🇪🇸 Spain · Spanish cuisine · b. 1978
The youngest Roca brother — pastry chef of the three-star El Celler de Can Roca and the most decorated dessert specialist of his generation.
Jordi Roca Fontané is a Spanish pastry chef and the youngest of the three Roca brothers who own and run El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Catalonia — a restaurant that has held three Michelin stars since 2009 and was ranked the World's Best Restaurant by The World's 50 Best in 2013 and 2015. While his elder brothers Joan (head chef) and Josep (head sommelier) are the more publicly recognised faces of the trio, Jordi's dessert programme is widely credited as one of the principal reasons the restaurant has been so consistently ranked among the top three in the world for more than a decade.
Born in 1978 in Girona, fifteen years after Joan and twelve after Josep, Jordi grew up in the family bar-restaurant Can Roca on the city's western outskirts. He had no intention of becoming a chef and was an indifferent student; he joined the kitchen at El Celler in 1995 only because the family pastry chef left abruptly and his brothers asked him to fill in. The arrangement was meant to be temporary; he stayed for life. In 1998 he was given full creative control of the dessert section, and within five years had developed the conceptual framework that still governs the restaurant's pastry programme — desserts built around themes (a perfume, a colour, a journey) rather than around a primary ingredient.
His best-known creations include Anarkía (2008), a 39-element 'concept dessert' presented as a chaotic Jackson Pollock-style plate; Adaptación de Calvin Klein Eternity (2002), the dessert-as-perfume that is still on the menu more than two decades later and which inspired his Rocambolesc ice-cream chain; and the Cromatismo (2010) series, which builds an entire dessert around a single colour. He was named World's Best Pastry Chef by The World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2014. With Josep he opened the first Rocambolesc ice-cream parlour in Girona in 2012, since expanded to nine locations across Catalonia and Madrid. In 2017 he opened Casa Cacao, a bean-to-bar chocolate hotel and workshop in central Girona that sources cacao directly from cooperatives in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Jordi has been open about his struggle with a severe stutter, which he overcame with speech therapy in his thirties; a 2018 documentary, Jordi, was built around the experience.
The dessert as a complete idea. Jordi treats each dessert as a concept rather than a recipe: the menu is organised around themes — a perfume, a colour, a memory, a piece of music — and the technique exists to serve the idea. He frequently collaborates with perfumers, musicians and scent designers, and considers the dining room's smell and sound as much a part of the dessert as the plate.
Three Michelin stars since 2009; World's Best Restaurant 2013 and 2015. Head of pastry since 1998, co-owner with his two brothers.
Ice-cream chain co-founded with brother Josep in 2012; many flavours are accessible adaptations of El Celler desserts.
Bean-to-bar chocolate workshop, café and boutique hotel opened in 2017.
Roca brothers' events and private-dining venue; Jordi designs the dessert programme.
These recipes from our database reflect the spanish cooking tradition that Jordi works in. They are not direct reproductions of Jordi's copyrighted recipes, but traditional dishes inspired by the same culinary heritage.
“I don't make desserts. I make ideas you can eat.”
— El País Semanal (2015)
“A perfume in a bottle is a dessert waiting for a recipe.”
— World's 50 Best ceremony speech (2014)
At age 17, joins the kitchen of El Celler de Can Roca as the temporary replacement for the departed pastry chef.
Given full creative control of the El Celler dessert programme by his brothers.
Creates Adaptación de Calvin Klein Eternity — the perfume dessert that becomes his signature.
Wins the Premio Nacional de Gastronomía as Best Pastry Chef in Spain.
El Celler de Can Roca earns its third Michelin star, with Jordi as head of pastry.
El Celler de Can Roca named World's Best Restaurant for the first time.
Named World's Best Pastry Chef by The World's 50 Best Restaurants.
El Celler de Can Roca regains the World's Best Restaurant title.
Opens Casa Cacao, a bean-to-bar chocolate workshop and hotel in central Girona.
Subject of the documentary 'Jordi', focused on his stutter and his creative process.
Joan Roca (born 1964) is the head chef, Josep Roca (born 1966) is the head sommelier and Jordi Roca (born 1978) is the head pastry chef of El Celler de Can Roca in Girona. The three are equal co-owners and have run the restaurant together since it opened in 1986.
Created in 2002, Adaptación de Calvin Klein Eternity was Jordi's first 'perfume dessert' — he attempted to translate the published top, heart and base notes of the Calvin Klein Eternity perfume into edible form, using ingredients such as mandarin, bergamot, vanilla and sandalwood. The dessert remains on the El Celler menu and inspired the entire 'perfume' chapter of the restaurant's tasting menu.
Rocambolesc is the ice-cream parlour chain Jordi co-founded with his brother Josep in 2012. The first shop opened on the carrer Santa Clara in Girona; there are now nine locations across Catalonia and Madrid. Many of the flavours are accessible adaptations of desserts served at El Celler de Can Roca, including the violet-with-baked-apple and the panettone ice cream.
Yes — in 2014 he was named the World's Best Pastry Chef by The World's 50 Best Restaurants, the same year that El Celler de Can Roca was ranked No. 2 in the world.
Casa Cacao is a bean-to-bar chocolate workshop, café and 15-room boutique hotel that Jordi opened in central Girona in 2017. The cacao is sourced directly from small cooperatives in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, where Jordi has personally travelled and built long-term relationships. The project was documented in his 2019 book of the same name.
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