Marisa Duque walks through one of the 11 public dining rooms of her restaurant as if it were her home. It's not a metaphor. It's literal. Because Casa Duque, founded in 1895 a few meters from the Segovia aqueduct, and celebrating its 130th anniversary this year, is just that: her home. "I don't consider it a business, it's my home," she says with her eternal smile.
During her walk, she greets each and every person sitting at the tables, without exception. "She doesn't miss anyone," says Luis, her son. At 29, he will be the fifth generation of the saga to lead Casa Duque, the oldest food house in Castilla y León.
Like his mother, Luis also walks among the tables in the dining room, showing interest in the customers. It doesn't matter if there are regulars, tourists, or a group of friends who come to taste the Castilian cuisine that has been coming out of the kitchen for over a century. The customers are part of the family that inhabits the House.
The diners of the day gather in the dining room that is seen as soon as you enter through the main door. "This was the living room of my great-grandparents' house," says Luis pointing to the room. Throughout history, Casa Duque would expand, upwards and outwards, thanks to the two adjacent buildings.
From that house that "roasted to order, cooked daily, and accepted meals," as Marisa recalls, it soon turned, in 1900, into an inn that drew from the recipes brought by travelers who arrived in the Castilian city.
In a corner of that dining room, named Sepúlveda, is the table that Marisa always uses. "From here, I see everything that happens," she comments. If she's not sitting, she's answering the phone or in the office. It's hard to see this woman still, the first to perform the traditional ceremony of cutting the suckling pig with a plate to certify that it's cooked to perfection.
She learned that passion for serving and that ceremony from her father, Dionisio Duque, one of the most famous hoteliers in the Castilian city. His way of combining tradition and modernity put the city of Segovia, its gastronomy, and especially its star product, suckling pig, on the map. Dionisio, as everyone called him, is so linked to the city that he even has a street named after him.
Marisa arrived at Casa Duque a few days after she was born, and in 1997 she took over the reins of the establishment. Before that, she studied Law and worked as a legal representative for a few years following her father's advice.
But she knew where she belonged. "I wanted to be here," she says, gesturing with her arms around the dining room. "This is my home, my vocation," she insists. "It's in the blood," she emphasizes.
Her son Luis has followed a similar path, starting to solidify his arrival at Casa Duque definitively in September 2024. Before that, he studied Bilingual Economics and worked in banking, communication, and marketing while always passing through the "Duque university," as he calls the restaurant, since he was 16.
His first memory in the dining room also includes his grandfather Dionisio. "He used to give me the piglet tails as if it were a pacifier," he recalls. "I always knew I wanted to come here, but I also knew my mother was here, and I had the opportunity and privilege to do other things before coming here," he explains. "I decided to build myself as a professional outside of home so that when I got here, I could bring other things," he points out.
Those other things, that mission that each generation has at Casa Duque, is still "to be seen," he assures, although ideas are already swirling in his head to provide the restaurant with new spaces and concepts that follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, who led the establishment into a new and fruitful stage.
For now, Luis wants to "take the baton and project the house." Additionally, he will team up with his mother: "She has done an exceptional and titanic job for many years; being a single person, she has covered all fronts." For his mother, "Luis is the future of the house."
Luis sees the restaurant as another member of the family: "It's a sibling, and we have to take care of it." His main task is also a challenge: "To be the guardian of Casa Duque's essence." An essence that is condensed in every dish that comes out of the kitchen and in every suckling pig or lamb that is roasted in their ovens.
Over the years, a new chapter will be added to the extensive family history that Dionisio and Feliciana started in the late 19th century. The walls of Casa Duque are a museum where the paths of the Duque family, the city, and Castilian gastronomy intersect. "The history of Segovia has passed through these walls," Marisa summarizes.
Hanging there are the emblems of Dionisio's master roaster, dishes, menus, drawings, bills, or photographs with dozens of celebrities from around the world. From Romy Schneider, Marisa's favorite actress, or Antonio Machado, to Alejandro Sanz, Raphael, Berlanga, or King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.
Politicians, businessmen, artists, athletes... none resisted meeting Dionisio, who was also a regular on the TV show 'Un, dos, tres'. "Chicho Ibáñez Serrador was like an uncle to me," says Marisa as she holds one of the mementos linked to the legendary RTVE program director.
Even the menu itself holds part of Casa Duque's history and Castilian cuisine. Not only for its suckling pigs and lambs, roasted by the dozens in various ovens, including the original one from 1895. But also for its partridge, tomato tartare, large beans, Segovian punch...
Likewise, there are dishes gifted to local gastronomy. It took Dionisio a year to develop the river crayfish tail soufflé with shrimp sauce, created to celebrate the birth of his granddaughter Andrea. A similar gift was given to Luis when he was born, with a recipe for pig's trotters stuffed with boletus and pine nuts from the Segovian pine forests. Two gifts he gave to his grandchildren, and to Segovia, cooked with an ingredient that, as Marisa says, "cannot be bought or sold: the love of a grandfather for his grandchildren." A love that Luis hopes to return by taking the helm of the centennial Casa Duque.