A voice from the receiver reporting with interrogative intonation: «I have a reservation in El Celler de Can Roca in a week. Would you like to come along?” It is a game in tactfulness (thank you, Natalya Avdeeva).

You answer politely that you have to think about it and you start to check flights to Barcelona for the required dates and pack a suitcase.

It doesn’t have much to do with the fact that one has to reserve a table there a year before the date of the visit, three Michelin stars since 2009 and a number of nominations like «the best restaurant of the world» according to whatever it might be.

The prototype kilogram, which is kept in the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sèvres, is not the best kilogram. But it’s important as a reference.

It happened that the Roca brothers’ restaurant (as well as a number of some other still existing and unfortunately deceased ones: elBulli, Noma, The French Laundry, The Fat Duck, Osteria Francescana, etc (may gastro gods bless and salute them)) sets this kind of prototype in the world of Haute cuisine.

You have to visit it in order to get acquainted and be able to make a comparison.

P.S. After my dinner at El Celler de can Roca, a thought came into my mind: «Our Russian chefs, for example Vladimir Mukhin (taking into account his Spanish school, it’s simpler to draw parallels this way), are very close, not just a step behind, but literally treading on their toes.