The gastronomic benchmark of the Cerdanya looks to the future with strength and talent

Àlex and Pau are two friends and former classmates from the Joviat School, with a shared gastronomic background in both the professional and personal spheres. One day, in La Barceloneta, they decided to set up a business together. The chosen place was Llívia, and this is the short story of the birth of the Trumfes restaurant. That was seventeen years ago.Since Easter, however, the partnership has dissolved. Pau has decided to seek new personal and professional incentives outside of Llívia, while Àlex has opted to provide continuity to the project, bringing freshness and new ideas to it. Àlex Molas is a fighter and a tireless worker. He does what is necessary at every moment to feel good about himself, his family, and a team fully committed to this project so deeply rooted in the territory.Trumfes' cuisine is based on the product and seasonality, to which it adds talent and unexpected connections. We ask Àlex to prepare a menu that allows us to discover, in a single meal, the gastronomic proposal of this benchmark restaurant. We start with a salt cod brandade and an anchovy with aged meat fat. It is a risky combination, because the anchovy has a lot of personality, but the contrast works. In this case, the surf and turf is very well executed. Next, we are served a Russian salad with red prawn tartare; a fig coca with salt-cured foie gras, candied pine nuts and duck ham, and a tiradito of aged old cow with marinated tuna, teriyaki sauce and fresh sprouts. They are tasty dishes that connect very different universes.We stop for a moment to talk about wine. Àlex is an enthusiast and a great connoisseur who tastes, searches, buys, and continues learning every day with the goal of offering a complete experience to the diner. “I always think about what I would like to find in a restaurant, but, above all, I try to understand the customer. It is true that there are wines that I am personally passionate about, but my job is to find what fits with the food and with the person I have in front of me”. He explains this to us while serving us a bottle of Vèrtebra de la Figuera 2022, a fresh Garnacha from the winery Terroir Sense Fronteres. It is a wine we did not know and are grateful to have discovered.Classic dishes and triumphant reinterpretations

We continue with one of the new proposals on the menu: pork jowl with sea cucumber. Àlex and Javi, the head chef, have been adjusting the flavors until finding the perfect balance with the chanterelles and the pil-pil sauce. After this novelty, comes a classic that has been triumphing for seventeen years: the octopus carpaccio. They prepare it by slicing the legs very thinly and serve it with potato foam and olive oil. It is their personal interpretation of Galician-style octopus. We finish the main courses with a grilled sea bass from the Blanes fish market and a cut of Asturian meat. And, for dessert, the famous hazelnut coulant and a cheese board from the Catalan Pyrenees.Once this magnificent meal is finished, Àlex shows us the cellar. We are on the floor below, in a reserved space that is a delight. Since we don't have to drive today, we take small sips of Grandma's ratafia while we chat with him for a while. During the conversation, he especially highlights the role of his team in carrying this successful project forward.Javier, Helena, Ekaterina, Ivan, Camelia and Naia are fundamental pieces to achieve what Alex is pursuing: “We want to provide good food and have people come to enjoy it”. We can assure you that they succeed. The food, the service, the space and the surroundings make the Trumfes restaurant an essential gastronomic destination. The new stage looks very good.