Fina Puigdevall and her daughters (Martina, Clara and Carlota)
Source from local producers, bet on organic ingredients, use renewable energy, reduce the use of plastics, guarantee animal welfare These are trends that are here to stay.
And this has nothing to do with fashion. Sustainability is an urgent, imperative need, and there is many restaurants that have already begun to move "green."
But there are others who have spent years, decades, working in this line, projects in which sustainability has been the reason for being from the beginning. And the Michelin Guide has decided to reward the latter for it.
In the 2020 edition of France, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark a new star was included, the green one (drawn as a five-leaf clover) that distinguished a series of establishments not only for their gastronomic excellence but especially for their sustainable practices.
This 2021 has come the turn to the edition of Spain and Portugal, which has marked with this new distinctive 21 Spanish establishments. But as usually happens unfortunately in many areas -and haute cuisine is no exception- only three of these new green stars have fallen to venues led by women. This report is dedicated to them.
Fine Puigdevall in the orchard
LES COLS (OLOT, CATALONIA): 2 Michelin stars. 3 Repsol soles
The will to stay in La Garrotxa and to work with all that this volcanic land has to offer was always a maxim for Fina Puigdevall, who has run the Les Cols restaurant since 1990, located in the 16th-century farmhouse where it was born.
The stables of this old family house were brilliantly converted by the RCR arquitectes team (Pritzer Architecture Prize 2017) and from the very beginning Puigdevall chose to add to the complex own small vegetable garden and chicken coop to supply the restaurant.
The years went by and with them came the awards, that is, two Michelin stars, three suns from the Repsol guide, the National Gastronomy Award in 2019... and now, the green star.
"We like to give relevance to the humble product, to the untraveled product"
"Although we have always opted for the local, there came a time when we saw the need to expand the orchard and work in a more sustainable way with the aim of knowing and experiencing the product in order to transmit its essence to the restaurant" says Puigdevall.
Thus, a few minutes from Les Cols, in the very center of the La Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park , the current project includes an ecological and permaculture garden that at its best produces up to 80% of the fresh vegetables served in the restaurant.
In it they grow ancient native varieties that were lost, such as the apple of the ciri, the white aubergine or the buckwheat, that from being practically forgotten has come to star in some recipes from Les Cols and —after Puigdevall— from many other restaurants in the region.
In fact, one of the two tasting menus served at Les Cols, the Horitzó menu: green & sustainable, is made practically entirely with products from this garden and its chicken coop: "We like to give relevance to the humble product, to the untraveled product."
Fina Puigdevall, one of the few spearheads of the leading role of women in haute cuisine, has incorporated three more women into her kitchen and dining room team: her daughters Martina —who is currently the head chef of the restaurant— Clara and Carlota. "The restaurant will continue with the three of them."
Since 1990, Fina Puigdevall has run the restaurant Les Cols
THE LLAR OF VIRI (SAN ROMÁN DE CANDAMO, ASTURIAS): Bib Gourmand
Also in women, in the plural, she has relapsed the only green star that has traveled to Asturias, specifically to San Román de Cándamo.
Viri Fernández and her daughter-in-law Mª José Miranda (another example of that future in green and feminine that can be seen on the horizon) are at the head of El Llar de Viri, a traditional eating house where, in reality, we have always worked in a sustainable line and hand in hand with local producers.
"We are not chefs, we are stewardesses, a figure with which here in Asturias women who have spent generations in the kitchen are known, perpetuating the culinary knowledge of mothers, grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers".
viri fernandez
Viri, who in addition to having a close relationship with all of her suppliers — her neighbors — cultivates a garden from which strawberries, tomatoes or cabbage grow that she uses in her recipes and to make, for example, homemade preserves or jams.
"And what is thrown away from the kitchen returns to the garden in the form of compost. We have not invented anything, this has always been done here."
Viri's cuisine is honest, without artifice, in which stew cuisine is vindicated, those pots and those beans that led her to receive the recognition of 'The Best Fabada in the World' in the gastronomic days of Villaviciosa.
Fernández and Miranda are also implicated in the recovery of a native Asturian breed of Celtic origin, the oveya xalda, It was on the brink of extinction in the 20th century.
CASA ALBETS (LLADURS, CATALONIA): Bib Gourmand
An 11th century farmhouse that has belonged to the same family uninterruptedly for more than a thousand years is another of the establishments that —with a woman in charge of the kitchen— has just received the Michelin green star.
Isolated from everything and surrounded by fields in the remote region of Solsonès, in Lleida, the old Casa Albets houses a sustainable project that is actually very young.
In 2017 Megan Albets and her partner Joel Llurda decided to reform the family farmhouse and reconvert it into a hotel and a restaurant based on two fundamental pillars "it had to be organic and vegan, like our principles of life" Alberts says. So it was
"At first we worked with Toni Rodríguez (a benchmark in vegan pastry) in the design of a menu that was sufficiently creative and attractive. And then came chef Cristina Moncunill, the current head chef, that she adapted perfectly to the philosophy of the house. Today everything happens for her."
The judges of the guide have valued very positively that since its inception the restaurant has sourced from local organic producers , but also that Casa Albets has the highest energy efficiency certification.
"100% of our energy comes from renewable sources, We work with a local independent electricity company and we also have a biomass boiler that we feed with natural fuels that come from the region. oh! and since confinement we have begun to manage own garden that already provides us with a lot of the fresh vegetables that we need in the kitchen".
Just like Fina Puigdevall, who has transferred the landscapes of La Garrotxa to the plates, also Cristina Moncunill uses the ingredients of Solsonès —like the black peas so typical of this land— and the organic wines that are produced in the neighboring D.O. Pla de Bages and D.O. Coast of the Segre.
"We have verified through experience that you can live in an ecological and vegan way without having to give up anything."