The chef and pastry chef, or lastas he likes to define himself, Jordi Rocasurprised his friends followers yesterday with an emotional message released on his social networks through several videos announcing that he has recovered the voice. The youngest of the Roca brothers has been suffering from a hoarseness which, in addition to severe muscle pain, prevented him from speaking, a disease that completely changed his life.
“You don’t know how happy I am to be able to make this video with this voice that has stayed with me, the voice of a radio announcer at two in the morning”; This is how the first of the videos recorded directly in the kitchen of El Celler begins, apron on included, in which he can be visibly seen excited and, above all, happy.
Jordi Roca, 44, began to be aware of the symptoms of the disease at the age of 37, although he already I had been dragging discomfort in the throat, to which at first he did not give much importance. But he was chaining hoarseness until in 2016, as he recalls in an interview with The countryin the ceremony of those of the World’s 50 Best held in New York realized something was wrong. he got very tired when speaking, too much.
A few years earlier he was diagnosed with a cervical dystonia that causes tension and severe pain in the neck area, when the muscles contract in the form of spasms involuntarily. This dystonia ended up affecting the vocal chords, causing the dysphonia that would mark his professional and personal life. “One day you realize you don’t have a voice”; she tells her, “and you become obsessed with getting her back.”
It would start a long road to achieve that recovery in which, he says, he has tried all kinds of treatments and consulted with numerous specialists from around the world. In his message, the head of the El Celler de Can Roca pastry shop recalled all the people who have helped him in this process, especially thanking disinterested support of colleagues, friends and family. In addition, it encourages us to value our voice and everything we have but take for granted, because you never know when we are going to lose it.
“I love El Celler, I love my brothers, my family, my little girl… I don’t know what more I can ask for. Today I am the luckiest uncle in the world. Value your voice. Value what you have”.
Despite the fact that he is aware that he is not fully recovered, and that he has peaks in his voice that could again leave him unable to speak any day, the youngest of the Rocas shows happy and very optimistic. “Every time I am improving, and I have learned to speak effortlessly, which, oddly enough, costs a lot.” The cervical pain continues, but she, she confesses, has her sights set on the future, eager to undertake new professional projects. “The best is yet to come”.
In all this time Jordi Roca hasn’t stopped working, despite how difficult it is in his profession to lose his voice. The everyday lifehe says, has been a key part of his recovery, both in the kitchens of El Celler with his brothers, such as the opening of Casa Cacao or the Rocambolesc ice cream parlors that he runs with his wife. Alejandra Rivas.
Casa cacao: The journey back to the origin of chocolate (Pastry and desserts)
Photo | El Celler de Can Roca
In DAP | The Roca brothers offer their spirits for sale under the Esperit Roca brand: Celler’s liquid cuisine
In DAP | This is how Jordi Roca’s ice creams are for ‘Stranger Things’: fun, geeky and extremely limited