Saturday July 13, 2024 - €125/Person
Josep Pla wrote that "the only cuisine worth preserving is our old family cuisine." For this reason, for the second consecutive year, the 4-star Hotel Alga in Calella de Palafrugell, owned by the Nicolazzi family, will be the setting for an emotional and succulent Tribute Dinner to Traditional Catalan Cuisine. On this occasion, the honorees will be the brothers Josep and Jaume Font from the legendary Sa Punta hotel in Pals, and Benvi Aligué from the now-closed Aligué restaurant in Manresa.
The Tribute Dinner, which will celebrate its second edition on July 13th - the first one was dedicated to the Catalan-Alsatian chef Jean Louis Neichel - aims to pay homage to the roots of Catalan cuisine and to highlight the role of those figures and professionals who have also paved the way for being "authentic culinary references," in the words of Pere Malagelada, executive chef of the El Càntir restaurant at the 4-star Hotel Alga.
So, the sound of the waves of the Mediterranean Sea and the scents of the beach and forest of Calella de Palafrugell will once again set the perfect atmosphere for this dinner, during which the trajectory of three figures who shaped the cuisine of the Ampurdan region and central Barcelona in the 1980s and early 1990s: the Font brothers and Benvi Aligué, will be recognized.
And to make it possible, the gardens of the 4-star Hotel Alga will host diners who want to reminisce about the flavors of some of the legendary dishes of the honorees.
Creations such as the Palamós prawn cocktail, which chef Pere Malagelada will reinterpret in a 3.0 style, will be served. This will be followed by a "Suquet de lluerna" in the style of Empordà, a clear reference to the cuisine offered by the Font brothers at Sa Punta; while the main course will be "Espatlla de xai lletó de “Ramats de Foc” de l'Albera al forn amb peres i puré de coliflor i formatge Tou de Til·lers", a dish representative of Benvi Aligué's cuisine. The menu will be topped off with a very emblematic dessert: "Taps de Cadaqués flamejats" in the style of Sa Punta, which Jaume Font himself will finish at the table, as was done more than four decades ago. The menu will be paired with wines from the DO Empordà from Bodega Arché Pagès, Viñas de los Aspres, and Bodega Hugas de Batlle in Colera. Also available will be cavas from AT Roca and Vichy Catalan waters.
According to Malagelada, the idea is to "pay tribute every year to professionals who marked an era and who were authentic pioneers of a generation that later became stellar, like the Adrias or the Rocas. Because we must remember that before all these great chefs, everyone looked up to these authentic masters of local cuisine."
A year ago, the brothers Jaume and Josep Font stepped back from the front line, after nearly five decades leading the legendary Sa Punta in Pals, which opened its doors in 1976. With Jaume in the kitchen and Josep in the dining room, Sa Punta became a beacon among the country's top restaurants, thanks to its honest approach to local cuisine, where the season and the market dictated the dishes, with controlled cooking, perfect execution, and a service that unfortunately was found in few restaurants.
To confront the creativity that was already making headlines in those years, Jaume Font clung to well-treated quality products, with a cuisine rooted in classics, offering tasty dishes where good taste was the hallmark, and, above all, complemented with exclusive table service, overseen by Josep Font, one of the country's great maitre d's. The restaurant, which boasted a Michelin star for years, was bought, along with the hotel, by Pascal Billard (director of the Majestic).
On the other hand, Restaurant Aligué opened its doors in 1957 in Manresa, and definitively closed them with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic on March 13, 2020. However, during this period, the restaurant positioned itself as one of the must-visits in central Catalonia, especially from 1982 onwards, when the Aligué brothers, Agustí and Benvingut (Benvi), took over the family management of the business.
At Aligué, considered the best Catalan restaurant in 2012, diners enjoyed Benvi's cuisine, with clear roots in Catalan cuisine from Ignasi Domènech and some French, Italian, and Basque influences, where Benvingut spent several periods. For many years, the establishment was considered a "temple of truffle cuisine", although each of the ingredients used by Benvi managed to shine spectacularly. Proximity products largely came from family land.