The Royal European Academy of Doctors receives the renowned Roca brothers as honorary academicians
Joan Roca, Josep Roca and Jordi Roca, the renowned chefs in charge of Celler de Can Roca, entered as honorary academicians of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED) during a joint admission ceremony that was held on March 11 in the Assembly Hall of Catalan labour National Work Promotion, headquarters of the RAED. The recipients read the speech “De la Tierra a la luna” (From Earth to the Moon), developed first by Josep Roca and then by Joan Roca, who spoke on his own behalf and then on behalf of Jordi Roca, who had to leave at the last minute for personal reasons. Full academician and honorary rector of the Abad Oliba University Joan Francesc Corona, full academician and member of the Government Board Santiago Castellà and full academician and president of the Institute of International Cooperation of the RAED José Ramón Calvo responded on behalf of the Royal Corporation. The event was attended by 250 people, including 70 members in full academic regalia, who filled the room to capacity.
Josep Roca explained during the speech that opened the joint admission paper that Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, in his “Physiology of taste” of 1825 “spoke to us, visionary, of the future entrance of gastronomy in the academy promised by the oracles, and we are proud to see how gastronomy has effectively opened up from an invaluable literary repository, of centuries, to its academic and university recognition as culinary and gastronomic science. Today these are terms that nobody discusses. This is a recognition cooked in time, in which today is added a small chapter that we are lucky to be able to live in the first person”.
On the other hand, Joan Roca said that their evolution in the world of gastronomy has been natural. “The story of a simple kitchen that has evolved in a natural way and has been modified through dialogue with science and small producers. Our dream at the beginning was to create a different place to our parents restaurant, with a kitchen without creative limits that could excite diners, offer them a journey of the senses, explore the possibilities of the gastronomic experience. We are committed to creativity, innovation and generosity in order to reach new paths towards the total gastronomic experience”, he said.
The eldest of the Roca brothers spoke on behalf of his siblling Jordi to thank the recognition of the Royal Academy. “It is a great honour that comes to us at the moment of conceptual and technical maturity that gives us the baggage of these 30 years of project with El Celler de Can Roca. We are pleased to have created a human structure in La Masia (R+R), with a multidisciplinary team that keeps us committed to innovation and creativity for the future”, read the words of the youngest of the saga.
The three brothers have received the Spanish National Gastronomy Award and the main restaurant guides, as well as critics, both national and international, who have recognized the work of El Celler de Can Roca during its more than 30 years of existence. In 1995, the first Michelin star arrived; in 2002, the second, and on November 25, 2009, the third. In 2009 the English “Restaurant Magazine” ranked the Roca restaurant as the fifth of the 50 best in the world. In 2010 it climbed to fourth position, and in 2011 and 2012, to second. In 2013 and 2015, to first position. As of this year 2019, it will be in the permanent honour roll of that classification.
The ceremony was attended by Alfredo Rocafort, full academician and president of the Board of Government of the RAED, and Josep Sánchez Llibre, president of the National Work Promotion. “It is the first time that our corporation has received as members three of the most distinguished representatives worldwide of a new discipline that combines creativity and science, called gastronomy and culinary arts and that has already adopted a charter of an academic nature in institutions as prestigious as Harvard University, where our new academicians have been invited to give some lectures”, said Rocafort. “The professional and human values that have been projected to the whole world by the new honorary academicians of the RAED are those that were in the minds of the industrialists who in 1771 founded National Work Promotion”, said Sánchez Llibre, who praised the intense activity of the Royal Academy.
Admission speech: De la Tierra a la luna
