El Terrat: by Quach

July 2018. Moha Quach, chef from the province of Tarragona, entered El Terrat for the first time…this is the space he had chosen to let his knowledge run free; to begin a new stage of maturity without limits, guided only by his restlessness, challenges and values, with zero kilometre cuisine as a flag, and an awareness of the environment, the land and the sea, as an immovable core principle.

El Terrat: by Quach is synonymous with seasonal cuisine and homegrown produce. Here fishermen from El Serrallo, farmers from Camp de Tarragona and ranchers and winemakers from the province are all treated as heroes: after all, without their work, the restaurant kitchen would be empty. Nature marks the seasonality of the creations, and the dishes and menus are adapted to the rhythm of the garden. That’s why Quach set out to preserve sustainability and reduce the use of chemicals.

Five years later the story continues. Moha Quach presents a new gastronomic proposal linked to its origins and history. On the one hand, that of his life: from the Rift Valley, in Morocco, the region where he was born, to Tarragona, the city that has seen him grow. On the other hand, the history of the Mediterranean Sea: cradle of cultures, from the Romans to the present day, which have built a unique identity on the Costa Daurada.

Olivus and Mare Nostrum are two menus that flow from ancient recipes with seasonal and local products as main protagonists. Quach rewrites history through gastronomy: from garum to laban, from dates to red shrimp, from mulsum to Chartreuse. All this without losing sight of his childhood kitchen, his grandmother’s and his Berber ancestors. Because as he rightly says, “the Roman recipe book and my grandmother’s share almost identical preparations.”

With one eye on the sea and the other on the land, Quach proposes a gastronomic experience focused on explaining history with food as the central axis. Without stridency or foreign ingredients, as it remains faithful to the nature calendar, the land and the sea. Quach continues his path with the creativity that identifies him and the legitimacy that gives him continuous research into the gastronomic links between the Roman world, Greece, Turkey, Morocco and Catalonia. The objective is clear: to bring to the table the cultural symbiosis that unites the Mediterranean Sea.