Party Like It's 1998

As the recession is threatening to wipe out all the financial gains made over the last decade, I suppose it's only appropriate that the culinary world backtracks too. So this week sees Michelin-starred eatery El Racó d'En Freixa make a return to 1998.

These were the heydays of the Montignac Diet and protein gluttony, and the new menu is suitably heavy with plates like butifarra and cod with pigs feet, and a renaming to "Freixa Tradició" on the side. Yes, as current fashions dictate, this is another place that revisits the rustic, traditional cuisine.

The occasion (and the 1998 reference), however, is Ramon Freixa's departure to Madrid, and the handing back of the reins to daddy Josep Maria, who ran the place up until then. And pa is no slouch in the kitchen, gaining his own Michelin star when he was manning the pots.

As for the doomsayers who see this as further evidence of Barcelona's decline vis-à-vis Madrid, let's remind them that we won the title back in '98. And even if, as in La Liga, Madrid is closing in, the Michelin star score is still 16-10 to Barcelona.

Freixa Tradició - opening March 8
Sant Elíes 22, Sant Gervasi - 93 209 7559
Tuesday-Saturday 13-15:30h, 21-23:30h

by AAl