Portrait of Joan Gurt
i. Biography
He frames Sa Marinada as the practical extension of a family plan: to leave for Madrid and open a restaurant there. In Joan Gurt’s hands, that idea reads less like a romantic beginning than a working inheritance, a project shaped by family instinct, location, and the discipline required to turn a household ambition into service every day.
The Climb
Running the kitchen at Sa Marinada means carrying both memory and control. As chef, Joan Gurt is responsible for translating market and sea into plates that stay precise, generous, and recognizably tied to the house. The work sits inside a family business with roots already in place, so the climb is measured not only in professional steps, but in how carefully ingredients, suppliers, and routine are held together.
Today
At Sa Marinada, sourcing is the first task, and it is treated in plain terms. “All our wild fish come to us with their tags after passing through the fish market.” The line points to the systems behind the kitchen: traceability, freshness, and the supplier chain that lets a restaurant stand behind what it serves. The menu also reaches into ingredients that are scarce enough to require persistence. “The tiny baby octopuses, which there are almost none left of, I have to go to six or seven fish markets to bring back at most a kilo, but I have clients who ask for them.” The work here is as much about finding as cooking. Scarcity changes the rhythm of buying, and that rhythm carries directly into the kitchen. Continuity is part of the method. “We know our suppliers. We come from a family of hoteliers established on the Costa Brava.” That line places Sa Marinada inside a wider trade network built on familiarity, seasonal knowledge, and repetition. The restaurant reads as one point on a longer map of hospitality, with Joan Gurt working within a lineage already established and still active.
In Their Words “The tiny baby octopuses, which there are almost none left of, I have to go to six or seven fish markets to bring back at most a kilo, but I have clients who ask for them.” “We know our suppliers. We come from a family of hoteliers established on the Costa Brava.”
Career - Chef, Sa Marinada, Madrid
FAQ What is Joan Gurt's craft? Chef at Sa Marinada, Sa Marinada (Madrid).
The Sunday letter
Get new profiles like Joan Gurt every Sunday.
One email a week with the chefs, winemakers and artisans we have just profiled, and the places they run.
One email a week. Unsubscribe from any issue.
The Sunday letter
Get the next Made By profile in your inbox.
We send one email every Sunday morning with the people we profiled that week.
One email a week. Unsubscribe from any issue.