The Catalan Kitchen

The Catalan Kitchen is a celebration of eighty-five authentic and traditional dishes from Spain's culinary heart. The Catalonia region is situated on the west coast of the Mediterranean and blessed with one of the richest food cultures in Europe. Although Catalonia is still geographically and politically connected to Spain, Catalans consider themselves independent with their own language, history, culture, and cuisine. Its food is considered unique in Spain, and it is home to one of the highest concentrations of Michelin-starred restaurants in the world. Catalan cuisine does not center around tapas, and although pintxos do feature heavily, they are not the mainstay of the region and most dishes are larger, stand-alone meals. Dishes are heavily influenced by pork and fresh seafood, with a focus on fresh, seasonal produce that varies from recipes as simple as crushed tomatoes smeared on bread to hearty, slowcooked stews. Famous dishes include calçots--large salad onions cooked on a coal barbecue and then dipped into nutty and addictive Romesco sauce, a unique paella made without saffron and the addition of vermicelli noodles, myriad types of Catalan sausage served with white beans, sauces such as aioli and picada, and multiple pastries and desserts including crème Catalan (a version of crème brûlée). Beautifully packaged with stunning location and food photography, The Catalan Kitchen is the ultimate cookbook for lovers of Spanish and Mediterranean food.

Catalan cuisine authority Daniel Olivella serves historical narratives alongside 80 carefully curated Spanish food recipes, like tapas, paella, and seafood, that are simple and fresh. In proud, vibrant Catalonia, food is what brings people together—whether neighbors, family, or visitors. By the sea, over a glass of chilled vermouth and the din of happily shared, homemade Pica Pica (tapas) is where you’ll find the most authentic Catalonia. The region is known for its wildly diverse indigenous ingredients, from seafood to jamon Ibérico to strains of rice, and richly flavored cuisine that has remained uniquely Catalan throughout its complex and fraught history. In Catalan Food, the recipes are intended to be cooked leisurely and with love—the Catalan way. Featuring traditional dishes like Paella Barcelonata (Seafood Paella) and Llom de Porc Canari (Slow-roasted Pork Loin), as well as inventive takes on classics like Tiradito amb Escalivada (Spanish Sashimi with Roasted Vegetable Purees) and Amanida de Tomàquet amb Formatge de Cabra (Texas Peach and Tomato Salad with Goat Cheese), Catalan Food brings heritage into any home cook’s kitchen, where Catalonia’s cuisine was born. To know a culture, you must taste it; none is more rich and stunningly delicious than Catalonia’s.

“A great source of inspiration,” this cookbook is a stunning, mouthwatering homage to the unique, beloved, and healthy cuisine of Catalonia (Alice Waters, chef/owner of Chez Panisse). Once an undiscovered gem among Europe’s culinary traditions, the cuisine of Catalonia, a province of northeast Spain, has become an inspiration to some of the world’s top chefs. Catalan Cuisine is the definitive guide to authentic Catalan cooking—the book that introduced this remarkable cuisine to America, and a volume that is found today in the kitchens of some of Catalonia’s most famous chefs. Using many of the same fresh ingredients as other Mediterranean cuisines—tomato, garlic, olives, beans, pasta, fruits, and a bounty of meat and seafood—Catalan cooking combines them in unexpected and mouthwatering ways. With 200 memorable recipes that are easy to prepare and sure to amaze, plus fascinating facts about the traditions, history, and culture of Catalonia, Catalan Cuisine is required reading—or eating—for any adventurous gourmand or Spanish food aficionado. “An intelligent, superbly written, profound study of a great and fascinating cuisine.” —Paula Wolfert “Colman Andrews is one of the most important champions of Catalan cuisine. This significant book expresses a great love for our culture.” —Ferran Adrià, chef/owner of El Bulli

