February 6, 2010

The owner of El Bulli, commonly held to be the world’s greatest ever restaurant, was in Roast yesterday. So was Alistair Campbell and the actor who played Doogie Howser MD (remember that?) but that’s by the by and no, they weren’t dining together.

It has always been hard to get a table at the famed Spanish restaurant and I believe it’s now even harder as they are closing for longer parts of the year than before. As is the case with every food lover, I’ve always wanted to go there and so there was my opportunity to go and meet the guy and ask him if he could get me a table. But I fluffed it – he couldn’t speak English. We engaged through the medium of gesticulation – he to say he thought the building was lovely and me to say we welcomed him to Roast.

There was the one argument that they didn’t give me at school about why it’s important to learn different languages.

Yes , there arent many people who are fluent in Catalan - not even with your towering intellect, Iqbal!

I recall my father enjoyed one of his meals when he was a young chef on the Costa Brava coast. We lived in that area - sadly at that time I was too young to have the chance, and now too impecunious, and lacking in the necessary social connections...

Alice