Moha Quach

Eight years have passed since Moha Quach first stepped into the kitchen of El Terrat. “Many things have changed,” he admits, as he looks with affection and emotion at the evolution of his project. It is his way of understanding gastronomy and history — two concepts that have never been separated, but have walked side by side with a single aim: to lay the soul bare and honour the land.

The soul is made of lived experiences. Memory. Heritage. The land is the farmer. The fisherman. The small producer. “The ones who give you everything.” Quach has embraced and forged a path that has led him to explore Mediterranean cuisine. Like a Roman merchant ship sailing along the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, the vessel of El Terrat has stopped at every port to discover ancestral flavours, aromas and textures.

The idea was clear: to recover culture through gastronomy. Quach has embraced the past and brought it into the present in a process that has not been easy. It began with caution, with the uncertainty felt by anyone embarking on a new adventure. Over time, diners have come to embrace his proposal: a respectful symbiosis of ancient Roman cuisine, traditional Catalan cooking and the recipes of the Rif.

Quach sees the world from Tarraco, the city that welcomed him and the one he has no intention of leaving. The landscape of the Costa Dorada can be sensed in every dish. “To be sustainable is to support the people who keep the landscape alive,” he says with conviction. Farmers and fishermen remain the heroes of this story: the vegetables of Riudoms, the seafood of Sant Carles and his grandmother’s recipes. “This is what sustainability means,” he maintains.

The chef’s desire is to continue writing new chapters. Accompanied by his team, he remains firmly committed to a project that began as a dream and has become a reality. “The real failure would have been not trying,” he reflects from one of the restaurant’s tables. Around him are works by local artists and handmade tableware crafted in the region. That is the secret: that history can be felt in every corner, every detail and every creation.