The rustic, voluptuous, no-nonsense food of northeastern Spain, the area known as Catalonia, is known for its vivid flavors and unusual pairings of familiar Mediterranean ingredients. Catalan cuisine owes much to the region's colorful history: Romans, Moors, Italians, and the French have all traipsed through the region, leaving behind a delicious legacy evident in fine Catalan fare. So where might you expect to find cutting-edge American chefs introducing their compatriots to the food that Colman Andrews referred to as "Europe's Last Great Culinary Secret"?

Certainly not the Arizona desert, yet nonetheless, two chefs from the luxurious Scottsdale Princess are blazing the trail. At Marquesa--one of only two AAA Five-Diamond restaurants in the state--executive chef Reed Groban and chef de cuisine Lenard Rubin prepare lusty Catalan classics like baked escargot with toasted almonds, garlic, and crispy potatoes, and herb-marinated shrimp and scallops with potato lentil canalon and sweet pea and carrot sauces.

Groban has been with the resort since it opened in 1987. In addition to the Marquesa, he oversees three other restaurants as well the hotel's catering business and its gourmet line of jellies and sauces. Before coming to the Princess, Groban was executive chef at the Sheraton in Washington and at the New Orleans Marriott. Among his many awards and honors, he was inducted into the Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame last year.

Rubin has been the chef de cuisine since early 1997, working his way up in the kitchens of a number of other multi-star hotels, including The Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, The Ritz-Carlton, Phoenix, the Boulders Resort in Carefree, Arizona and the Nevskij Palace Hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1989 Rubin attended the inaugural session of the School for American Chefs at Beringer Vineyards, studying under cooking teacher extraordinaire Madeleine Kamman. Over the years, he has won so many culinary competitions, it takes an entire page of his résumé to name them.

Venture beyond tapas. It's time to learn about the unique culinary riches of Catalan cuisine. And since, as food-loving Catalonians are apt to tell you, "God pardons the sin of gluttony," indulge in a meal that will uncover Spain's best-kept secret: Catalan cuisine.