Jessica

Today, we take you on a journey to one of the hidden gems of the Spanish coast, Castelldefels.  

Just a short train ride from Barcelona, this charming seaside town is known not only for its stunning beaches and rich history, but also for its vibrant food scene. Join us at the table to meet Guillermo Massana, counselor for tourism and hospitality at the city of Castelldefels, and explore with us the stories, flavors, and recipes of this coastal town. 

Guillermo  

Hola, my name is Guillermo Massana. I come from Castelldefels. Right now, I am part of the city council. We are a city of 70 000 people, and we are a touristic city. And the reason for that is that the city has an amazing location between nature and the seaside. You know, we have five kilometers of beach, and also the weather is particularly good. We have like 330 days a year of sun. Also, our city is well known because, you know, Barcelona is quite near Castelldefels, like 18 kilometers. But Castelldefels is working a bit like Hollywood to Los Angeles, let's say, because many people, like famous people who work in Barcelona, who have developed a huge career, a good career in their own professional field, people as famous as Lionel Messi or Ronaldinho, they decided to move there, and they are our neighbours. They were our neighbours for a long time. And that's why, well, to give them the value that they give us, we created the « Walk of Stars » of the city in the front line of the seaside, on the walk side of the sea. So, we created something similar to Cannes or Los Angeles that they have in Hollywood, but a bit different. So we are creating these kinds of spots, where you can see the stars that they were living there. We started with Ronaldinho because I think it's not only something in terms of marketing, it's also for our citizens to be proud. Someone who's earning millions and millions of euros every year has the chance to live wherever they want, but some of them choose Castelldefels, and that means a lot to us.  

I think it's beautiful, you know, it's beautiful because one of the things that really represents us as a city is the mixture of social classes. The children grew up together, as they played in the same playgrounds, in the same squares. I was born in Castelldefels, and I went to a public school, but I had friends who went to a very expensive private school, and we are still friends. We come from different realities in terms of family, but here nobody is asking you where you come from or what your father is doing in his life. I think we created a city, a place where people are very welcoming and very easy, you know, in this way. 

Jessica 

Castelldefels is a true melting pot. Let's hear more about how all of this relates to food and gastronomy. 

Guillermo  

We are a city of 70 000 people, as I said before, and we have 500 restaurants. So you can imagine that we have a big proportion of restaurants for each citizen of our city. So the main history, the history of the city, is related to gastronomy and tourism. So families and families like those from 200 years ago are still working in the field of gastronomy and restaurants. Well, mostly I think because we had the location, you know, that people from Barcelona, when they wanted to go out of Barcelona to eat somewhere else, they were looking for a place, you know, to relax. So they have developed a whole system of gastronomy there in terms of restaurants already for 150 years for sure. We have like very famous restaurants in terms of capacity and quality. So obviously, for Castelldefels, gastronomy is really important. But not only because of history, if you attend to the numbers, to the statistics right now, but most of the businesses developed in the city are also related to gastronomy or the tourism industry. At least 80-90% of the economy of the city is related to gastronomy. So most of our citizens find in gastronomy a career to develop. It's something that really makes a difference in our city.  

In Castelldefels, we have more than 120 nationalities right now. We have many different cultures and languages going on in the city. This is really influential in terms of gastronomy because people who are sitting down in the city, some of them, they're starting up businesses of catering and mixing their culture and their cuisine with the local cuisine in a natural way. Because some of them, for instance, are married, like the wife, she's from South America, and he's local, so they are cooking a kind of mixture of cultures, you know. Apart from this, we have, like, really, really good quality international restaurants, Japanese, Thai restaurants, or Georgian restaurants, we have a lot of Argentinian restaurants and Uruguayan restaurants because we have a big community of Argentinian people. 

Jessica 

The city of Castelldefels has recently launched a really unique project: designing a signature dish inspired by the sea, the mountains, and the vibrant culture of this coastal town. I personally had the chance to taste this dish on a recent visit, and what an experience to really taste the local flavour and history right in your plates. 

Guillermo 

In Castelldefels, if you are looking for a product in terms of gastronomy, the most popular one for sure is the rice, like paellas; we have different kinds of paellas. So we are a reference on the Catalonian coast. Castelldefels is serving every weekend tons and tons of rice to customers who come from all over the world. So there are many stories to tell, but right now we have a really beautiful one: we decided to create a new project in terms of gastronomy that unifies not only the history, but also the chefs, the most reputed chef in terms of rice in our city. We decided to create a recipe of rice from our city. So to do it, we are using local products, and it is based on the historical recipes that they were cooking already centuries ago in the city.  It was a process of development of this recipe that finally gave us this product that we are now offering all over, and that is called « the rice of Castelldefels ». I would recommend that you try it.  