Catalan cuisine authority Daniel Olivella serves historical narratives alongside 80 carefully curated Spanish food recipes, like tapas, paella, and seafood, that are simple and fresh. In proud, vibrant Catalonia, food is what brings people together—whether neighbors, family, or visitors. By the sea, over a glass of chilled vermouth and the din of happily shared, homemade Pica Pica (tapas) is where you’ll find the most authentic Catalonia. The region is known for its wildly diverse indigenous ingredients, from seafood to jamon Ibérico to strains of rice, and richly flavored cuisine that has remained uniquely Catalan throughout its complex and fraught history. In Catalan Food, the recipes are intended to be cooked leisurely and with love—the Catalan way. Featuring traditional dishes like Paella Barcelonata (Seafood Paella) and Llom de Porc Canari (Slow-roasted Pork Loin), as well as inventive takes on classics like Tiradito amb Escalivada (Spanish Sashimi with Roasted Vegetable Purees) and Amanida de Tomàquet amb Formatge de Cabra (Texas Peach and Tomato Salad with Goat Cheese), Catalan Food brings heritage into any home cook’s kitchen, where Catalonia’s cuisine was born. To know a culture, you must taste it; none is more rich and stunningly delicious than Catalonia’s.

Widely associated with avant-garde gastronomy and lavish food markets, Barcelona has become a top destination for gourmands and chefs around the world, especially after the spectacular rise of chef Ferran Adrià of the famed elBulli, soon to be reborn as elBulli1846. Barcelona is a city that attracts millions of visitors in search of art and culinary experiences while cookery apprentices from around the world arrive looking to perfect their skills and expand their gastronomic horizon. The city offers an unequaled combination of restaurants, chefs, restauranteurs, media and local government initiatives to help those who arrive seeking an extraordinary culinary experience. But how has the city established itself as a global culinary referent while becoming synonymous with cutting-edge cuisine? This book narrates Barcelona’s urban and culinary development from the Middle Ages to the present, tracing the origins and the growth of the culinary prestige of this part of Catalonia. Barcelona has been a cosmopolitan center since the 1700s because of its location and busy port. The city has always been well supplied with food, and its residents built a strong culinary tradition enlivened by its contact with other cuisines and novel products afforded by its geographic location and the people who migrated to the area. With literature, painting, music and architecture, cooking has been a crucial activity in creating and maintaining a Catalan identity. Past, present and future visitors of the city will find a fascinating history of the unforgettable culinary importance of one of the most popular cities of Spain.

This beautifully photographed cookbook takes you to the villages, homes, beaches, and hillsides of this yet-to-be-discovered region of the Mediterranean. Isla is the first comprehensive cookbook to capture and celebrate the cuisine of Spain's Mediterranean islands Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera. With influences from the Spanish mainland regions Catalonia and Valencia, and from places further afield including Sicily, Sardinia, and the south of France, Isla invites you on a culinary journey to discover some of the Mediterranean's most authentic cuisines that are at once familiar and unique. With stunning food photography showcasing the coastlines and interiors of these historic islands, stories on traditional recipes and one hundred simple and authentic recipes, this book is not only for lovers of Spanish food but any fan of Mediterranean cuisine. Alongside these authentic recipes are beautiful spreads on local ingredients, cooking secrets, and dishes that have rarely been shared outside this part of the Mediterranean. Each chapter celebrates a different landscape--think mountains, the coast, and humble villages. This spectrum of flavor and soul is indicative of the food (and incredible lifestyle) from the Spanish islands.

Winner of the Jane Grigson Trust Award 2017 and the Aragonese Academy of Gastronomy’s 2017 Prize for Research New Art of Cookery, Drawn from the School of Economic Experience, was an influential recipe book published in 1745 by Spanish friary cook Juan Altamiras. In it, he wrote up over 200 recipes for meat, poultry, game, salted and fresh fish, vegetables and sweet things in a chatty style aimed at readers who cooked on a modest budget. He showed that economic cookery could be delicious if flavors and aromas were blended with an appreciation for all sorts of ingredients, however humble, and for diverse food cultures, ranging from that of Aragon, his home region, to those of Iberian court and New World kitchens. This first English translation gives guidelines for today’s cooks alongside the original text, and interweaves a new narrative portraying 18th-century Spain, its everyday life, and food culture. The author traces links between New Art’s dishes and modern Spanish cookery, tells the story of her search to identify the book’s author and understand the popularity of his book for over 150 years, and takes travelers, cooks, historians, and students of Spanish language, culture, and gastronomy on a fascinating journey to the world of Altamiras and, most important of all, his kitchen.

At the dawn of the 21st century, the elBulli team made several trips to Japan, striking up a cultural conversation between Japan and Europe. Focused on the most sensitive and delicate cuisine in the world, this conversation would gradually become richer over the years. Dos palillos is the result and this is its book. Shall we begin?