Joan Roca has gone over the milestones in sustainability at El Celler, and stressed how important this is by presenting a sequence based on making use of pepper leaves.

Jordi Roca has also taken the stage and surprised people by presenting a machine that creates foam from liquids, which he cut in the room to finish his cocoa dessert.

Madrid Fusión Alimentos de España 2021 is all about sustainability and circular gastronomy, and there are very few restaurants in the world that fulfill both precepts better than El Celler de Can Roca. Joan Roca came onto the main stage at the congress this Monday accompanied by his brother Jordi to flex their environmental muscles and present some new projects and related dishes: a sequence of starters, a clothes brand and a dessert that flies based on the “best cocoa in the world”. It was time for El Celler de Can Roca.

“Because of the theme of this congress we first wanted to review the path that we have followed as far as sustainability and zero waste are concerned”, Roca, the United Nations Good Will Ambassador for Sustainable Development Goals, began by saying. And he explained the projects that have followed along these lines, to recover produce in their area, to improve the direct relationship with local suppliers, to preserve the countryside and to sustainably improve surrounding plots of land: eco-friendly cleaning products, sustainable fishing, use of electric vehicles, efficient air conditioning, LED technology, comprehensive use of water, selective waste or the project that has to do with turning left-over oil into biodiesel.

“These are actions that are more or less easy that make us more sustainable”, he mentioned. The latest step on this path had to do with the wardrobe: Clothing recycling. A project through which they turn the very little plastic that comes into the restaurant into working clothes for all the staff.

The logic of the circular economy is followed up at El Celler in what can be seen on the plate. At Madrid Fusión they have presented a new sequence that they prepare based on pepper, “especially based on making the most of the pepper leaves in our kitchen garden to use them as tea leaves”. Fermented, toasted, ground and infused, they manage to turn the leaves into a drink and even an ice cream, just like the Matcha tea that they already had.

Jordi Roca captures air

It’s been quite a while since Jordi Roca was last seen on stage, and today it occurred at Madrid Fusión Alimentos de España. And it was magical. Beforehand, the younger of the Roca brothers did his little bit for the logic of zero waste at the restaurant by explaining how he avoids throwing away the bread that has no other use at the end of each sitting to turn it into caramel and prepare a bread, chocolate and salt dessert.

As a part of this, he then presented an amazing invention. Together with the company from Barcelona, VOM, Roca has managed to create edible clouds. With helium, they create foam from any liquid, in this case from a cocoa distillation to complete the dessert. The funny thing about it is that the VOM machine creates the foam, which is cut in the room to catch it in the air so it can be captured in a recipient that simulates a cocoa bean. And not just any old cocoa, but the best cocoa in the world”, the pastry chef explained. “If I do it I’m not going to say anything else…”.