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Helena Termes Adan

Helena Termes Adan | La Cort del Mos Palamós, Spain

Biography

Helena Termes is a pastry chef and co-runs La Cort del Mos with Jeffrey Ruiz. They won the Cuiner Gastronomic Forum Barcelona 2026 award. They met while working at Resort Peralada and, after working in different restaurants, decided to establish their own project. In April 2025, they opened this small restaurant in Palamós, their first business venture together. La Cort del Mos was created with a small-scale structure, seven tables and a team initially made up of the two of them and Hamza Hayyan. This scale means that they take on much of the work themselves and keep close control of the business figures. Termes and Ruiz explain that they cost their dishes carefully and adjust prices to keep the offer accessible to their customers, even removing dishes when the margin is not viable.

Their case provides an opportunity to discuss the decisions behind a small gastronomic business: how two young professionals make the transition to independence, how they divide the work and how they seek to reconcile their approach to cooking with the need for the restaurant to be economically sustainable. A model of entrepreneurship based on a small structure, the direct involvement of its owners and close control of every cost.

Sessions

17:00h

Round table | . Talent Z

Paradigm Shift. New Ways of Understanding a Business

Lluc Crusellas Eukarya Pastry chef and chocolatier Speaker

Lucía Gutiérrez Chef Speaker

Helena Termes Adan La Cort del Mos Chef Speaker

Martina Polo Gastronomic consultant Speaker

Marc Casanovas Journalist Moderator

2026-11-02 17:00 2026-11-02 18:00 Europe/Madrid Paradigm Shift. New Ways of Understanding a Business future. Without training adapted to the current social and economic context, a lack of experience can be a burden for young people entering the business world.

A change in mindset around the internal organisation of the new restaurant —including questioning the hierarchy of positions and the very role of the “chef”, as well as reconsidering working hours— means rethinking human resources management in the restaurant of the future. Fear of failure or a lack of tools for finding investors can also be limiting factors. In addition, women’s lack of self-confidence can add another barrier in this context. Another issue to consider is the compatibility between values and money: is it possible to pursue an approach based on social, economic and territorial sustainability within a profitable business?

ForumLab

Mon 2

17:00h - 18:00h ForumLab Free access