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Carme ruscalleda Biography

Carme Ruscalleda

(Carme Ruscalleda Serra; Sant Pol de Mar, Barcelona, ​​1952) Catalan cook, one of the most prominent names in Spanish gastronomy.Self-taught, her dishes have always sought to spread an elaborate gastronomic culture and at the same time close to popular taste.Five Michelin stars endorse her career: three for the Sant Pau restaurant in Sant Pol de Mar (Barcelona) and two for the one she has in Japan, in the center of Tokyo.

Born into a family As farmers and merchants, young Ruscalleda seemed to have artistic aptitudes, but her teachers advised against such studies and she prepared to become part of the business that her family owned.In June 1968, Ruscalleda finished her studies in commercial commerce and in 1970 she also began to learn pork meat techniques.Already in the summer of 1968, she joined the family business, a small grocery store in which mainly cold meats and meats made in the house were sold, as well as other types of food from the region.

Carme Ruscalleda

The place, run by her father, Ramón Ruscalleda, could be considered a delicatessen , since, In addition to cold cuts, you could find a great selection of preserves, cheeses and wines from all over the world.In October 1975, Carme Ruscalleda married Toni Balam, whom she met at the family delicatessen and with whom she would establish her first business.The couple had two children, Raül (1976) and Mercè (1982).

In June 1976, Carme Ruscalleda and Toni Balam opened a takeaway section in Ramón Ruscalleda's business, and soon they started to mature the idea of ​​opening your own hospitality business.In 1988 she and her husband decided to transform an old building from 1881 into a restaurant, located right in front of the family business where they worked and which, since the sixties, had operated as a hostel during the summer season.Thus was born, in the summer of 1988, the Sant Pau restaurant, located in that old manor house with a garden and sea views, in the very heart of Sant Pol.Initially, the restaurant only opened at noon and the menu, although Of quality and with its own personality, as its owners had proposed, it was modest and consisted mainly of house sausages, cheeses and patés, along with some stews, cannelloni and salads.

Despite those modest beginnings Soon, the media and gastronomic guides began to include Sant Pau in their lists of recommended places.The cuisine of Carme Ruscalleda, self-taught in terms of culinary training, has always been inspired by the Mediterranean environment of her native Sant Pol de Mar, as well as by the variety of products that the rich garden of Maresme has seasonally contributed to her dishes..

Ruscalleda's concern for spreading elaborate gastronomy, but at the same time close to the people, respecting the best products and their seasons, made her the recipient of the highest awards.In March 1991, Carme Ruscalleda's restaurant obtained its first Michelin star, awarded by the most prestigious gastronomic guide.From that moment on the list of recognitions would be unstoppable.In September 1992, Sant Pau was selected to represent Catalan cuisine in the Catalan pavilion at the Universal Exhibition in Seville, and in December of that same year it received the Tourism Diploma from the Generalitat de Catalunya.In December 1995 Ruscalleda won the award for Best Cook from the The best of gastronomy guide, and in the spring of 1996 he obtained the second star from the Michelin guide.

Little Little by little, the Catalan cook was establishing her fame in a world, that of the great chefs, which had traditionally been in the hands of men.In the spring of 1997, Sant Pau was voted "Restaurant of the year" by the Gourmetour guide.A few months later the Spanish Academy of Gastronomy, the Cofradía de la Buena Mesa and the Secretary of State and Tourism awarded Ruscalleda the 1998 National Gastronomy Prize.In 1999, the Campsa guide awarded it the three soles, its highest rating.

In the spring of 2000, the Intxaurrondo Gastronomia Elkarteari distinguished it with the "Cocinero de oro 2000", the year in which Sant Pau opened a new 150 m2 kitchen and in which it became part of the prestigious and exclusive international association of hotels and gastronomic restaurants Relais&Chateaux.Also in 2000, the cook was the protagonist of the book Carme Ruscalleda, from dish to life (2000), by Jaume Coll.The Fundació Internacional de la Dona Emprenedora (FIDEM) awarded Carme Ruscalleda the 2001 Entrepreneurial Woman Award, for her professional career.

The Sant Pau dining room always received guests from all over the world and, to starting in 2004, many more in Japan, where Carme Ruscalleda and her husband opened a restaurant with the same name and traced philosophy in the Nihonbashi neighborhood, in Tokyo, inside a park located in the heart of the city.

In November 2005 the red Michelin guide awarded her the third star, being the first Spanish cook to possess it and becoming one of the four women in the world with that precious distinction.This award placed Sant Pau among the most important Spanish restaurants, equaling Ferran Adrià (El Bulli), Santi Santamaria (Can Fabes), Juan Mari Arzak (Arzak) and Martín Berasategui (Martín Berasategui).The distinctions would not end there, since in 2007 the cook would be awarded the gold medal for Merit in Fine Arts, and a few months later she would see how her commitment to international expansion paid off when she was awarded two new Michelin stars for her Sant Pau de Tokio.

In addition to his dedication to cooking from the Sant Pau kitchen, Ruscalleda would dedicate his time and passion to spreading the culinary art through the publication of various books, from among the which highlights Deu anys de cuina al Sant Pau (Ten years of cooking in Sant Pau, 1998), the fruit of a decade of public restoration and a book with which the cook commemorated the first ten years of life of the restaurant.In Cooking to be happy (2001), the author put her professional knowledge and wisdom at the service of everyone, with easy-to-follow recipes made with natural products.With Un any amb Carme Ruscalleda (A year with Carme Ruscalleda, 2004) she pointed out a recipe book for each month, with the products of the season.In 2006 El maduixot: how to prepare-lo 10 vegades (The strawberry: how to prepare it 10 times) appeared, and in 2007 The Mediterranean cuisine of Carme Ruscalleda would see the light, which It contains one hundred fast, modern and healthy recipes for cooking at home.

Apart from the books, at the end of 2001 a CD of six sardanas was released, Ballem-la (Let's dance) , performed by the cobla La Flama de Farners and designed to learn how to dance this traditional Catalan dance.The first of the songs, by Pere Vilà, was entitled Carme Ruscalleda .The cook from Sant Pol de Mar was the one who suggested the idea of ​​the La Flama cobla disc, and on the cover there was a photograph of a seafood dish (clams, squid, prawns...), forming a typical Sardanese circle.The creative, free and intuitive spirit of this cook seems to have no end.

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