Josep

Pitu

Roca (Girona, 1966) has spent half his life -or more- defending that trade that last night raised him

a little higher on the Olympus of world sommelier

.

For the first time, the famous list The World's 50 Best Restaurants (held last night in London) included among its recognitions the Award for Best Sommelier in the World (Beronia World's Best Sommelier Award), an award that has gone to the Spanish sommelier and co-owner of El Celler of Can Roca.

Unexpected award: "I did not know that the 50 Best were going to award this new award.

It is the first time that they put the focus on the world of sommeliers

and that in front of the entire gastronomy community wine has been given that importance, Like the kitchen and the pastry, it has been very nice", Josep points out in this telephone interview, to whom the applause he heard last night at Old Billingsgate, the old London fish market where the gala was held,

put him a little " goose-flesh".

Nice and perhaps even with a bit of poetic justice we could add, because "J

oan already had the best chef; Jordi, the best pastry chef

; they also awarded us the best hospitality, but this one was missing", comments this recognition that, in short, it goes to the

coffers

of Celler.

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GASTRONOMY.

The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2022: The Danish Geranium, best restaurant in the world;

Enjoy and DiverXo, third and fourth

  • Drafting: ISABEL MUÑOZ/ AMAYA GARCIA

The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2022: The Danish Geranium, best restaurant in the world;

Enjoy and DiverXo, third and fourth

In this gastronomic temple of Girona, the middle of the Roca officiates as

a great master in the art of harmonizing dishes and wines

, a pairing that according to critics is almost a communion.

But the giggly, expressive and cheerful maitre d' sommelier - who likes to call himself

"a wine waiter, yes I am"

- is no newcomer to awards, not just as a member of the

holy trinity

. del Celler

, but also individually.

Take note: National Gastronomy Award for Best Maître de Sala (2004) and Best Sommelier (2010), the International Academy of Gastronomy Award for Best Sommelier (2005 and 2011), the Gueridón de Oro for Best Maître de Sala (2013) ...Various awards that

he is always grateful for and extend to this profession that he admires so much

: "Receiving an award is an opportunity to thank and share. I want to share it with the team and with all the waiters and waitresses who can read me. From the simplest bar to the most exclusive restaurant", he wrote a couple of weeks ago on his twitter account.

Something that he repeats now after becoming the best sommelier in the world -The World's 50 Best Restaurants,

dixit-

.

This is his way of

spurring people on to the profession

: "We need to have motivation, the ability to excel, to accompany the talents and tell them that

using unbridled passion they can also get there

", he explains now more calmly after the effervescence of the gala.

In an image of The World's 50 Best Restaurants gala, held on Monday night.

An expert and researcher

, he admits that "today we drink less wine, but we know more about why we do it. We are more demanding, perhaps

we have lost costumbrism

, but

we have become more aware when it comes to drinking it

."

Curious to satiety, his thing is constant learning.

"We are talking about a living drink in which there are great challenges, especially now that the weather conditions will also cause a change of life in the vineyards," he anticipates.

They say that the first contact of the boy Pitu with the wine world took place

in the cellar -located in the basement- of the inn that his parents

ran (Can Roca).

And they keep saying: he was barely 8 years old, but he was able to fill six bottles of wine at once, move freely around the dining room and

talk to customers ("sometimes, on roller skates"

, collects his profile in El Celler de Can Rock).

And right there began to hatch his passion for his two favorite worlds of his: wine and the room.

The Celler of Can Roca©THE CELLER OF CAN ROCA

The mischievous boy grew up... and was trained: at the

School of Catering in Girona, together with his brothers, Joan and Jordi

.

A year later, the trio opened, in a place adjacent to the family business, El Celler (first Michelin star in 1995; second in 2002 and third in 2009; twice the best restaurant in the world in the 50 Best...) which since 2019 It is part of the

Best of the Best

Hall of Fame , which welcomes the previous

number one

of this ranking that was born in 2002 as an alternative to the stars of the Michelin guide.

Speaker, writer, disseminator,

modest wine waiter, yes, but also the best sommelier in the world and even a philosopher: "We want to show that

wine is not only tasted and smelled, but that it can be felt, even heard

".

This is how he defines -and he writes on the restaurant's website- the journey to the soul of the wines that he proposes at the Roca house.

Also, poet.

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