The heavenly stoves of Josep Borràs

Bep Al·lès / Ciutadella – Last week, Josep Borràs Anglada, chef of chefs, master of masters and lord of the kitchen and historic gastronomy of Menorca, left us from this world at the age of 94.

The soul of the kitchens of the remembered Rocamar, Josep Borràs knew how to give rhythm to his dishes and gastronomic creations, because cooking and music, especially Opera, were two of his great passions.

A discreet person, but with a great sense of humour, with a savoir-faire and a fair play that only the greats have, Josep Borràs has perhaps been the greatest of the great Menorcan chefs of the 20th century. A chef who knew how to give value to seafaring cuisine and to local products from Menorca, who cooked in crescendo when necessary, with brio when strength was needed and always with an allegro, sometimes, moderato that made them unique and masterful…

We, the lovers of our cuisine, and also those of us who have written books on Menorcan gastronomy, owe a lot to Borràs. His legacy, “La cocina de los menorquines” (The cuisine of the Menorcans) written with his son Damià and with the contributions in desserts from his beloved wife and life partner, Zulema, is a must-read work to understand our way of being, what we have eaten and what Menorcan cuisine and the new Menorcan cuisine are today.

At home I heard more than once about Rocamar as the best restaurant in Mahón, about its rice dishes and stews, about the dishes that my father and my uncle Gerardo tried when they went to eat with clients or with representatives, as well as the advertisements for Rocamar in the first special magazines of the Sant Joan del Setmanari El Iris.

My memories are also from when the First Menorcan Cuisine Show was organised, with my father as the Tourism Councillor and Paco Tutzó as the President of the Consell, where Rocamar participated and gave that extra quality to what was one of the first initiatives to highlight our gastronomy and to promote dishes that were being lost due to a gastronomic touristification that had made us believe that what came from outside was much better than what we had.

But I got to know him best and know him as a great man of the kitchen, his wisdom and humility, within Fra Roger, the gastronomy and culture association that he originally presided over and of which he was the honorary president.

This year we met for the last time at the Horeca Menorca Awards, where both he and I, and also Toni Juaneda, one of the promoters of Fra Roger, received recognition for our work in Menorcan gastronomy. He had aged, but he retained his humour and the elegance of a gentleman.

Last Wednesday he said to us, “See you in another life.” He left to cook in the kitchens of the heavenly Olympus, to cook for gods and goddesses, to meet up with the great chefs who inhabit this culinary Olympus, where he will enjoy historic dishes and contribute his own, and he will surely continue to look at his Menorca, his gastronomic world, through a hole, that magical hole between clouds that allows us to see what we mortals do.

Our most sincere condolences to his wife, his children and the entire gastronomic family of Menorca, who must meet again to pay a culinary tribute to the great lord of Menorcan kitchens.