Our visit at El Celler de Can Roca: every course from the tasting menu, selected wines and practical booking tips.

A tour through the dishes at El Celler

As we said in the introduction, visiting El Celler de Can Roca isn’t simply going out for a meal: it’s an immersion in a gastronomic proposal that combines technical precision, flavour memory and a creative approach that sits somewhere between the conceptual and the emotional.

Appetisers

The first bites we tried are a perfect example of what’s most personal to Joan, Josep and Jordi:

Three-faced consommé (2024)

A trio of broths — served in a single vessel as perfectly separated layers — that form the silhouettes of the three brothers thanks to the grooves of the bowl they’re presented in.

Steamed prawn with Manzanilla (2022): a tribute to the ingredient — relatively simple, letting the seafood’s flavour and the aroma of Andalusian wine do the work.

The next three bites were presented together on an organic, branch-like metal stand:

Foie gras nougat with cocoa (2005): foie gras paired with Pedro Ximénez, soy shoots and cocoa, hovering between sweet and savoury.

Starters

Another really fun moment: we were served a sphere with a surprise inside. When you open it, you find beetroot and apple sorbet, grapefruit foam, salt-baked courgette and kohlrabi on one half; and, on the other, parsnip and mushroom purée, grapefruit reduction, pickled cauliflower and shallot. The sphere, by the way, is also edible.

Eggplant katsuobushi: eggplant shaped like tonka bean is grated over another preparation with eggplant, peanut and tamarind sauce, fennel miso and citrus gel.

Mushroom sequence

One of Can Roca’s hallmarks is how they adapt to the very best seasonal produce available at any time of year. For us, visiting in autumn meant a particularly interesting selection of mushrooms.

The fish

As you’d expect, fish dishes play a special role at El Celler — not only because it’s outstanding local produce, but also because of the importance of fishing in the DNA and traditions of the people of the Costa Brava.

Mussel escabeche, potato purée and tari, pickled aubergine caviar, cantaloupe melon, bottarga, piparra seed, coriander purée, saffron allioli, red seaweed, sea grapes, vinegar jelly and lemon zest.

One of our favourites: the combination of mussels with the spherified “caviars” and fruit was delicious. The seaweed had a real intensity that integrated perfectly with the other ingredients.

Razor clam stew with chickpea crumbs, razor-clam pilpil and notes of pickled apple and shallot.

Marinated Palamós prawn, with almond velouté and rice vinegar.

Once again, another truly superb dish built around outstanding local produce — in this case the iconic Palamós red prawn, utterly delicious.

Leek and cod pilpil, with leek broth and cod skin.

Fish of the day suquet, with fishbone juices, orange, capers and pine nut.

This time, the fish of the day was a small cap roig (scorpionfish), accompanied by an intense, glossy broth that was extremely flavourful. It’s true the fish was a touch undercooked inside (and I do like it on the rare side), but they popped it back on the plancha immediately — perfect.

Moray eel Mimosa, with brandade, seasoned crisps, mojo rojo and moray demi-glace. (A fish not well known outside the Canary Islands — at least I’d never had it anywhere else before this meal at El Celler.)

Langoustine with poularde parfait, a take on a Catalan surf-and-turf classic.

The meats

Another trompe-l’œil, or rather, an exercise in imagination applied to utensils and objects: in this case, a plate split in two, each half holding a bite of meat. The pigeon was excellent — intense and deep, exactly how I like it.

• Pigeon with olives, blackberries and anchovies
• “Xuixo” of duck stew

The “Jordi Roca universe”: desserts and the final surprise

And then it was time to enjoy the wonders, imagination and — why not say it — that little bit of madness that defines the creations of the “enfant terrible” Jordi, the youngest of the Roca brothers.

Divided into two acts, the first has a title as evocative as The Madeleine of Proust — the classic literary reference in which the protagonist of In Search of Lost Time reminds us how the senses, especially smell, can vividly trigger memory and transport you back to a moment you thought was forgotten.

The Madeleine of Proust

Grapefruit-skin kisses: rose water, Sichuan pepper, vanilla and bergamot, with floral and citrus notes.

Perhaps at this point in the menu, the more playful, mischievous side that the Rocas bring to their cookingbecomes most apparent, with a trompe-l’œil in the shape of lips, recreated with technical precision that only a handful of chefs can achieve.

Mandarin, eucalyptus and egg yolk: mandarin cream, eucalyptus sorbet and torched pâte à bombe.

Let the games continue! In this dish, the guest puts a few drops of a (magical) liquid onto the back of their hand and licks it, so they can pair it properly (always following the service team’s instructions) with the rest of the ingredients on the plate.

Jerusalem artichoke and porcini: a dessert with sunflower-seed cream, Jerusalem artichoke stew, sunflower praline and porcini ice cream.

And with the Jerusalem artichoke — an extraordinary ingredient in its own right and a signature favourite in the Rocas’ dishes (also in Joan’s savoury courses) — this first act of the dessert course comes to an end.

Cocoa festival

A wildly fun (and unlimited — all you can eat) take on the traditional French dessert trolley: petit fours. A Ferris wheel of sweets where you can pick all kinds of treats — chocolates, bonbons, etc. If you’re somehow still not full (highly unlikely), this is your moment.

Finally — and this isn’t captured in any photos or videos — there’s a closing experience where guests are transported into other settings with the help of technology, a moment where the physical real interweaves with the imagined: a “transmedia” finale. I won’t say more, because I don’t want to spoil it — and I want anyone going to the restaurant to experience what we did.