Spanish financial services group BBVA has selected a pair of grand art venues to host its series of once-in-a-lifetime private client dinners prepared by the Roca brothers, whose restaurant in Girona, Spain, landed atop the influential World’s 50 Best Restaurants list last year.
The Rocas will prepare meals for BBVA’s U.S. clients next month at the Rachofsky House in Dallas and at Rienzi, the commanding former home of the arts patrons Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III that now houses the European decorative arts collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
«These two venues are the perfect settings for our clients to enjoy the culinary journey the Rocas will take them on with their multi-course dinners,» said BBVA Compass Chairman and CEO Manolo Sanchez. «As an organization, BBVA has an emphasis on the arts, and the Rocas’ particular brand of gastronomy is precisely that: an art. It’s only fitting that the venues reflect the brothers’ creative and innovative approach to gastronomy.»
The Roca brothers — head chef Joan, sommelier Josep, and pastry chef Jordi — will shutter El Celler de Can Roca for five weeks to recreate their restaurant experience for clients in countries where BBVA operates, including the U.S., Mexico, Peru and Colombia.The U.S. events in Houston and Dallas kick off the tour with a series of dinners for clients of BBVA Compass, BBVA Group’s U.S. franchise. BBVA is sponsoring the chefs’ tour as part of its three-year partnership with El Celler de Can Roca.
The tour begins in Houston on Aug. 4, where the brothers and their staff will prepare dinner for 300 guests over the course of three days in Rienzi’s ballroom. The tour will conclude its swing through the United States on Aug. 8 and 9 at Dallas’ Rachofsky House, the private home of Cindy and Howard Rachofsky. Roughly 800 works of contemporary art — including American Minimalism pieces, post-war European art with a specific focus on Italy, and the art of post-war Japan — are on display in the Rachofsky home on a rotating basis.
Joan Roca is considered a pioneer in sous-vide, a cooking process where food is vacuum-packed and cooked in water. He developed the Roner, a professional sous-vide cooking device. Josep Roca, the sommelier, meanwhile, has won over critics with his unorthodox wine pairings and techniques. And Jordi Roca, the pastry chef, won the World’s Best Pastry Chef Award 2014. The judges called him «part chef, part architect, part magician» and an «eccentric but modest genius,» citing his work recreating famous perfumes in edible form.