It is pretty rare to find 3 brothers working together in a fine dining restaurant. The brothers' strategy is simple; divide and conquer. Each one is doing one part of what makes their restaurant El Celler de Can Roca successful and they do it to perfection.
Josep handles the wines, Jordi the sweets, and Joan the kitchen. So, even though they work together, they do stay out of each other's way. May be that is why they are so successful.
On the day of our visit, a gentleman approached our table and introduced himself: “I’m Josep, one of the brothers and I am the Sommelier, is everything ok with your table?” he said. After a star struck moment, we told him how amazing everything was. His reaction was a shy smile and he replied: "at your service!". What a modest reaction! Here is a man on top of his game, on top of the world with his family along, and he is telling his guests he is at their service. Unbelievable!
At the end of the dinner we caught up with Joan, who is the other brother, the chef. He seemed tired with red eyes from a busy night, but he was all willing to humor us and take a picture. He insisted we found a good background for the picture and took us in the kitchen in front of his kitchen desk. He didn’t speak much English and even though we tried telling him what a fascinating work, he and his kitchen team were doing, he just knotted thank you without much speaking.
What a divine trio of brothers. Their mother should be so proud!