Carme Ruscalleda and Raül Balam demonstrated their cordial relationship and personal and professional understanding during their talk at FéminAs. Mother and son described their view of cookery - seasons, knowledge and respect, in the sense of respect for the produce, the team and the general public. “Because cookery is culture. No one should have any doubt about that", said Catalan chef Carme. This signalled the end of a talk which had attendees taking a look at their agendas, because Raül announced when he intended to open the new Cuina Sant Pau: “It will be 1 July for sure. It's a Friday, and it was a Friday 1 July when my mother opened the Sant Pau 34 years ago”. More respect.

Although the talk focused on understanding and respect, the big news concerned the opening of a space which housed one of the world's best restaurants for 30 years.
“It will be called Cuina Sant Pau, with no "restaurant" in the name. The restaurant was the "Sant Pau". It will be a place devised for sharing, but with the same philosophy of respect for produce that governed the Sant Pau. A place similar to the restaurant my parents started in 1988, and with some of the iconic recipes from the Ruscalleda universe. After that, the customers will tell me which direction it should go in"; explained Raül.

With the present duly onboarded, mother and son dwelt on their past history and on communicating passion and communion by breaking moulds - Carme, for example, told the congress that "when I was born, little girls had a set of rules saying we had to do certain things. That's changed. Nowadays it's women who are going into professional kitchens, and men who are working in kitchens at home. We can't compete with men in a marathon. But we can in a kitchen”.

Raül added: "There's never been any difference between genders at home. That's why I take on people, not men or women". The indivisible gender equality of a family with a passion for theme menus (“I started this in 2015. We must have more than 20 of them now, at Sant Pau, Sant Pau Tokyo and Moments”, said Carme) which, in the case of Moments in Barcelona, now concentrate on the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals for the year 2030. 

Goal number 5 is Gender equality. "Nowadays the world isn't just male and female gender. There are many more. We must understand that there are many other kinds of intimacies we must have respect for. And we explain this goal with an egg recipe. We all started out as an egg, an embryo. And the egg grows and develops in some way or other. We cook it at a low temperature and cover it with a mousse with triple asparagus, cooked in three different ways. After that, give your imagination free rein. That's what the evolution of the world is: gender equality".

The pillars of the Ruscalleda family

Mother and son described their culinary criteria, urging new chefs both male and female to "touch foodstuffs and visit producers because when they work with the ingredients they will have a better understanding of them, and will have more respect for them. Technical knowledge is important, but it's also important to be in touch with the primary sector. That's what will give cooking its originality", explained Ruscalleda.

They observed their own commandments: Observance of seasons (“Eating seasonal produce is such a pleasure”. Balam) and curiosity about new things. The family exercised its curiosity when it opened up the outlet in Tokyo, “where we brought along our own region, the Maresme, but we came back with knowledge - knowledge of how to work with cold meat cuts, for example. Now we do that better, and we're from a delicatessen ...". And so, they concluded, travelling and discovering other realities broadens your mindset and helps you along. But one rule is that "cooking must showcase the environment. What you're eating is a landscape, and so you learn and integrated, but it always shows you who you are", concluded Ruscalleda.