Let's go "home" with Jaume Bartés at Barcelona Gaudí

Every one of us will have at least one dish that is reminiscent of moments in our lives at home. Some might even have a dish that allows them to relive the moment when they fought with their moms and later got called to come downstairs to eat dinner with teary eyes. Or, for some, a mini second of cinnamon’s odor can just festively transform the present into wonderful Christmas time they have had with their family. The imaginative Christmas vibe, though, suddenly dissolves for they realize that the person next to them in the BTS Skytrain biting a cinnamon roll from Starbucks is not actually allowed to eat food on the train.

A warm-hearted Christmas of ours can be reminded in a number of ways. However, “a dish” of canelones catalanes (Catalan-styled cannelloni) lets Jaume Bartés--the owner of Barcelona Gaudí--have his retrospection of Christmas time in Catalonia, Spain. The reason why the Catalan cannelloni is so special for Christmas there lies in the tendency to cook with different kinds of meat, say, pork, beef, chicken, and lamb. Catalan people are so passionate about meat that it is usually one of the main ingredients for making soup at Christmas time. The funny thing is that, as Jaume said, Catalan people cannot really finish the soup. So, how do they alleviate the guilt of wasting the food? They splash away the broth but keep the meats. The meats were all ground together. Next time we see the meats, they are part of canelones catalanes!

It is a shame, however, not to have that Catalan-styled cannelloni in Barcelona Gaudí; there only exist spinach and chicken cannelloni. But please, do not ever think for a second that a lack of the Catalan cannelloni would rob the customers of their experience to try homemade Catalan food because Jaume has guaranteed that his restaurant provides “food that actually everyone can cook at home”. Uh... wait, if you can cook it at home, why come to this restaurant at all? The answer to that is “home” from his sense is that in Catalonia.

In the restaurant, they make a lot of things by themselves, trying to use suppliers as least as possible. The things are such as the two Catalan pork sausages--namely fuet and butifarra--burgers, and croquettes. All of these give out the sentiment of Catalan domesticity. They magically take Jaume “home”.

Physically, Barcelona Gaudí is a materialized proof of an ambition to conjure the magic of the Catalonian vibe. Firstly, it’s necessary to mention that it was also because of Marc Font, his friend and a chef, who proposed a plan to establish the restaurant when things aligned for Jaume. Hence, Barcelona Gaudí made it to Bangkok. Subsequently, the two started to think about Antonio Gaudí’s modernism expressed through the Park Güell and the Sagrada Familia, the important architecture in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. If one visits those places before coming to the restaurant, they will be able to easily feel the fragmented pieces of tiles and the curvy lines inspired by nature as modernism should be. This undoubtedly creates a vivid image of Barcelona’s vibe despite the fact that Jaume, as a former engineer, might want to hang himself for the complexity of the style designed by the architect. But, after all, the design of the restaurant lives up to its name.

Yet, Bangkokians do not suffer the high cost of living and the ridiculous traffic jams to have Catalan cuisine as their own. They have always had Thai cuisine, ranging from that on a skyscraper to that on the streets. The necessity for them to come “home” seems insignificant. Well, that is one kind of rationale to have. Alternatively, Bangkokians can have another way of thinking that this authenticity of Catalan food is a tool for Jaume to unfold his original stories from Catalonia in which he had lived himself. Then, they can live the stories told through the taste of Jaume’s food; and eventually, they will have created their own before they even know it. Think about it. Some random croquettes cooked in Thailand do not make so much sense, but the croquettes made in a walled space filled with the Catalan delicacy in terms of gastronomy and vibe do take the customers away on a journey that later drops them off in the same Bangkok along with new exotic experiences of their lives. They won’t know what the experiences could be like until they try it in the restaurant.

Having said that, it does not mean Barcelona Gaudí is on a bed of roses on the condition that it needs to be situated in Bangkok. Most of Thai people have complained about the degree of saltiness in the food, which is considered to be moderate for Spaniards, according to Jaume. Some even complained about anchovy that it looks like cat food. Yes, it’s funny but it’s not a joke though. Also, there was a duration of three months that Jaume introduced Tom Yum Kung Paella and Ka Prao Paella. However, he viewed that it didn’t really make sense for him. He didn’t like it, so he took them out of the menu.

In terms of targeting Thai customers, the restaurant is finding its way to them. At the moment, the majority of the customers are still Japanese. Nevertheless, one should not give up on the restaurant just because of this process for Catalan and Spanish cuisine to adjust to the new place--Thailand. Remember, we are talking about the newbie from afar here. Give him a shot!

Anyway, we all should congratulate Jaume on having had Barcelona Gaudí for 5 years now. On November 15, 2019 (the 5th anniversary), he must have cooked a huge pan of paella for the guests at the party. Bonissim!

Didn’t you go to the party and eat the paella? It’s okay because “[i]f you want to try the casual Catalan food, you can [go there] and you will find out that the food is also good. Come to our friendly restaurant! You’re so welcomed here” said Jaume.

“If you do one paella at home, you can take your time. In the restaurant, we prepare the boxes and we have to do it in certain minutes. If I do Paella at home, I’ll take two hours. And that’s the same when we throw a party, we do the big paella, not taking certain minutes. It takes one hour and a half. It tastes different” (Bartés, 2019).