The wonderful National Theatre of Catalonia was the venue for the Catalan of the Year award ceremony, which took place yesterday in Barcelona. The prize-winner of this 2011 was David Miret, the leader of Castellers de Vilafranca —one of the most important Catalan groups of people building human towers—. In line with this event, which got the cream of the Catalan society together, there was the already traditional Dinner of the Year, the place for the best chefs in Catalonia to meet and cook all together.

After going through the tapas world, the Asian cuisine and the young chefs’ view, this time the motto was “The Ten Most Magnificient”. And rightly so, since the ten chefs that took part in the yesterday’s dinner add up to 25 Michelin stars.

Under the baton of Nandu Jubany and Jordi Parra as the chief executives of the event, the three golden patrons —Ferran Adrià, Joan Roca and Carme Ruscalleda— were the masters of ceremonies once more time. Next to them, they had great squires in the starters like Carles Gaig, Paco Pérez, Carles Tejedor and Fina Puigdevall, whereas the desserts were in charge of two institutions of the sweet, Mey Hoffman and Christian Escribà.

This is the magnificient menu that the guests could taste. You can judge if it deserves the tag of Dinner of the Year…

• Ferran Adrià –El Bulli (Roses): Olive oil caviar for drink
• Paco Pérez – Miramar (Llançà): Caesar salad
• Carme Ruscalleda – Sant Pau (Sant Pol de Mar): Biodynamic peas from Vallgorguina with botifarra negra de Sant Pau
• Joan Roca – El Celler de Can Roca (Girona): Apple and foie timbal with vanilla oil.
• Carles Tejedor – Via Veneto (Barcelona): Via Veneto’s carn d’olla
• Nandu Jubany – Can Jubany (Calldetenes): Pumpkin gnocchis with summer truffle and Iberian cured ham.
• Fina Puigdevall – Les Cols (Olot): From the hen house to the dish: escalivat egg, maionnaise and tunna.
• Carles Gaig – Gaig Restaurant (Barcelona): Royal de pintada
• Mey Hofmann – Pastelería Hofmann: False quail egg

The products present at the yesterday’s event were from Anchoas El Xillu de l’Escala, Benfumat, Collverd Foie Gras, Embutidos Salgot, Formatges Tros de Sort, Guzmán Gastronomía, IGP Carxofes de Tudela, Lavazza, Ostras Daniel Sorlut y Fine de Claire, Jamón Ibérico Cinco Jotas, Grup Balfegó and Pan Triticum.

Regarding wines and cavas, a selection of some of the best wineries in Catalonia was chosen: Agrícola Sant Josep, Agustí Torelló Mata, Ca N’Estruc, Eccociwine, Gramona, Juvé y Camps, L’Origan, Miguel Torres, Mas Tinell, Mont-Ferrant, Tomàs Cusiné, Torelló and Vins de Taller. Bacardi offered the final cocktails.

The Room Service and Cuisine students from the School of Hotel Management and Tourism CETT, as always, executed an impeccable service, and enterprises like Ficfrei and Klimer were responsible for the logistics and the supplying of the materials for the dinner. Grup gsr – produccions de gastronomia was again in charge of the coordination and the general production of the Dinner of the Year.