Tête à Tête with BelleBarcelone #10 with the beautiful pastry chef and icecream expert Ale Rivas!

Everyone has heard of the Celler Can Roca, it is one of the world's best restaurants, each year it appears on the top of the list. You may have also heard of their Ice cream parlour Rocambolesc, which is also situated in Girona. You get to try the ultra famous Can Roca's desserts in the form of ice creams. Jordi Roca, the youngest brother and world's best pastry chef and his enchanting wife started this project and as we say behind every successful man there is a woman.
So here I am with Alejandra Rivas at the Koryo restaurant on a very cold day. We enjoyed the food and had a good chat, she is very friendly and is an inspiring pretty woman. She is passionate about her projects. And here she is from Mexico to Girona.
BelleBarcelone: What inspired you towards pastry?
Ale Rivas: I started in a cooking school in Mexico and I did quite well as I got a grant to come to Spain. Here I started working with Martin Bersategui and then landed in the Celler de Can Roca. I was ready to give it all, learn and that's it. Then my boss there had to leave so I had to take charge of the dessert under Jordi Roca. My mom used to make good pastries at home and I had some expertise, but with Jordi my views on pastry widened. He is super creative.
BB: What do you think of the evolution of the pastry in Spain.
AR: I haven't been for that long, only 5 years, but I can say that it is constantly evolving and innovating.
BB: Why an Ice Cream parlour?
AR: The idea was already there and when Jordi told me about it passionated me. It is a parlour that serves soft ice-cream with flavors from the most mythical desserts from Can Roca. It is a window to the Celler of Can Roca cuisine. Rocambolesc is our baby and I am happy to see it grow, we began with lots of illusion.
BB: What's your favorite one?
AR: We serve soft ice-cream all made with natural ingredients made daily. We use mexican vanilla. I love the chocolate one and in summer the Carota.
BB: What's the most original combination?
AR: We also have salted ice-cream like the asperragus one which is perfect when you have a dinner at home and you serve it as an appetizer. The Nariz is quite original (The Nariz- a ice-cream inspired by Jordi's nose), it has rosewater and strawberry, you can smell it while eating it.
BB: Have they been inspired by you in some of the dishes they serve at Can Roca?
AR: It is an avant-garde cuisine with a catalan inclination but with international twists. At present they are serving the Anarquia de Chocolate inspired in Mexico. There is also an appetizer inspired by the Mayans like the Coin. Last summer the full team went to South America for a tour where they have workshops, they got inspired and interacted with the locals. Every summer is a different place.
BB: Tell me an ustentile you couldn't live without?
AR: A dipstick.
BB: Who cooks at at home?
AR: Both of us.
BB: Where would you like to escape for holidays?
AR: To Japan!
BB: What are your future plans?
AR: We have just opened a Rocambolesc in Madrid, in El Corte Ingles, on c/Serrano -book section: The Gourmet Experience. We want to open in Barcelona, soon hopefully. Each location has the classic flavoured ice-creams and some regional inspired ice-cream flavors. For instance in Madrid we have the Polo del Oso y Madroño (inspired in the emblematic statue in the city) and in Girona we have the Cul de Lleona with bergamota and oven cooked apple.
BB: What kind of cuisine you like?
AR: I love mexican food and hot spicy food.
BB: Some of your favorite restaurants in town?
AR: Oaxaca and Shunka in Barcelona, Les Cols, Cal Enric or Toc El mar in Girona.