Ramón y Jaume Gaspà i Vila

Ramón y Jaume Gaspà i Vila

Owners, chef and sommelier at the Restaurant Lo Ponts in Ponts (Lleida, Spain)

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The origins of the family Gaspà i Vila are very rooted in the region. In 1982, after erecting the Ponts building, they decided to open a catering business on the groundfloor, which started being run by the family some time later. At the beginning, his offer was focused on wood and charcoal-grilled meats made in front of the customer. Juan (the father), together with the godmother Flora, were responsible of the kitchen and customer service was in charge of Antonieta (the mother). Some time later, Ramon (the cook at the present) and his brother Jaume (the sommelier now) joined the family business. In 1996 and after a few years working and learning the business from the ground and extending their knowledge thanks to different courses on gastronomy, the brothers Ramon and Jaume decided to take the business over and to completely refurbish the restaurant's facilities, in order to improve the comfortability for the customers and introducing a bar that would only serve "knife-and-fork breakfast". Ramon grasped Flora's way of understanding cuisine, the traditional cuisine of the interior of Catalonia, and adapted it combining avant-garde technological means with the principles of this traditional kitchen. Jaume specialised in wines and spirits and after his training as a sommelier at the Escola d'Hostaleria de Barcelona and his Master in Viticulture and Enology at the Escola d'Espiells, his work and knowledge have been awarded with several prizes.