Little could Sara Bugallo Lois and Saúl Bernárdez Alonso imagine when they arrived in Calella from the municipality of Forcarei, in Pontevedra, with their children, Emilia and Carlos, that this 2025 would commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of a prestigious restaurant in the country for the quality of the fresh produce it offers and for the gastronomic value that the third generation that has taken the helm of El Hogar Gallego, chef Toni Gordillo, has given it, and which has turned it into a reference restaurant recognized with a Repsol Sun and recommended by the Michelin Guide. Nor could these Galicians know, he a bricklayer who already knew what immigration to America was and she a housewife, that the life of their daughter Emilia would intersect with that of Antonio Gordillo Lavado, who arrived in Calella at the age of 16 from Los Santos de Maimona, in Badajoz.
The Bernárdez-Bugallo family kept the house in their village of origin, but sold the cows and everything they had. They arrived in Calella loaded with potatoes, chorizo and hams and providence made them decide to open a bar in Calella: Los Gallegos, which quickly became popular due to Sara’s wisdom in the kitchen. Antonio Gordillo worked as a bricklayer after working as a farmer and met Emilia, whom he married. He himself built the apartment block and the restaurant itself on the ground floor when the family decided to expand the Los Gallegos bar. Then he left construction and started cooking with his mother-in-law, learning on his own. He was the one who gave it the boost of quality and growth, expanded it, bought an old factory in front to dedicate it to parking and a summer terrace, and made El Hogar Gallego grow. Grandma Sara, at 102 years old, looks at it with pride, as she is also proud that the third generation keeps the “filloes of Grandma Sara” of her creation on the dessert menu.
Toni Gordillo, the chef, has taken a step forward. He trained professionally at the Hoffman Hospitality School in Barcelona and has worked alongside Ferran Adrià, Santi Santamaria, Jean Luc Figueras and Olivier Roellinger. To this professional experience, we must add that he grew up in the kitchen of the family restaurant. They have maintained the fresh produce that comes to them from the Atlantic and from Catalan fish markets and offer modern cuisine with traditional roots, without embellishment. In addition to El Hogar Gallego, which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, they manage La Hacienda del Hogar Gallego, in Sant Cebrià de Vallalta, where they offer banquets and business events.
El Hogar Gallego is seafood cuisine, with the product as its base. The produce from the Maresme gardens is combined with seafood and fish from Cambados, Blanes, Palamós and Arenys. As Carles Vilarrubí, president of the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition, writes, El Hogar Gallego “is the story of three generations who, with vocation, sacrifice and passion for cooking, have managed to build an indisputable reference in the Catalan gastronomic panorama”. Just a note When Santi Santamaria wanted fish and seafood, he had the restaurant as a reference, which has a dish on the menu that pays homage to the chef from Sant Celoni: cod callos stewed with sausage.
Link to the news: https://www.elpuntavui.cat/opinio/article/8-articles/2563335-somni-gallec-i-extremeny-a-calella.html
