To celebrate 30 years of Lillas Pastia, we designed a gift ticket box that distils the restaurant’s identity into a small theatrical stage. More than a commemorative object, the piece acts as a narrative device that connects gastronomy, history and opera. The name of the restaurant itself comes from Lillas Pastia’s tavern, the setting of one of the most iconic scenes in Bizet’s opera Carmen, a reference that becomes the conceptual backbone of the design.
The exterior of the box features the façade of the former Casino of Huesca, the restaurant’s home for 29 years and a key part of its memory and legacy. Once opened, the box unfolds through a sequence of die-cut layers that reveal different scenes, much like stage sets in a theatre. In some of them, Carmen appears dancing with a truffle slicer, blending operatic drama with culinary symbolism. In others, emblematic ingredients of the cuisine emerge (such as artichoke or fish) paying tribute to the product-driven philosophy of the restaurant. Another layer reveals the hand of the tavern keeper Lillas Pastia himself, holding truffle, the restaurant’s star ingredient, alongside wine.
The piece is completed with a decorative band: golden carnations at the front and golden truffles at the back, visually framing the box and reinforcing the dialogue between opera and haute gastronomy. The result is a celebratory object that transforms thirty years of culinary excellence into a tactile, emotional and theatrical experience.