Rafa Peña is a chef who never gets bored. He opened Gresca with his partner Mireia Navarro nearly 20 years ago, when the concept of wine bars was not as common as it is today. “We saw what was being done in France and wanted to start it. We have been selling natural wines since 2006. At that time there were only Renima del Vi and Lavinia in Barcelona. They taught us a lot,” he says. After that, I looked for a place to have a drink after work, but couldn’t find one, so I created Bar Torpedo (Alibau, 143), where you can eat delicious sandwiches and drink until 3am. In 2020, he made the leap to Madrid, taking the helm of the Hotel Santo Mauro’s restaurant La Libreria, and this summer he opened another Torpedo in Barcelona (Diputacio, 301). This week, he launched his latest project, Provisions Gresca Delicatessen (Carer del Rossello, 209), where he sells unique preparations such as butifarra de papada, criollo chorizo and campagna pâté, among others. “We had over 35,000 bottles of wine in storage, so we were outgrowing our warehouse. We had a store next door to Gresca that had been empty for two years, and we thought it didn’t make sense to open a wine store when we had 1,000 bottles, but what about a delicatessen?”
In addition to the famous Iberian loin and Comte cheese Bikini (the most imitated and Barcelona icon) served with very thin bread, Gresca has been creating its own charcuterie creations for some time now. For this reason, Peña feels that the opening of the delicatessen will help this field of research evolve. “We’ve spent a year and a half testing lots of Catalan and French charcuterie recipes, from pâté en croute to tubs, including blood sausage from Burgos. We’ve been self-taught, so our cholesterol must be at an all-time high,” he says with a laugh.
“The idea is to create a neighborhood delicatessen that is accessible to everyone, that can offer the same things that Gresca does, and that acts as our supplier.” In fact, the store opened last Saturday without any announcements in preparation for a few weeks of filming, and so far customers have been flocking from the neighborhood. “We’ve talked to a lot of charcuterie makers over the course of our lives, and they all agree that it’s a union that doesn’t know what to be like as a medium. It doesn’t punish them, but there’s no generational change, and that’s what separates the profession from the profession. With the great world stars. Cooking inspires young people to want to do that too, and in charcuterie I hope that Zesc Reina, the leading figure in the Spanish charcuterie world, will be an example of how to do that, because it is a beautiful profession and it is very much ours,” he said. I would add.
Peña said he has seen jobs disappear over the years he has run Gresca restaurant. “Those who were dedicated to the fields quit because they didn’t have a replacement or because the pay was so low. We weren’t fair to the fields and people don’t want to pay for the quality they’re worth. So it’s important to know what you’re going to eat. One day… I’m not saying you can’t eat a gas station sandwich. Life isn’t perfect, but you have to eat well and stay healthy in your daily life.” I’m conscious of what I eat, but of course I have to pay for it. ” In contrast to other places, Catalan chefs do not specify on their menus the origin of the ingredients used in their dishes. “I would have had to put it on everything,” he says. “So we just say we try to choose as much local and seasonal as possible. And we don’t buy in Canada. The furthest we can get is citrus from Perpignan, and for me, that’s what I buy locally.”
His passion, knowledge of the world of wine and his friendship with French and local wine producers are reflected in his menu. “When I first started getting into wine, I used to buy wine from all over the place out of pure curiosity, but now I’ve stopped doing that. Why bring 12 bottles from Australia? There might be a few, but it can’t be the majority of the menu. Living in Europe, I don’t see the need to buy wine from far away,” he says. What remains constant is the daily lunchtime menu from Monday to Friday. “I like it the most because it forces me to change it every week and it’s a really fun game for the kitchen. It costs 24 euros and it’s all thanks to my clients who have been with me since 2006.”
I keep getting offers to launch projects all over the world. For example, opening a project in Dubai. “But what am I doing in Dubai?” he asks. However, he chose Madrid and five years ago became the director of La Biblioteca restaurant at the Hotel Santo Mauro. “If we had to move to go to Madrid, it would be here. Have you seen this?” he said in the middle of the hotel’s palatial room, in contrast to the shorts he always wore. “I wear shorts all year round because they’re very comfortable. I don’t pose, but if a jacket is requested, I follow the rules of the place,” he says.
The chef’s position on media exposure is important. “Like any job, there’s a lot of exaggeration. We’re chefs, we’re people who pick up a knife in the morning and cut onions and cook, but we’re not doctors or nuclear physicists.” And while some, like Dua Lipa, are regulars at Greska and post on social networks every time they visit, he doesn’t like to talk about his customers. “What’s interesting is that she’s interested in understanding things. She’s someone who goes beyond her job and shares her hobbies, like restaurants, wine, and reading. She only recommends things that she likes, in a very honest way. And she likes to drink good natural wine and eat well.”
When he looks back and remembers his beginnings, he also remembers Davids Muñoz. “We would dress each other and say, ‘How miserable we both must be sleeping in the kitchen,'” he says with a laugh. “I had a mat in the hallway, and at 3am I couldn’t take it anymore, so I put down a cushion, covered myself, got up at 7am and started again. We were in our 20s, now we’re in our 50s. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone. I don’t regret it, but I think there has to be another way. We have to work under normal conditions.”
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