My fa­ther al­ways ex­pects crises. He is very cau­tious and we’ve in­her­ited this qual­ity. We have been lucky to still be here and hope­fully we will con­tinue for a long time. This restau­rant model re­quires con­stancy, com­mit­ment and a solid team, which is some­thing we have been able to main­tain.
You are also pi­o­neers in of­fer­ing fair con­di­tions to your staff, in an in­dus­try in which marathon shifts are the order of the day.
We an­tic­i­pated changes. The year we toured the US, we had six cou­ples in the team who all of a sud­den had ba­bies. The team de­manded more time off, and so we had to change how we did things. We made two brigades, which at the time was un­heard of in a restau­rant of this type. And we have main­tained the two brigades by pro­vid­ing the team with liv­ing and work­ing con­di­tions that help make it solid and sta­ble.
These are the types of changes that, since the pan­demic, the in­dus­try has been in­sis­tently de­mand­ing.
The pan­demic has changed every­thing. Many restau­rants strug­gle to find staff will­ing to work. All over the world. My brother was in Toronto re­cently and the din­ing room of the hotel where he was stay­ing didn’t serve break­fast be­cause they didn’t have the staff to do it. This is hap­pen­ing more and more and so we have to en­sure the well-being of the staff. Peo­ple should want to work in the hos­pi­tal­ity in­dus­try be­cause they want to, not out of ne­ces­sity.
You seem the most un­in­hib­ited of the Roca broth­ers. You can see your sense of hu­mour on so­cial media and also in your desserts.
Din­ers come here feel­ing hun­gry and when they start eat­ing they want to feel full, but by the time the dessert ar­rives they are feel­ing re­laxed. They are then ready to hear a funny story, which for me is an op­por­tu­nity to play and ex­per­i­ment. You can’t do that dur­ing the first part of the meal.
Hav­ing fun is im­por­tant to you.?
We have a great time and we love and re­spect each other a lot. We bal­ance each other out. Joan is wise and cau­tious, and likes to think things through a lot, maybe some­times too much. Pitu is the ro­man­tic, po­etic, philo­soph­i­cal, sen­si­tive and em­pa­thetic. He doesn’t care about money and never sees any prob­lems any­where. And I’m the dis­rup­tive one. I have a the­ory that my par­ents didn’t get it right until the third time [laughs].
The fam­ily is of great im­por­tance in El Celler, in­clud­ing the women.
Our house­hold is a ma­tri­archy. It’s a fam­ily with strong and dri­ven women. Our wives are in­de­pen­dent, and this gives us free­dom to be at El Celler to per­form our cre­ative role. The fe­male fig­ure has been a point of ref­er­ence for us since child­hood, be­gin­ning with our mother and our aunts who worked in Can Roca. Our wives have bravely taken on this re­spon­si­bil­ity. And it’s not easy to come into a busi­ness with a fig­ure at its head like our mother, who sac­ri­ficed so much.
There are many anec­dotes about El Celler. Can you share one?
When we still did ban­quets at La Torre de Can Roca, Pep Noguer, who was then the head chef, pre­tended to be the priest at a wed­ding that took place in the same es­tab­lish­ment. The real priest dropped out at the last minute and Joan told Pep that, since he had an ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal pos­ture, he was the most suit­able to of­fi­ci­ate the cer­e­mony. We dressed him in black, gave him a text to read, and he did a fake cer­e­mony that for­tu­nately wasn’t recorded any­where.

in­ter­view CUI­SINE

A family concern

Jordi, with his brothers Josep and Joan, opened the now famous El Celler de Can Roca restaurant in 1986. The restaurant’s popularity grew year on year until it became recognised as one of the best in the world. In 2012 in Girona, Jordi opened Rocambolesc, the Roca brothers’ first ice cream shop. There is now also a Rocambolesc shop in Barcelona and two in Madrid. Since 2016, Jordi has suffered from cervical dystonia, a rare neurological disease characterised by involuntary muscle contractions that left him unable to talk. While Jordi has regained his voice, he is permanently hoarse. In 2014, he won Restaurant magazine’s inaugural World’s Best Pastry Chef award, and in April 2018, he was in an episode of Chef’s Table on Netflix.

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