Women will be the protagonists, of international cuisine, of the D * na Restaurant. Six representatives of the five Creative Cities of Gastronomy that will be in Dénia the first weekend of December are outstanding chefs in their countries of origin. Only one man appears on the list of those who will pass with the name of UNESCO on the stage of the Plaza del Consell.
The Creative Cities provide the exotic counterpoint of a gastronomic festival that sinks its roots in the local product and the territorial tradition of the Marina Alta. But in addition, they bring rich and diverse cultures and ways of life closer to Dénia that also have respect for the culinary identity of their cities as a common base.
The public side of the D * na Restaurant will begin precisely with one of these samples of international cuisine. A chef who is passionate about local ingredients, Vilde Lunde Træet, will prepare for the public a dish from Bergen (Norway) whose main product is cured halibut, and which she accompanies with gin and seaweed. Vilde runs a restaurant in the beautiful Norwegian city, the Spisekroken, small but one of the most recommended in the city. Despite her loyalty to local cuisine, the chef confesses that one of her main sources of inspiration and influence is Spanish cuisine.
Maja Lindholm and Marina Löfgren will arrive from Östersund (Sweden). Maja is part of the kitchen team for a very unique experience. The Nästgårds Gårdsrestaurang is a farm that borders the forest and its entire menu of dishes is supplied with ingredients from its own production or from its natural environment. For her part, Marina is an artisan baker who offers her work every day in Frejas Bakeri, a famous establishment in the rural environment of the city. Both will make in Dénia a “Tunnbröd” from Jämtland, a thin bread that the Swedes use to accompany their famous fermented herring.
Parma (Italy) will send Maria Amalia Anedda to the D * na Restaurant, a chef who, after passing through prestigious restaurants in Paris, returned to her hometown to rediscover the traditional cuisine of the region. Today she is part of the Parma Quality Restaurants consortium and is the manager and chef of Les Caves, an elegant restaurant located in the fascinating and majestic Rocca Sanvitale building in Sala Baganza, a historic summer residence in medieval times of the powerful and influential Italian family of Los Caves. Farnese. Maria Amalia has devoted herself to local produce and tradition and gives them a particular refinement with modern and attractive techniques and formulas.
From the other side of the Atlantic come Dénia Claudia Marcela Sauma and Denisse Dalence, two women who are representative of the so-called 'gastronomic revolution' in Cochabamba (Bolivia). Claudia Marcela is an influential and active chef who has been president of the Bolivian Chefs Association and runs two of the best-known restaurants in the city, Paprika and La Cayena, where she uses quality ingredients from the land to make fusions of high kitchen. Denisse is the chef of the local restaurant La Playa, a popular and renowned cevichería and seafood restaurant.
And finally, the only man from the Creative Cities participating in the D * na Restaurant is an atypical chef, gourmet and researcher from Burgos. Eduardo Luengo is a professor at the “María Madre Politecnos” Hospitality School and has been taking a walk through the most prestigious gastronomic meetings in Spain, the cuisine linked to the prehistoric sites of Atapuerca. At the D * na Restaurant we have a three-course menu - starter, main course and dessert - based on university studies on the diet of the oldest representatives of the human species that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula.
