Albert Raurich, who was head chef at elBulli for a decade, discovered Japanese cuisine through his partner and sommelier Tamae Imache, and was so taken by its delicacy, fragility and harmony that he delved deeper until he became one of the Western chefs who knows most about Eastern gastronomy (particularly Japanese and Chinese), its techniques and its products. He captured everything at Dos Palillos, his restaurant in Barcelona's Raval district, “the best Asian restaurant outside Asia” in the words of Ferran Adrià, where he distils all that knowledge complemented by the creativity of those who have passed through Cala Montjoi. Dos Palillos currently has one Michelin star.  

He is a wildly keen researcher and scholar, and in 2016 he opened Dos Pebrots near Dos Palillos, where he is producing the fruit of his work, in this case related to the gastronomic culture of the Mediterranean basin.