Can Fabes: The Story of a Visionary Traditionalist and his Catalan Restaurant

“You must be local to become universal“ – the crew of Catalan restaurant Can Fabes abides by their maxim.

When Santi Santamaria founded the restaurant in 1981 he aimed to celebrate his love for the Catalan region around Barcelona and its people by creating edible masterpieces. Using only traditional and local ingredients and adapting them to Nouvelle Cuisine, Santamaria was the first Catalan chef to receive Michelin’s highest accolade, three stars. If this wasn’t already impressive enough, it should also be mentioned that Santi never attended a cooking school. Originally, the autodidact and former craftsman opened Can Fabes as an informal bistro out of his parent’s home, a 300-year –old-building in San Celoni, a small town only 32miles northeast of the city of Barcelona. From ist humble beginnings this little bistro was destined to become one of Spains greatest restaurants.

Dishes such as Steamed pork neck on potato mousse with caviar, Bacalao-tripe with salchicha and blood sausage or Suckling lamb from the Pyrenees with apricot and scented curds reflect the rustic lifestyle of this mediterranean region. With his often savory and simple fare meals Santi directly took on the booming molecular cuisine that star-chef Ferran Adriàs, is practicing only a few miles away in his famous gourmet lab El Bulli.

When Santi Santamaria died from a heart attack at the age of 53 in February 2011 the culinary world not only lost one of their best chefs, but also a pioneer whose idea of returning to traditional and local food was cutting-edge and visionary. Today more and more chefs and restaurants are following his footsteps and discover long-forgotten produce and recipes and interpret them in many exciting new ways.

Santi’s partner  and chef Xavier Pellicer and daughter Regina continue Santi’s legacy and lead Can Fabes and his other six restaurants according to his belief.

When visiting Barcelona Can Fabes is an excellent choice to get a taste for this incredibly culinary part of Spain and will get you closer to the Catalan history and its people.

Located an easy stroll from Can Fabes, White Line Hotels edit Hotel Omm is another Catalan original not to be missed. For a full weekend of culinary delights, book a table at Moo Restaurant the following evening for more fresh interpretations of Catalan classics.

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Contributing writer: Julia Schröder

Images: http://www.canfabes.com/, except last photo, Javier Lastras

The Slowest Restaurant in Stockholm

Slow Food – by now all of us have heard of this counterattack launched against fast and processed food. But what exactly is Slow Food? Founded in Italy in 1986 by publisher Carlo Petrini, the movement offers an alternative to rapidly growing fast food chains by using only regional, seasonal and traditional products.

Not only is slow food healthy and ecologically safe, but by supporting small, local businesses it is also economically responsible. By now the non-profit member-supported Slow Food Association is spread over 150 countries worldwide, and counts over 100,000 members in a network of 2,000 food communities. Together they fight against the disappearance of, and disinterest in, local food traditions inherent to the rise of a fast living and eating culture.

This is anything but a new trend. It is in fact a return to times when food wasn’t superabundant and genetically modified, but when people found value in the rituals of growing, harvesting and eating their food together.

Caina, in Stockholm’s Nobis Hotel, is one of these authentic Slow Food refuges. Here chef Luciano Aru and gastronomic director Stefano Catenacci serve classic Italian dishes from different regions of their home country, based on seasonal and local ingredients. The small but frequently changing menu ensures the sensitive care and superior quality that Slow Food stands for.

Mouthwatering dishes such as scallops with crispy fennel truffle and extra virgin olive oil, ricotta cheese stuffed ravioli with lemon and rosemary, or beefsteak with garlic fried mushrooms and Barolo wine sauce can all be savoured with a glass of exquisite Italian wine from the restaurant’s selected wine list.

Offering delicious antipasti and authentic Italian cuisine in an elegant but yet warm and welcoming ambience, Caina is a Slow Food oasis for a stress-free lunch break, and also a very nice venue for an intimate dinner among friends.

After a night in the calmly sophisticated atmosphere of White Line Hotels edit The Nobis Hotel,  Caina is ready to ease you into the day with ecologically sound Swedish breakfast including homemade foods, breads and pastries.

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Contributing writer: Julia Schröder

Images courtesy Caina/The Nobis Hotel

The Third Wave and Stumptown Coffee

The other day a friend of mine, a self-confessed coffee nerd, told me that right now we are experiencing a “Third Wave of Coffee”. Until that day I had never ever heard something like that, but being interested in all things having to do with food culture my interest was triggered right away and I was curious to find out more.

The first wave of American coffee culture started around the 19^th century and was all about serving drip coffee anywhere, anytime at low prices. With the second wave, starting in the 60s, coffee drinkers became more interested in the region or country their coffee had been imported from. This wave ended in globally franchised companies, such as Starbucks, serving overpriced espresso milk drinks.

