Moments

Barcelona

It’s not unusual for kids to follow in their parents’ footsteps. Shared experiences, passion and genetics suggest that if one generation has ability in a certain area, offspring are likely to reap the benefit. Although for Raül Balam, son of Carme Ruscalleda – she who holds three Michelin stars at Catalonia’s Sant Pau and two in Tokyo for her restaurant of the same name – they are quite some boots to fill. For Raül’s first head chef post at Moments in Barcelona’s Mandarin Oriental, he is under his mother’s direction. In his first year, they won a Michelin star. In the second, they won another.

It’s a modern European restaurant in a classy hotel-dining-room mould. Gold leaf patterns the ceiling, tables are huge and draped in crisp linen, while a multilingual service greets diners in native tongues from Mandarin to English.

For its Ecosystems tasting menu, Balam and Ruscalleda look to the world’s geography for inspiration. Swamp evokes a sense of marshland, with dashi and sprouts providing a lily pad for pink duck, followed by the brilliant Desert, an interpretation of an arid landscape with rolling sand dunes that conceal a superb north African lamb curry. To finish, Black Forest 2.0 is a modern take on the German gâteau that just might be better than the original.