It is not the first time that these UN ambassadors for the sustainable development goals undertake an environmental project.
Madrid (EFE) .- Fulfill a wish of his mother, Montserrat Fontané, has taken the brothers Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca through Spain, Ecuador and Norway in search of food seeds that they are no longer cultivated and recover them in the orchards of the three-star El Celler de Can Roca (Girona, northeast Spain), a process that has been reflected in Sowing the future.
The documentary, produced by LLyC and which premieres this Wednesday on Amazon Prime Video, Movistar + and the BBVA website – an ally of the Roca family since 2013 – part of a desire for Montserrat, who years ago said in an interview that he would be happy eating dishes of his childhood by the fireplace in the house where he grew up.
The problem is that the house was in ruins and that the usual ingredients of his childhood had stopped being cultivated, because around three-quarters of agricultural varieties have been lost in the last century and 86% of species are in danger of extinction in a world where only nine crops represent 66 percent of total global production.
That did not discourage his three children, who while they were in charge of restoring Can Batista, They undertook the search for seeds by going to germplasm banks such as the Red de Guardianes de Semillas of Ecuador or Nord Gem (Norway), the largest in the world with a million “jewels” from all countries.
With the help of the Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón (CITA), The Carl Faust Foundation and the community of local producers managed to recover indigenous varieties of crops that only lived in the memory of Montserrat, such as white aubergine and purple potato from La Garrotxa, bitxo pepper or mongeta from L’ull Ros.
It is not the first time that these UN ambassadors for the sustainable development goals undertake an environmental project, but behind Sowing the future there is a “great emotion” for that “tribute to our mother, to the mother’s kitchen and to mother seeds” that serves as a starting point to launch an alert message about the dramatic loss of biodiversity and the need to buy and eat from Responsible way, Josep Roca explained to Efe.
To show those flavors that their environment had lost, they created two menus from salvaged products, one “more artisan” for his mother and another “goldsmith” for El Celler de Can Roca; the second, presented to chefs and members of FAO and Slow Food, among others, includes dishes such as squid with black turnip from Olot, white aubergine from La Garrotxa lacquered or apple with bitxo pepper, which are incorporated into its tasting menu .
New flavors for the vast majority, but that aroused the emotion of Montserrat Fontané after entering by surprise the restored house of his childhood and eating, surrounded by her children, some purple potatoes that she hadn’t tasted “for 70 years.” It is the happy ending of a story that does not look so good for the planet.
“The world loses ten seeds every day. We have to re-educate eating habits, reflect on those processed, think about the future of the next generations, question monocultures ”, advises the sommelier and head of the room.
The Roca family have decided to take on this new responsibility, that of “raising awareness”, especially in homes, knowing that gastronomy is a “good speaker” to talk about this problem. “The role of cooks has to change, it has to stir consciences”, as well as highlighting the value of products that the world cannot lose, points out in the documentary Joan Roca.
The film is the start of a more ambitious initiative in which the Roca and BBVA want to involve chefs from all over the world in the fight to preserve biodiversity by fostering collaboration with local producers, incorporating local foods in the menus and proposing a “greener” lifestyle.
Colleagues by profession such as Leonor Espinosa (Colombia), Santiago Blondel (Argentina), Rodrigo Pacheco (Ecuador) or Jorge Vallejo (Mexico) already share these concerns, as shown in a documentary that values memory as a “source of creativity to get closer to your roots”, stressed Josep Roca.
Memory embodied here by her mother, who has been moved by the documentary, a “gift for ever” for those who can now savor the buckwheat churros with chocolate that Jordi Roca covered for her.
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