In the third wave, however, vicinity and direct relations with the coffee farmers are now as important as putting thought and effort into roasting and brewing techniques to bring out the unique characteristics of each coffee bean.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters opened in Portland, Oregon in 1999 and has been riding this third wave of coffee culture very successfully ever since. These pioneers opened their one and only New York coffee bar at 29th and Broadway ten years later. Whereas New York used to rely on imported specialty coffee, people there finally get to enjoy the unsurpassed taste of freshly roasted beans from the nearby Stumptown roaster in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The location itself reflects the urbanity of downtown New York, with light flooding through the storefront, a dark wooden counter and a polished marble floor. With uniforms including neckties and old-timey hats, the male baristas look more like bartenders from the 1930s than your average coffee shop employee. All of it is being part of Duane Sorenson’s concept. The founder and proprietor of Stumptown Coffee Roasters wants us to see that coffee is more than just a commodity. Like wine or chocolate, coffee is very complex and coffee making a real science. It begins with the kind of varietal you decide to grow in which region, it depends on the harvesting and roasting and ends with how and from what kind of espresso machine it gets pulled.

There is too much to write about Third Waves and Stumptown’s unique way of doing business, like how they treat farmers fairly, or how employees all get full health benefits and can take time off to tour in their bands….

Stumptown is like the Portland embassy, and one of a kind for offering some of the freshest and best tasting coffee you will find in New York.

For something every bit as artisan as a cup of Stumptown’s Coffee, head over to White Line Hotels edit The Greenwich Hotel, a taste of neighbourhood heritage with a distinctive signature.

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Contributing writer: Julia Schröder

Images courtesy www.stumptowncoffee.com

Wine and MADness in Copenhagen!

If you happen to be in Copenhagen at the end of August, make sure to come hungry and don’t forget to bring your taste buds!

For the seventh time Scandanavia’s largest annual food festival Copenhagen Cooking is taking place in Denmark’s capital city from August 19^th to 28^th. With more than 80 events the streets of Copenhagen’s Frederiksberg district will be dominated by street food stands, farmer’s markets, wine tastings offering all different kinds of delicacies.

The festival starts off with the Copenhagen Wine Forum, a three day wine tasting for which the Forum Copenhagen, a huge venue that can hold up to 10.000 people, gets transformed into the biggest Scandinavian wine shop. There you will be able to sample wine and gourmet delicacies, both offered at favorable prices.

One of the festival’s most popular events is Taste Of Copenhagen where the cities’ best restaurants offer special menus at bargain prices throughout the week. Among the featured restaurants this year will be many Michelin starred restaurants such as NOMA, recently awarded World’s Best Restaurant for the second year in a row. You may want to make a reservation for that…

In a part of ‘Kødbyen’, Copenhagen’s rejuvenated meatpacking district, up to 40 top Nordic restaurants will be participating in a competition to win the gastronomic prize ‘The Nordic Fork’. For visitors to the festival, this means lots of samples of each entrants’ fantastic local produce and traditional Danish dishes on the 27^th and 28^th of August. The competitors will be accompanied by a huge market offering all kinds of Nordic twists on specialties such as coffee, wine, cocktails, ice cream and chocolate.

During the same weekend MAD Foodcamp, a new festival will be held for the first time, ‘MAD’ is Danish for ‘food’, but the founders, NOMA headchef and co-owner René Redzepi and entrepreneur Claus Meyer, have already claimed, that “there will be more than a bit of craziness involved” as well. Their aim is to celebrate food in all its richness and possible facets. Visitors will get the chance to meet international chefs and talk to local farmers, be offered workshops, watch grazing livestock, and buy fresh high quality produce from the large fruit and vegetable market.

From Refshaleøen, the site of MAD Foodcamp, it is only a pleasant ten-minute bike ride and a short – free – boat ride to get back to White Line Hotels insider tip Avenue Hotel, where you get to rest and relax after a long day of food MADness.

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Contributing writer: Julia Schröder

Images courtesy Copenhagen Cooking and MAD Foodcamp

The Grottoes of Castellana: A journey to Inner Earth

I know this is not an easy one, but if you manage to leave the heavenly paradise of the Apulian coast behind for a few hours, I may have the perfect suggestion for you on where to go. Only 30km inland of the idyllic fishing town of Savelletri lays a spectacular natural wonder: The Grottoes of Castellana, one of Italy’s most famous caves. It is hard to believe that the entrance to this amazing network of caves and caverns was used as a landfill until 1938, when speleologist Franco Anelli discovered its true secret.

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