Arnau Bosch, from Can Bosch (Cambrils), winner of the Young Chef and Entrepreneur of Catalonia award.

Chefs Mateu Casañas, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch, after receiving the award from the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition that accredits “Disfrutar” as the Best Restaurant of the Year 2015, have highlighted that for them the best award “are the customers and working for them”.

The Academy also awarded the Young Chef and Entrepreneur Award to chef Arnau Bosch, of the Can Bosch Restaurant in Cambrils (Tarragona), and the Special Award of the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition to the Hofmann Cooking School.

The awards were presented during a dinner prepared at the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site by Casañas, Castro and Xatruch, Can Bosch and the Hofmann School, which was attended by Carles Mundó, the Catalan Minister of Justice, and Meritxell Serret, the Catalan Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food.

After receiving the award, Eduard Xatruc told Efe that they are very happy, but that what they aspire to is that “Compartir”, their restaurant in Cadaqués (Girona), and “Disfrutar”, in Barcelona, “continue to please and grow in terms of gastronomy, experience and clientele”, and to be able to continue on a day-to-day basis as they have done so far.

The Academy has recognised “Disfrutar” for being able to create, with a strong personal stamp, a new gastronomic experience” based on the new paradigm of cuisine established by El Bulli, of absolute freedom and without pre-established canons.

“Disfrutar, which opened in December 2014, already has one Michelin star, two suns in the Repsol Guide, and last week received the Chilli Sauce Blog’s Jury Award for Best Creative Cuisine Restaurant.

Of Arnau Bosch, the jury highlighted that after three generations and following the guidelines of his father, Juan Bosch, he has been able to continue with this project while respecting the culinary tradition of the country.

The Hofmann School is recognised for creating a cooking school in 1983 when nobody was betting on the hotel and catering industry and for being the first to invite great master chefs such as Arzak and Ducasse to teach their new recipes and methods to students, languages and even management to train students in a comprehensive way.

The dinner was attended by some 135 people, including some thirty academics, businessmen and people linked to the world of gastronomy, who enjoyed a menu prepared by the award winners, consisting of a first course of white asparagus in different textures with elderberry and almond pickle (Disfrutar).

For the main course, we served veal shank cooked at low temperature, with creamy celery, chestnuts and mustard (Can Bosch), and for dessert, El Cactus, a white chocolate cream with a touch of tequila (Hofmann).

The councillor Meritxell Serret pointed out after the prizes were awarded that if the ministry had the idea that gastronomy is a mixture of art and science that gives us pleasure, after the dinner we must thank the academy’s initiative and congratulate the award winners for their way of making art with cooking.

He also referred to the initiative “Catalonia, European Region of Gastronomy” as a formula to promote better quality products for consumers, and recalled that among the activities that are planned within this framework are “Welcome to the peasant (Benvinguts a pagès)” in which more than 200 farmers will hold an open day on their farms in June.

The Catalan Academy of Gastronomy was founded in 1989 by the journalist, gastronomist and historian Néstor Luján and a group of gastronomes, following the model of other European Academies of Gastronomy founded during the 20th century.