This rice is hard to describe in terms of taste, but to explain, we have shrimps that are fished close to our coast. Also, we are using Calamari, you know, in Castelldefels, we have the sea. So this shrimp and the Calamari represent the seaside. Also, we have the mountains, you know, we have the mountains of the natural park of Garraf. And we represent these mountains by using pork. You know, we're using the ribs of pork to give a stronger taste. And also in terms of vegetables, we're using another reference for us that is like all the vegetables that are grown nearby in the delta of Llobregat. So I would say it's a mixture of the reality we have around. And it really brings the identity of the city, not only because of how we create it, but also because of the elements we're using for it. And I have to say that: every time I meet someone in the city, I offer them to try the rice and sit together. And this rice is giving us the possibility to share moments, to create new projects, and to make people come together around a recipe that represents a lot to our city. So I think it's a tool to promote the city, but at the same time, it's a tool to find a way of collaboration between the public sector and the private sector, because it's a project that was created between the city council and the private sector. We have created a product that makes us work all together. 

I think it's a beautiful process that we had for one year of developing what is a recipe, but the beautiful thing of creating something between different perceptions, it's when people want to reach something, even people who can sometimes discuss or fight, who are competitors, because don't forget it, we are talking about businessmen from the catering sector of our city, in fact they are competing every weekend for the clients. They understood that there was something bigger than their competition, that would be like a global interest for the city.  

So it's like, let's say, in terms of football, a national team, something like this. So now they are like wearing the t-shirt of the city, not the t-shirt of their own interest or their own restaurant. So having the opportunity for me as a local politician, as a councilor, to have this community of chefs who are so concerned, so connected with our city,  it gives me a lot of possibilities. Because in terms of budget, of course, we have a much lower budget than big cities like Lyon or like Busan or, of course, New York, Barcelona, or Madrid, but we have one thing that most of the cities don't have. We have a project. We have an identity, and we have a goal; we work together, and we know where we want to go, and we love what we represent. It gives us something that you cannot pay for with any budget.  

Every year, more and more restaurants want to get into the rice, you know, because it's kind of a club of restaurants that are cooking this rice, because you have to pass a test of quality. It's open to everyone, but anyone who wants to join has to prove the quality of the recipe. Now we have 15 restaurants that are serving it at the same price and with the same ingredients, following the same process and recipe, and using the same products, local products. So I think we have a good community of chefs, local ones, most of them are people who were born in our city and who developed their own career there and created their own restaurants and their own businesses. And I think this is what makes them feel connected with the city and being very responsible for what they do, what product they use. They are giving good job opportunities to the local people who are working with them because they have this conscience. I mean, so when you are going to a restaurant that is offering this officially, you can be a hundred percent sure that the quality of the product is going to be very high. So I think it's part of the magic of the project, you know.  

The good thing about having a project that brings people together like this one is that you can go all over the world to represent your city, with these people who are behind this project. We went to FITUR, which is like a tourism show in Madrid, the biggest in Spain, and we were cooking a lot of rice and giving it to many important people in Spain in terms of tourism and politics. It opened up a lot of opportunities. So people saw there the energy between our chefs, the quality of our dish, and we realised that we have something to share, very strong, and that people appreciate it. So gastronomy gives you a lot of opportunities. 

Jessica  

Castelldefels is developing several projects using gastronomy to boost both global and local tourism. This includes very specific ways of connecting cultures and communities. 

Guillermo 

We have a project called « Flowers of the World », because in our city there are a lot of consuls, you know, like diplomats who are living in our city. So, talking with some of them that we already have a close relationship with, we decided to use the School of Gastronomy that we have, the School of Hostelry, where we are creating this event. So you know, the diplomats are bringing a chef from their nationality to cook with one of our traditional chefs on the rice, or another chef who's cooking traditional food from Catalonia and Castelldefels. They are going to cook together experimentally for one evening. They are going to create some recipes that will be served by students from the School of Gastronomy of Castelldefels, and we will use gastronomy as a way to explain how fusion between cultures and multiculturality is possible in a positive way, and look into it as an opportunity. We will have these kinds of dinners once every month, each time with a different country, a different nationality. It will end up in a big, pretty big, let's say, event of gastronomy based on having different dishes from different nationalities who participated, in the main square with music and stuff, so people will be able to try different recipes from different nationalities, and it will be mixed with cultural events. So we're going to create this. It's going to be like one whole year of elaboration to share it with everyone. 

Jessica  

Castelldefels recently joined the Food Capitals by Délice Network and is already extremely active as a member. Let's find out more about how the city is engaging in this global network. 

Guillermo 

For Castelldefels, Délice Network is very, very important, you know, because it gives us the opportunity to show not only on a national, on an international level, what we love to do. And in our city, we really love to give good quality food. We love to give the best service. We love to explain our story. We love to explain our dishes. And the Délice Network is something that makes us very proud to be sitting at the same table as many important cities in terms of gastronomy. They have this big story, they have such a powerful and influential gastronomy globally speaking so for us it's more than a dream and everybody is very excited in our city with this possibility that the Délice network is giving us to open our arms to everyone who wants to join us, who wants to visit, or who wants to move to our city because everyone is welcome.  

Food has the superpower to create links between people. You should come to Castelldefels. I'm sure we have things to show, we have moments to share. We will be very glad to invite all of you.