Tag Archives: El Celler de Can Roca

World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards 2015: The Test Kitchen ranked 28th, El Celler de Can Roca number 1 restaurant in the world again!

World's 50 Best Restaurants logoChef Luke Dale-Roberts’ The Test Kitchen was named the 28th best restaurant in the world and Best in Africa, at the 14th The World’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony in London last night, a 20 place climb from his 48th position last year, and 61st position in 2013.  El Celler de Can Roca was World's 50 Best Test Kitchenranked as the Best Restaurant in the World, the second time it has received this honour.  Regular winner Noma dropped to third place. Spain received the most 50 Best Restaurant Awards (7), followed by the USA (6), and France (5).  Both The Test Kitchen and World’s 50 Best Restaurants trended on Twitter last night.

El Celler de Can Roca is based in Giron in Spain, and is run by the three Roca brothers Josep, Joan,and Jordi, who opened their restaurant in 1986. They pioneered sous-vide cooking, and are described as creating ‘magic without undue theatrics’. Brother Joan is the head chef, Jordi is the Pastry Chef, and Josep is the Sommelier and Front of House.   In 2013 they were also named the best restaurant in the world. Continue reading →

Top Spanish Chef Andres Condé moving to Cape Town, joining Harbour House Group!

Andres Kitchen Vixen Screen-shot-2012-09-15-at-3.03.13-PM-300x209Amazing news for the restaurant scene in Cape Town is that Chef Andres Condé , who worked at the former elBulli, the former number one restaurant on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, is moving to Cape Town in June, and joining the Harbour House Group of restaurants belonging to Michael Townsend, as Group Executive Chef.

As his first priority Chef Andres will focus on La Parada, the two tapas restaurants based in Kalk Bay and on Bree Street, and will revamp their menus.  If La Parada weren’t already the most Spanish tapas restaurants in Cape Town, they will now become super-Spanish and genuine tapas restaurants.  He will also work with the Harbour House restaurant teams in Kalk Bay and in the V&A Waterfront.  He will not be involved with the Lucky Fish restaurants in the Harbour House Group.

Chef Andres won an award as best young chef in Navarra, a Spanish wine region.  His prize was an internship at the former elBulli near Roses in Catalonia, a Michelin 3-star restaurant run by Chef Ferran Adrià, who many would say is the world’s most creative chef, being associated with Molecular Gastronomy, and having written cookbooks.   The internship was for two months, but Chef Andres stayed for more than six years!  He worked in Continue reading →

Noma back as top World’s 50 Best Restaurants! The Test Kitchen Best in Africa and ranked 48th!

World's 50 Best Restaurants logoThe eagerly awaited 12th The World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards was held last night at The Guildhall in London, and the Top 50 Restaurants were announced. Restaurants ranked 51st – 100th were listed on the Awards website, which crashed just after the Awards ceremony!

The initiative of Restaurant magazine in the UK, and using 900 judges from around the world, a total of 6552 votes were cast to vote for the world’s best restaurants.  The world was divided into 26 regions, chaired by an expert for that region.  Tamsin Snyman heads the Africa panel of 36 members, who had to eat at 4 local as well as at 3 international restaurants to cast their vote.  No score is required – the vote is purely for the best restaurants they ate at, and must be presented in ranked order.  Every year 10 panelists step down per region, to be replaced by new ones.   For the first time in seven years Snyman did not attend, for family reasons.

The biggest surprise was that Noma in Copenhagen went back to its number one Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 9 April

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 9 April

*   Former footballer David Beckham is endorsing new Haig Club single grain Scotch whisky, in a partnership with Diageo,  packaged in an unusual bottle resembling aftershave rather than an alcoholic beverage!

*   In the past year ‘Bargain Brits‘ bought 80% of their wines in UK supermarkets at under £6 (just over R100) per bottle!  Supermarket wars, which reduce prices of wines, are blamed for this purchase pattern.

*   The Roca brothers, who own El Celler de Can Roca, the top World’s 50 Best Restaurant in Girona in Spain, will be pairing their food with single malt Scotch whisky The Macallan, one of them being 67 years old.  Six $10000 per head dinners, in aid of charity, will be held in June and July.

*  Eco-tourism is reversing the trend of young people leaving rural areas to find jobs in the bigger towns and cities.   The Continue reading →