The gastronomy of the Costa Brava
Once home to the most ground-breaking restaurant of the modern era, the food scene on the Costa Brava, host destination of the first-ever Golf & Gastronomy experience, has benefited from the ripple effect of El Bulli ever since, as Jo Davey explains.
Empordà is bordered by the Pyrenees to the north and Mediterranean to the south. This landscape has created a culinary ethos, with classic dishes combining ingredients from both sea and mountainside. Likely born from trade-offs between local farmers and fishermen, the resulting dishes are unique to this area of tree-topped peaks and bisque-coloured coast. Stews such as pollastre amb escarmalans and pollastre amb llagosta combine chicken with crayfish or lobster, while the aptly named mar i muntanya (sea and mountain) is a dish of seafood, meat and firm plump rice from nearby Pals.
Unique culinary combinations and simple ingredients typify the region. Although the food is undoubtedly Mediterranean, it has been influenced over the centuries by ancient Romans and Greeks as well as French, Italian, Arabic and Jewish cuisine. In Girona, Catalonia’s capital, this has culminated in innovative dishes that combine rich meats with fruit or sweetness: duck with Girona apples, rabbit with chocolate, pork cheeks and prunes. Even Empordà’s acclaimed butifarra cured sausages get a sweet makeover in butifarra dolça — a version made with sugar, lemon rind and cinnamon.
Empordà is no stranger to avant-garde gastronomy. It's therefore no surprise that its coast became a modern day hub for groundbreaking food. Costa Brava is where cuisine became art under the influence of Ferran Adrià, often deemed the father of molecular gastronomy. His deconstructivist haute cuisine got his El Bulli restaurant at Montjoi voted the best in the world several times over. When it closed its doors in 2011, his protegees poured out into Empordà, earning accolades and picking up Michelin stars like seashells.
One such alumni founded Castell Peralada. Alongside sommelier Toni Gerez, the late Xavier Sagristà brought Peralada Resort’s castle restaurant to life and earned it a Michelin star. The star remains under Sagristà’s own protégée Javi Martínez and his menu of reimagined local classics. Try the Catalan-style razor clams with chard, pine nuts and traditional black sausage and the gilthead sea bream, known in Catalan as orada. One of the area’s best-loved fish, its cured it in Iberian pork lard with poultry broth and mushrooms. Mushrooms are another Costa Brava favourite, foraged in the forests of L’Ardenya north of Tossa del Mar. Here locals pick up red pines, caesars and bloody milk caps.
Tossa del Mar itself is known for its skate. It’s one of the old fishing towns that line Costa Brava’s busy coastline, all of which seem to have their own speciality. L’Escala to its north has one of Catalonia’s oldest maritime hubs and is known for its traditional anchovy fishing and processing. While the men fished, the women would clean, salt, store, fillet and package them. The method has been passed down from mother to daughter ever since.
Best-known are the red prawns of Palamós. These world-renowned scarlet prawns are succulent, sweet and strongly flavoured, putting them in high demand. Luckily Palamós residents have protected the prawns from overfishing; they are caught sustainably, with net size, fishing hours and number of vessels under strict management. The limited supply has kept the prawns relatively local, gracing tables across Costa Brava.
Alongside food, the region is known for its wine. Empordà has a 2500-year-old history of viticulture, begun by the Phoenicians in 6BC. Its unique and diverse soil of sand, silt, slate and sediment produces incredibly complex and characterful wines, earning it the appellation DO Empordà. Historically it produced rosé, but full-bodied reds now make up 60% of the market with samsó (carignan) and garnatxa (grenache) varieties most predominant.
The appellation nearly died out. An invasive pest and decades of bulk production did severe damage, but it has since been reignited by craft and artisan vineyards. Hotel Peralada’s Cellar 1923 wine bar is supplied by nearby Perelada winery, who combine tradition and innovation. Their extensive collection includes classic Catalonian cavas, sweet 12-year-aged garnatxas and wines inspired by this avant-garde terroir.
