Ramses Gonzalez, a very Aragonese Cuban, transmits to his customers his commitment to the environment through a technical and passionate cuisine, very close to the territory.
Ramsés has recently renewed his Michelin star and has been awarded by the city of Zaragoza in the first Latir Hispano Awards.
Cuban by origin and Aragonese by adoption, Ramsés Gonzáles began his career in the hotel business by lending a hand in the restaurant that his parents owned in Zaragoza. A client encouraged him to train and he did so at the Miralbueno School of Hotel Management. He started his internship with David Boldova, in his former Novodavo, and through his daily work and several trips and visits to other restaurants, he realized what kind of cuisine he wanted to defend.
During that period, he says, “I started to frequent Cancook as a client, met Diego Millán and began to lend him a hand during work peaks.” In 2015, he joined the partnership of that first Cancook, which was then located in the center of Zaragoza and represented another concept. “When I joined, we changed the model, towards a more technical kitchen and with a lot of care both in the kitchen and in the dining room. We gave it a facelift and removed the menu, leaving only a menu of the day and a tasting menu,” he explains.
Later, when Novodabo changed location, the first move came and Cancook moved to the Romareda area, to larger premises where he began to develop the gastronomic project that in 2019 earned him a Michelin star, Ramsés being then the youngest chef in Spain to obtain it. After the star, more recognitions came: Best Restaurant of Aragon, by the Aragonese Academy of Gastronomy, Best Restaurant in the Horeca Contest and, already in 2020, the first Sol Repsol.
With the accolade of these awards, in 2022, the Cancook team undertook its third move, this time to the current location, a place located again in the center – Leon XIII street – intimate, discreet and almost hidden. In the new Cancook, everything is a journey that begins when the customer arrives at the reception and is invited to walk through all the spaces, just as the product does every day until it is served at the table. A tour with a stop and an appetizer in the pantry, in the R&D kitchen -one of the three in Cancook-, in the wine cellar and to one of the five tables in the restaurant.
“There begins another journey, through the Aragonese geographical cuisine, as 85% of the products we use are from Aragon, more specifically, from Zaragoza, and many, from our own garden, because we want to value the local product, to spread our feeling of rootedness and commitment to the territory to our customers,” says Ramses. This almost obsession with local produce was rewarded in 2022 with a Michelin green star, which rewards the establishment’s sustainability. It was not the only star that illuminated Cancook that year, as a second Sol Repsol was added to the whole constellation.
Once they have reached their destination, the table, the customer becomes the spectator of a choreography of waiters, sommeliers and chefs who serve, prepare, present and explain each of the long passes of their tasting menu, “because at Cancook, chefs, sommeliers and waiters… we are the same, a single team,” stresses Ramsés.
Far from causing him to settle in, the awards, great reviews and recognitions seem to give even more impetus to this chef who is still young and passionate, as reflected in his technical, fresh and daring cuisine, as well as the numerous gastronomic projects in which he is immersed, inside and outside the city and the country.
Cancook Restaurant. Recipe Tomatoes of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Photo Almozara Agency.
