Experience the Mediterranean cuisines as they truly are

The Mediterranean diet recipes that you'll find in this web site are based on authentic cooking traditions still followed by the Mediterranean peoples that have lived for millennia by the Mediterranean Sea.

I am aware that many people think of the Mediterranean diet as though it were some sort of medical diet that you follow to cure yourself of an ailment...

The olive tree that produces olive oil, indispensable for Mediterranean diet cuisines

The Mediterranean diet is indeed healthy, and even some governments reccommend it. However, the primary focus of this web site is the gastronomical perspective of the Mediterranean diet: What we Mediterranean, eat every day.

The Mediterranean peoples have always known to enjoy life, and enjoying the Mediterranean food is a very important aspect of the Mediterranean way of life. To me, it is much more fun, and health giving, than worrying about the exact amount of antioxidants in vegetables.

I invite you to do as we do, and I'd love to help you to bring delicious Mediterranean recipes, and the pleasures of the genuine Mediterranean diet to your table.

What is the Mediterranean diet?

There's no such thing as a uniform Mediterranean diet, but different Mediterranean cuisines naturally interconnected with:

• Olive oil, the pillar of Mediterranean recipes, and other fundamental Mediterranean foods like bread, grains, legumes, fresh vegetables and fruits, rice, pasta, seafood, nuts, and much more.


• The everyday use of natural fresh local seasonal plant foods that gently balance the intake of fish, meat and poultry.


• A wide range of dishes that include meat recipes, fish and seafood recipes prepared with fresh and seasonal seafoods from the nearby Mediterranean Sea, chicken recipes, a myriad delicious vegetable recipes, and many more Mediterranean recipes and regional specialties.


• The ingrained habit of sitting at a table in company to eat three meals every day, from which at least two are cooked. The Mediterranean diet is primarily based on warm dishes, not raw food. Eating and socializing go hand in hand.


• A relaxed spirit regarding food and eating, which is paramount in feeling cheerful and healthy.


• The deep-rooted tradition of using any occasion, however small, to get together with some friends, outdoors if at all possible, and celebrate with a succulent Mediterranean diet meal like fisherman's suquet de peix, grilled lamb chops with aioli and delicious grilled artichokes or, of course, a mouthwatering rice paella.


• And last but not least, sitting on for hours after a meal philosophizing aloud about the world.

Where do my Mediterranean recipes come from?

I don't copy and paste recipes. All Mediterranean diet recipes I publish, either I have eaten them since I was a child, or learnt to cook them later, self-tested, and enjoyed them many times over.

I come from Catalonia, which is and has always been intrinsically Mediterranean. At first, you might not know where it is, but if I tell you that its capital is Barcelona, where I grew up, it will probably ring a bell. Here's a Mediterranean Sea map where you can easily locate it in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

I grew up eating and learning to cook the Catalan Mediterranean cuisine, which is an elaborate and succulent Mediterranean cooking system with a long solid tradition.

Here's what Colman Andrews, the editor of Saveur magazine and author of the Bible of Catalan Cuisine in English, has to say about our gastronomical tradition.

I came to Catalan cuisine as a novice, an outsider -and immediately fell in love with it. I was taken by its freshness and vitality, haunted by its resonances of the past, thrilled by its forthright, vivid flavors.

Experience the joy of Mediterranean cooking

Catalan cuisine is now going through a magic moment. It boasts internationally renowned three-star chefs like Ferran Adria, depicted as the Salvador Dali of cuisine. He has people from all over the world begging for a reservation at his restaurant El Bulli with breathtaking views of the Costa Brava.

Another example is Carme Ruscalleda, our proud ambassador in the gourmet land of Japan, who lives the Catalan Mediterranean joy of cooking with all her soul.

More importantly, home cooks have joined this dynamic gastronomical craze by experimenting in their own kitchens, digging up medieval recipes, and refining traditional recipes.

I wanted to join in the Mediterranean diet fun too, and invite you to do the same. That's why I publish this web site about the real Mediterranean diet: To pass my Mediterranean culinary heritage on to you, my dear visitor and reader.

Get ready for an excitingly delicious gastronomical tour through Catalan cuisine, but also through the Mediterranean diet recipes of Majorca, Greece, Italy, and the loyal representatives of the Mediterranean cuisine, the Mediterranean Arab peoples. Here's a popular example, the savory eggplant dip recipe known as baba ganoush?

Go ahead       Click to start learning and cooking Mediterranean diet recipes