Josep Roca

The daily work of a dining room asks for consistency before flourish, and Josep Roca’s role is defined by that kind of steady attention. Reading a room, anticipating pace, and guiding a meal require the kind of understated confidence that does not need to announce itself. As co-manager and sommelier, his titles point to different duties, but both rest on the same practical authority: a working knowledge of service, and a clear sense of how to carry it.

The practical base for that authority came from moving between service and cellar in the family restaurant, where front-of-house movement and the quieter logic of storage and selection ran side by side. The cellar and the dining room operated as parallel classrooms, each teaching a different part of hospitality’s language. From that balance, wine pairing became the signature expression of his work, joining bottle to plate, texture to aroma, and structure to mood with care.

Wine pairing is the craft most closely associated with Josep Roca. In practice, it depends on attentiveness, restraint, and a measured sense of proportion. This is where training, experience, and the daily demands of stewardship meet, letting wine work alongside the meal rather than over it. The result is a form of nuance that has become central to his career.

Beronia World's Best Sommelier Award sits alongside a career shaped by disciplined work and careful judgment. The recognition speaks to a craft that often operates quietly, but with real consequences in the room. It acknowledges technical command, yes, but also the larger discipline of hospitality: building coherence, shaping an experience with precision, and doing so without drawing attention away from the table. Josep Roca i Fontané (born in Girona in 1966) is the sommelier and co-owner of El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, the three-Michelin-starred restaurant he runs with his brothers Joan and Jordi. Josep Roca i Fontané (born in Girona in 1966) is the sommelier and co-owner of El Celler de Can Roca in Girona.