This is probably the most important dish that Koldo Rodero, a talented chef who tries to reach sensorial and artistic heights with each recipe, has created in the past few years. We do not know if it will keep its place on the menu; we doubt it very seriously, because it has natural and well-known flavors that are extraordinarily avant-garde. Immaculate ones, like the tomato soup. Delicious ones, like the oyster, cockles and prawn. Easily recognizable ones, like the orange juice vinaigrette and the pearls of the same fruit. Historic ones, like the sweet combination of tarragon and shellfish. There are also strong sensations, such as the violet perfume that impregnates and even accents the liquefied tomato and sage; the raw sensation produced by the prawns; the hard, live, crunchy, pure, fully stalk-like texture of the vegetables, which are also eaten raw in salad with a cut and treatment inspired in cardoon.
Intensity of sea and garden, garden and sea. Lightness, freshness, complexity, counterpoints, aesthetics… It has it all, expressed harmoniously in a language bursting with delicacy, sensibility and future.

The oyster never imagined it would end up being architecture, much less architecture so extravagant that it would be inspired by Frank Gehry’s museum in Bilbao. The sensible thing would have been to craft a rocky dish that echoed harmonies of the shell, but no, this dish takes on a galactic form and color. Galactic shellfish? Yes, and therein lies the madness: to take something so primitive, so basic, so wild, and give it a look from outer space. How? With titanium. Since when is titanium edible, you might ask? Apparently since now, because the only people dying at El Poblet are the ones that are keeling over from sheer pleasure, and it would seem that in that category there are many… Some swear it’s addictive. Others say it’s an aphrodisiac. What no one argues about is that we find ourselves before a most rare mating of elements. From what ancient recipe book did Quique Dacosta rob this idea? Is it true about the titanium or is it simply a strategy on the chef’s part to demonstrate how far he’s capable of going? True or not, it’s silver and titanium alloy, it shows all the signs, and that in itself is worthy of much merit.
However, if titanium and silver is the oyster, the oyster is also the oyster: warm, meaty, bursting with juices, drowning palates. What preparation does it undergo? It is simply warmed on the grill with a seasoning of juniper, and later dressed with four small cubes of lemon peel. It is placed over a gel made with the oyster itself, along with cockles, vegetables, and water, then gelatinized with aloe vera and lastly, to give it some color, the silver/titanium alloy is applied: a delicious gel that envelops the mollusk. This monumental construction is then crowned with a dried, crunchy version of that same gel that takes on the form of the Guggenheim museum.

The creative ability of the Roca brothers – Joan, Jordi and Josep – is beyond any doubt. The sheer number of awards for The Best Artistic Dishes obtained in recent years is sufficient testimony. They have received seven already, a number equaled by Martín Berasategui and exceeded only by Ferran Adrià, from “El Bulli”. Let’s recall the earlier achievements: the hot foie gras with lychees, rose petals and Gewürztraminer sorbet; the velouté of shellfish, fennel, tomato, sea urchin and caviar; the squab liver parfait with juniper, Bristol Cream, hazelnuts and orange; the Trésor of Lancôme; the Norway lobster and curry smoke with apples and Mediterranean lettuce; the grilled cep ice cream. Curiously, if these reflect the prevailing tendency of the house, influenced by the use of smoke – with an infinity of other examples in the actual menu of El Celler de Can Roca –, this dish countersigns another line that gives personality to the work: the distillations. These have achieved their glorious apex in this brilliant demonstration, and yet are capable of repulsing many by just hearing the title. Of course those who still feel attraction for the challenges and the unknown celebrate it enthusiastically, because what is more disconcerting than extracting the essence from the entrails? Aromas and mineral flavors, that express themselves with magnificent mildness at the first moment and that, after the oceanic passage of the shellfish, wager it all on the palate, where they settle in, providing an earthly sensation without precedent, profound – never stated better –, yet not aggressive. In short, surf and turf taken to its most minimalist end, from any point of view, that can be imagined.

If, in comparison to other seasons, 2005 hasn’t been marked by a definitive theme for Ferran Adrià – for example the foams or hot gelatins of the past –, the featured technique of this year has been lyophilization. Once again, the genius of Roses takes his inspiration from the food industry to project the breadth of his imagination: unlimited and unique in culinary history. He does it proposing singular textures, diverse, that expose unprecedented tactile sensations in dry, savory cuisine. In this case, the author plays with the theme of one of his classics, a clean and pure forestal fragrance that he has used since his insolent, provocative era, when he introduced an ingredient hitherto unused in gastronomic circles: the green pinecone.
With this, he demonstrates the diversity of the flavor of the pinecone itself. He alters the intensity of the flavor, its consistency, and temperature. We find ourselves confronted with a palette of subtle tonalities within a single color – and color inspires the name of the dish. The green pinecone, after being submitted to the infusion, is transformed through “scientific” techniques into an ice cream, a frozen powder, a meringue and a dehydrated material. To such a monotone yet orchestral flavor, exciting counterpoints are applied, like coffee and licorice. For nature to continue expressing its splendor, for winter to give way to spring, a garden of micro-vegetables sprouts from the plate, germinating, flowering, insisting on nature and freshness. The dawn of a futuristic forest.