Coming to Spain first thing that would come to your mind would be Paella and Tapas and, even if you can find good versions of both in Barcelona, neither of them come from this region: Paella is a typical dish from Valencia, being a dish for the poor where you would put everything you could get, fish and seafood in the coast, vegetables and meat in the countryside. Tapas come from the southern part of Spain (mainly Andalucía), however they became something normal almost everywhere due to the immigration of Andalusian people in the last century.

That is why I am going to teach you something similar, but more traditional, that is truly from Catalunya and, to my taste, even better than the Paella from Valencia: our Catalan Paella, “Arròs Caldós”. The main difference is that while the Valencian one is a dry rice dish, in the “Arròs Caldós” the fish stock would evaporate only to a certain point, leaving a thick and delicious broth, however this is far from a soup as most of the stock is either absorbed by the rice (it is what gives its particular flavour) or it evaporates during the cooking process.

As for the Tapas I choose mainly seafood and fish as it is part of our food heritage and something that nobody teaches anymore: do not worry, what we will make is really easy, delicious and fun and it would give you the possibility to change the dishes depending on the availability of products in your country or simply changing the recipe to adjust it to your taste.

As a garnish, we will always use a lot of different vegetables, roots and fruits, possibly seasonal ones, as it’s the way to keep a balanced diet but also it would be a great discovery to see how something which is considered usually plain and not really tasty is going to astonish you with its rich flavour and the possibility of playing with the presentation, making it something wonderful and with the aesthetic of an artwork more than a simple dish.

Tradition is important, but it’s something alive and it should always be like that, rules and constrictions will just make it fade away and disappear: changing one ingredient, adding something, using a different cooking method is never wrong, it’s the fun part of cooking, is where the creativity resides and we should always strive to make something new and exciting.

In this cooking class, you will learn how to cook, the roots of the dishes, its history and many ways to play with it: in the few hours of the class I want to give you as much information on Barcelona and its region as you would get from living here for a year!

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions.