Traditional cuisine using local produce and with social awareness

Brunyola and Sant Martí Sapresa (Girona) is a municipality that unified its name in 2018. Until then, Brunyola was the main town, while Sant Martí Sapresa was an attached village, along with a number of farmhouses and scattered houses. In 1950, the Valls family began running the restaurant we are visiting today. The grandparents were the first owners, followed by their parents. Now it is managed by David Valls (cleaner, son, chef, and director), along with Marta Vilà (David's partner and head waiter). It is a family restaurant with a commitment to serving the community and a social conscience deeply rooted in the local area.

We started the meal sharing some oysters, sautéed saffron milk cap mushrooms, grilled vegetables from a local farmer, and fantastic croquettes: roast chicken and black pudding—real croquettes. We also tried artichokes confit with truffle, black pudding, and duck liver with a touch of Pedro Ximénez reduction, and a steak tartare Made the traditional way: beef tenderloin, egg yolk, capers, onion, and Tabasco sauce, all thoroughly mixed and hand-chopped. It seems easy to do things well, but you have to know a lot to do it. The perfect complement to lunch was a bottle of Anfitrión del Empordà, a red wine from the Perelada winery, very pleasant to drink and with a nice finish. We also wanted to savor the cooking of grandmothers and mothers, represented by a dish of tripe and trotters that celebrates the work of the pioneers and reminds us that some classics are unbeatable. Before the grand finale, we finished lunch with a ribeye steak that reminded us that the grill was alive and with a scorpionfish that, just a few hours earlier, had been swimming a few kilometers from the restaurant.

Dessert deserves special mention. It's the only thing we didn't share; each of us wanted to experience the house specialty: the hazelnut coulant. David owns a hazelnut orchard called Els Martinets. From there, he began selling his hazelnut coulants, made entirely in Bruñol, along with a few other products that complete the circle, linking the history of the land, creation, production, and finally, marketing.

Sense of belonging

"I'm the son of the family; we're a family restaurant. When my parents left me the restaurant, they set up a butcher shop, which my brother Jordi now runs. The meat comes from the butcher shop, the fish from Blanes, and the hazelnuts from our local farms. We make traditional cuisine; I've been introducing market-fresh and seasonal produce," while also maintaining a busy weekend service.

Animals, land, a sense of belonging, and a strong social conscience are all evident in a very special collaboration with the Astres Foundation, which supports people with diverse intellectual abilities and improves their quality of life and that of their families. These young men and women are responsible for feeding the animals at Can Valls, collecting the hens' eggs, and providing them with feed.

David and his family are deeply rooted in the land: they live it, care for it, and work it. Dining at Can Valls is more than just enjoying delicious traditional dishes made with excellent ingredients; it's a tribute to a way of life and a way of doing things.