The Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition held its grand gala evening, presenting its National Awards. This year, the award went to Els Tinars chef Marc Gascons in the Signature Gastronomy category, and to Els Tinars chef Marc Gascons in the Traditional Gastronomy category. in the charismatic chef who died almost a year ago, Fermí Puig.

I interviewed the head waiter Alfred Romagosa at the ESHOB cooking school just the days when The staff of forty workers has learned that the Restaurant and Hotel unions have sold the school to Education, which will launch new public cooking studios on September 1st. Alfred studied at the school like many other renowned chefs. Since the Fermí Puig restaurant (c. Balmes, 175) closed, we've met in different places several times, always to talk about Fermí, the anecdotes they shared together, the dishes they cooked, the great stories they shared in the first great hotel restaurant, Drolma, which became a benchmark in the country and the world. Lately, what we've talked about the most is the new restaurant he's about to open, Fonda Balmes, together with chef Josep Maria MasóThey've been planning it for a year, and everyone is already very excited to launch the new restaurant, which will be a tribute to chef Fermí Puig. I'm summarizing it today.