Toast to culinary alchemy

It must be nice being at the top of the Restaurant Guide's World's 50 Best list. Everybody wants to be your friend, nobody gets angry about waiting a year for a reservation, and major distillers like The Macallan knock on your door, saying, "Hello, would you like to visit our cellars and taste our special one-cask whiskies that no mere mortal gets to try?"

The Roca brothers certainly aren't complaining.

It's a cool, sunny April morning in Girona, Spain. Their restaurant - the three Michelin-starred El Celler de Can Roca - sits in perpetual picture-postcard perfection with its charming country house facade hiding a state-of-the-art kitchen and cellar within its sleek interior.

Today, 60 journalists from around the world mill around, sipping on whisky cocktails as they await news of one of the most unique culinary tie-ups of the year: six ultimate dinners featuring the Rocas's innovative Catalan cuisine and the best of Macallan's iconic single malts.

If you're a haute diner with a charitable heart and US$10,000 (S$12,600) to spare, you'll want to clear your diary for the months of June and July.

That's when The Macallan Masters of Taste sees roughly 150 people sampling the results of a collaboration designed to test the depth of the Roca brothers' skills. Net profits from the dinners will go to charity, in line with The Macallan's philanthropic ethos.

The company is owned by the Robertson Trust, a Scottish foundation which gives out some US$25 million a year to deserving causes.

This marriage of gastronomy and premium spirits is firing up the creativity of two top guns in the food and beverage industry. The affinity between food and wine has long been established, but food and whisky? It's rare for such a pairing to be explored, especially at such a high level, but the Rocas are quick to take up the gauntlet.

"We've always been non-conformists and we're constantly seeking new challenges," says oldest brother Joan Roca, who masterminds the restaurant's creative direction with master sommelier Josep and pastry whiz Jordi.

Thanks to their new visibility as World's No 1, "We get a lot of proposals for different things, so we have to be selective. But the collaboration with The Macallan is a springboard into a new world that will allow us to grow professionally and personally."

For Josep Roca, whose own meticulously laid out cellar is both a treasure trove of wine gems and a lesson in Spanish oenology, he is literally a kid in a candy shop. "For a sommelier, you can't imagine the joy of having a distillery open for you to play in," he enthuses.

He was given full rein of The Macallan's cellars, sampling never-released single cask whiskies with acclaimed whisky maker Bob Dalgarno to pick out the flavours and aromas that he and his brothers would later translate into a no-holds-barred dining experience.

"The challenge for us is to take the best of the world's whisky with our cuisine and create a bond," says Joan. "One of the key elements is aroma, and using them to create a new way of cooking, which has not been done before."

"Whisky is different from wine in that you don't need to drink so much because of the alcohol content," concurs Josep. "It's about taking these aromas and using them to make food."

Heady mix

It's a concept they're not unfamiliar with, especially for Jordi, who has created desserts inspired by perfumes, such as the bergamot notes of Calvin Klein's Eternity. He's even created his own perfume, which makes women smell like his lemon cloud dessert.

With Jordi's nose for scents and sweets, Josep's passion for sherry - hence his enthusiasm for The Macallan's whisky aged in prized sherry casks - and Joan's wizardry in the hot kitchen, there's going to be some major culinary alchemy brewing come June.

The El Celler connection is the latest in a very short exclusive list of high-profile collaborations that The Macallan has undertaken with big names in the creative world.

Previously, it worked with top photographers such as Annie Leibovitz in its Masters of Photography franchise, and it has had a long-standing relationship with crystal maker Lalique, which has crafted bottles for The Macallan's ultra high-end whiskies.

"Whisky and cuisine have a long-standing connection but never have any two partners come together to really explore what this could mean," says Ken Grier, The Macallan's director of malts, explaining why they approached El Celler with their proposal. "Our collaboration will break down classic perceptions of food pairing and enter a whole new experience of taste."

For whisky maker Bob Dalgarno, who worked with Josep Roca in The Macallan's cellars, it was a win-win situation for both.

"We're all creative people coming together with an open mind about what we were looking for. A lot of things are similar (between food and whisky) - it's about flavour and how it stands on its own, depth, complexities and so on. We learnt a lot from them and I hope they picked up bits and pieces from us too."

The proof of the pudding is, of course, in the tasting and the brothers roll out an impressive preview of what's to come in June, with an elaborate showcase menu that require both nose and palate to work together for the complete experience.

To start, a good whiff of the vanilla notes in The Macallan 2007 (sherry cask) continues in the corn and vanilla wonton ravioli - a slinky gelatine skin filled with creamy corn, lightly slicked with olive oil that complements the whisky.

Fresh langoustine is "steamed" in whisky fumes over a bowl of hot stones, while the accompanying soup made from its head with hazelnuts, follows the same nutty aroma of The Macallan 1986 it's matched with.

Meanwhile, The Macallan 1998 picks up the spicy citrus tones of the barely cooked turbot with its rainbow of sauces from olive oil to orange and curry.

And so it continues: the smokiness of The Macallan 1986 (sherry cask) lingering over the charcoal-grilled Iberian suckling pig with its smoked bacon and hazelnut sauce; fragrant vanilla and bergamot aromas of the bourbon cask 2007 lifting a slightly sweet brioche filled with smooth mushroom cream; intensely flavoured goose royale with mixed nuts and the fragrance of sandalwood make for a complex accompaniment to the iconic Macallan M; boozy sheep's milk cream with a thick toffee sauce, vaguely bitter truffle and liquorice granita.

It's an exercise in nuance, complexity and colour as the spectrum of scents, flavours and everything in between are juggled between both liquid and solid nourishment.

If this was just a preview, imagine what the real thing will be when the heavy artillery of 14 un-released single cask malts and The M - the world's most expensive whisky - are rolled out with a menu that continues to be refined up to the big days.

Of course, US$10,000 is a pretty penny to pay for the whole affair. But considering that you're cutting El Celler's one year reservation queue and getting a customised meal with one-of-a-kind whiskies - not to mention doing your bit for charity - it's a reasonable premium for Macallan fans to call themselves a Master of Taste. Cheers.

For more information on booking 'The Ultimate Dinner with The Macallan and Roca', go to www.themacallan.com

The writer was a guest of The Macallan

This article was published on April 26 in The Business Times.

Get The Business Times for more stories.