The table of the D * na Festival is almost ready to welcome a menu that we already know, but that each year, in turn, presents a completely new flavor. The ingredients? Those from here: our restaurants, our artisans and our products. And also those from there, with a team of stars who come to show their cuisine from different points of the state geography.
This Thursday, the mayor of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, together with the Regional Secretary of Tourism, José Manuel Camarero, have presented the next edition of the gastronomic festival, which will be the seventh. At the end of this month, from September 28 to 29, the Marineta Cassiana will once again host “the longest table in the world”, filling the promenade along the Mediterranean with food stalls and stages.
Grimalt has insisted on the joyful nature of the festival, which seeks to be "the joy of the garden." But of our gardens, this year the festival pays tribute to the hands that work in them. And he stressed that it is impossible not to enjoy life with optimism living in a privileged place like this. He also excused the absence of Quique Dacosta, the festival's chief ambassador and one of its founders, who was in Japan today.
For his part, Camarero reiterated the support of the Generalitat Valenciana for the event and recalled that "it is no coincidence that 25% of tourists who come to enjoy the Valencian Community choose us precisely for our gastronomy and want to enjoy these magnificently prepared products and our hospitality and good service."
Next, the creative director of Quique Dacosta Restaurant, Juanfra Valiente, the local farmer, Verónica Cortés, and Reme Cerdá, manager of the Marina Alta Hospitality and Tourism Business Association (AEHTMA), shared a nutritious dialogue to address the relationship between the garden and the kitchen, defending the importance of both spaces for the development of a gastronomic culture of their own.
In it, Cortés has commented on the value of the product that is produced in the lands of the region and the work of raising awareness carried out by farmers with regard to the consumer, while also asking for the support of the restaurant sector by "promoting and using local products in their menus" and of the administration by "carrying out dissemination and promotion campaigns so that local products are consumed more, which have many benefits". During the talk, Juanfra Valiente has stressed that the conversation with the producer is "essential", both to obtain the product that is needed in the restaurant and from the point of view of creativity "so that they discover new products for us, since the way of using agriculture in the kitchen has changed a lot and leaves, flowers, roots are used... so that communication is very important". In addition, when talking about the value of quality and local products, Reme Cerdá has recalled that, precisely, "events such as D*na try to bring closer the effort that people make in the field and at sea so that the product reaches the kitchen".
Quique Dacosta designs his best dish for D*na Festival
Renowned three-star Michelin chef and event culinary curator Quique Dacosta has collaborated with local producers and artisans to bring to life a dish he has never cooked before: a set of dishes made from authentic soil from the region's orchards that symbolises the stories of local farmers, using ceramics to unite the land with the kitchen. Using this unique set of dishes, Dacosta has cooked a series of special recipes that pay homage to the countryside and the people who put their work into it, recording the entire process in a video that serves as the cornerstone of the presentation campaign for the seventh edition of the D*na Festival.
With a dedicated vocation to bring gastronomy closer to the general public, D*na chooses this year to expand its range of activities open to the participation of visitors, with more than thirty workshops, where visitors can learn the secrets of local gastronomy directly from the hands of chefs, producers and restaurateurs.
The D*na Festival map
The Aqualia Space will be the setting where some of the most influential chefs in Spanish haute cuisine will meet, alongside talents from the Valencian Community. Through showcookings and presentations, great figures such as Rodrigo de la Calle, pioneer of green cuisine, or Eneko Atxa, internationally recognised for the sustainable approach of his Azurmendi restaurant in Bilbao, among many others, will pay their own tribute to the land as the basis of a gastronomy in harmony with the environment.
The Espacio Universo Líquido will offer a sensorial journey through the liquid wealth of the Mediterranean with experts in wine, vermouth, olive oil, citrus fruits and cocktails, who will guide participants on a journey of exploration of the aromas and flavours that define this region.
Last but not least, the Espacio Cocina will feature local produce and ingredients, from spices to artisanal sweets and ice creams, with workshops that will be a true celebration of the culinary tradition that defines this Mediterranean region.
The joy of the garden?
What garden?
Is there any orchard left in Denia?
Only concrete and abandoned fields waiting to be urbanized and mercilessly devoured by that “sustainable tourism” that our City Council supports.
Tourist event. Come on in.
And where they have made this toast to the sun, paid for by everyone. Casta