Lluc Quintana

The Training Espai Sucre is the first named place in Quintana’s formation, and it is important here because his cooking at the Girona restaurant is marked by good technique, careful presentations, and plenty of flavor. The schooling sits behind a style that does not treat Catalan tradition as fixed; it gives him a way to work inside it, revise it, and still keep local product at the center. From there, the path moved through El Dorado Petit, where he worked, and Els Tinars, another stop in the same professional arc. Each post belongs to the apprenticeship of a cook gathering habits: precision, repetition, service, and the discipline of adapting to another kitchen’s rhythm.

The Lineage The strongest turn in that line came at L’Aliança d’Anglès, where Quintana served as head chef. Leadership changes the nature of formation: the cook who once absorbed a house’s rules becomes responsible for shaping the work of others, deciding how a dish should taste, how a plate should leave the pass, and how a team should hold itself through service. That sense of continuity carries into his current work. In 2018, the project at Can Xapes innovated from tradition and functioned as a training and labor-integration school for young people at risk of social exclusion. The detail gives the restaurant a social dimension as well as a culinary one: tradition is not only what reaches the dining room, but what can be taught, practiced, and handed forward through labor.

The Table At the restaurant, Quintana offers contemporary Catalan cooking that highlights local product with technique, careful presentation, and full flavor. The cooking is precise without losing warmth, and its clearest signatures come from dishes that make use, memory, and pleasure share the same plate. A rabbit dish from the menu represents, in Quintana’s view, the essence of the restaurant’s zero-waste and sustainable cooking. Tartar de atún, aguacate y fresas con gazpacho de cerezas appears among the flavorful dishes, pairing tuna, avocado, strawberries, and cherry gazpacho in a bright register. Carpaccio de manitas de cerdo is counted as a successful dish, turning a humble cut into something controlled and deliberate. The sweet side of the menu shows the same care. Chocolate, plátano, haba tonca y ron is one standout dessert, while albaricoques confitados con helado de coco, dados de miel, crema de azafrán y almendra marcona is another, building its impact from preserved apricots, coconut ice cream, honey dice, saffron cream, and Marcona almond.