For a product to qualify for this distinction, it is prepared entirely within Girona and that the business or artisan that prepares it is established in the Girona province. Based on the judges’ assessment, a total of 116 products will be awarded the Girona Excel·lent seal within the next two years, with the aim of promoting, developing and disseminating food products of the highest quality from Girona throughout the country and abroad.
Among the products on the list, there are four that have been there since the first edition of the award: the royal gala apple, from the Girona Apple Protected Geographical Indication; Gra Petit and Setsetmanera varieties of beans, from the Protected Designation of Origin for Santa Pau beans; Organic Teules biscuits from Trias Galetes-Biscuits SA in Santa Coloma de Farners and Ametllats (almond biscuit) from Galetes Camprodon SA in Campodron.
A total of 116 products from 70 different companies were chosen during the months of May and June 2023 in blind tastings within the fourteen selected product families: mineral waters, rice, local drinks, coffee and medicinal herbs, preserves, sausages, dried fruit, foie-gras, biscuits, ice cream, dairy products, olive oil, honey and wines and generous wines. Biscuits, which have returned to compete, and ice cream are the novelties introduced in this fifth edition.
Prestige.
Excellence in food production.
The enormous prestige of Girona’s cuisine is due to many factors, but in particular its history, defined by cross-cultural exchanges, and agricultural wealth, livestock, fisheries and forestry. These elements nurture each other and evolve together. The Girona Excel·lent food quality seal is aimed at putting superb food on the table by combining nature’s bounty from agriculture, horticulture, viticulture, olive growing, livestock rearing and fishing with the region’s top quality artisan and industrial food production.
In 2014, under the umbrella of Girona Provincial Council and the Chamber of Commerce, Girona Excel·lent was launched to raise the profile of our gastronomic assets. Created thanks to the land and the hard work of the people of Girona, Girona Excel·lent products are recognised achievements, as remarkable as the churches, museums and landscapes that make our region so attractive.
All Girona Excel·lent products are made entirely in the province of Girona, and have been selected by experts in each field through blind tasting sessions involving chefs, sommeliers, gourmets and other respected experts from all over Catalonia.
Origins.
The excellence of the territory.
Our land is the source of a varied, diverse and almost self-sufficient cuisine with numerous local ingredients. Three of our natural parks are beside the sea: Cap de Creus, Aiguamolls de l’Empordà, and Montgrí, Illes Medes i Baix Ter, with olive groves, vineyards and rice fields that bear witness to human intervention. There are two more located in the mountains: Capçaleres del Ter i del Freser and the Volcanic Area of La Garrotxa, with pasture land and bean cultivation. And lastly a natural park in the mountains but very near the sea: Albera Natural Park, with its beech woods, Albera cows and cork oaks.
Human presence is evident in the landscape, with dolmens, menhirs, farmhouses, Romanesque churches and hermitages, monasteries, lush pastures, miles of dry stone walls, olive groves and vineyards. There was a time when the stone walls supported earth terraces bearing thousands of acres of vines, producing wine to accompany celebrations and festivals.
Olives, vines and apples have been cultivated here for centuries and the spectacular landscape has been shaped by ancient olive groves that blend harmoniously with apple trees, vineyards, fields of rice and other cereals, and vegetable gardens. This is the essence of Girona’s countryside and the starting point for its cuisine, with onions being patiently fried for hours until they are golden and caramelized: the sofregit. Orchards are the sofregit, the basic ingredient, of the landscape.