D*na: The Festival of Gastronomy and the Sea in Denia

DENIA. The new edition of D*the Festival, the sixth, consolidates this Dénia gastronomic contest with a proposal focused and dedicated to the sea that “will explore the relationship of human beings” with this area “and its importance as an economic, cultural, gastronomic and tourist axis”.

This was stated this Thursday by the chef and gastronomic curator of the festival, Quique Dacosta, during his presentation in Valencia. This event will take place this year between September 30 and October 1 and will bring together notable chefs as well as producers, restaurateurs and gourmets on the Paseo de la Marineta Cassiana in Dénia. The tour is expanded this year to accommodate more stages and activities open to the public.

In addition to publicizing gastronomy linked to the sea on this occasion, the D*na will delve into its objective in this edition to transmit a way of understanding life and cooking on the shores of the Mediterranean. “The festival wants to continue embracing and being a vector, from humility, work, land, tenacity and the people who dedicate themselves to this great job of providing food,” Dacosta pointed out.

The commissioner has stated that the “fundamental mission” of the D*na has had since its birth has been to “donate, donate knowledge of a way of understanding life”. “Gastronomy and chefs are great speakers at this time of culture and society” and he has valued the opportunity to “use them so that producers and people linked to gastronomy feel at the same level, disseminating and forging ties “, has added.

Dacosta, who has underlined the “importance of looking at the origin of things”, has participated in the presentation of D*na together with the Minister of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Nuria Montes; the mayor of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, and Rosa Martí, cook of the La Giralda restaurant in this municipality on behalf of the Dianense restoration union.

“In this new edition, D*na becomes thematic. The sea is the protagonist this year”, Dacosta has insisted. Thus, all the presentations, workshops, stalls, products and suppliers will converge on the sea both conceptually and physically.

The chef has announced that in this edition “cooks from the Iberian Peninsula and the islands have been invited, from all those regions that have sea and that somehow treasure a wealth that is worthy of being counted in the D* na”, Quique Dacosta pointed out, “so that they can transfer their professional experience linked to seafood producers.

In this way, the main stage of the festival will host presentations and show cooking by chefs such as Ángel León (Andalusia), José Avillez (Lisbon), the Torres brothers, and Maca de Castro (Baleares), among many others. The presentations, Dacosta specified, will be held in the afternoon this year.

workshops

The contest will have a second stage dedicated to the product through which “recognized” professionals from the kitchens of the Valencian Community will pass to talk about seafood cuisine through stews and regional cauldrons. This space will also house cooking and seafood workshops open to the public with prior registration.

The product and its producers will also have a place at D*na through the many tasting stalls that will be located in a central square.

The organizers of this meeting have considered that its sixth edition, in addition to consolidating this call “as one of the great gastronomic events” in Spain, “positions the city of Dénia -named Creative City of Gastronomy by Unesco in 2015- as gastronomic capital of the Mediterranean.

The D*na is organized by the Dénia Creative City of Gastronomy Foundation of the Valencian Community and has the collaboration through an agreement between Turisme Comunitat Valenciana and the Dénia City Council.

Nuria Montes He has affirmed that this public-private collaboration “has been one of the values ​​of the festival” and has considered that “an event like this can only go ahead through the collaboration of public administrations, Quique Dacosta and the entire business community of Dénia” .

LThe minister has also defined D*na as “an example of the strength of gastronomy as a tourist product, especially in the Valencian Communitya”. Likewise, he has agreed with Dacosta and with the organization of the event in highlighting the dates on which it is held to contribute to the seasonality of the tourist offer.

The DNA of the sea

“Overcoming so many editions is a success”, added the regional manager, who pointed out that for this edition it is expected that more than 25,000 attendees will be exceeded. Montes has affirmed that “D*na implies DNA, that of the sea that characterizes all” Valencians. “The sea is present in all our offer, tourism and gastronomy”, she has remarked.

The mayor of Dénia has asserted that “in a few years, D*na has become another symbol of the city and a gastronomic and tourist reference” of the Community. The mayor has valued the fusion and the encounter between the traditional cuisine of this town, “that of casseroles and slow fire”, with the new and haute cuisine.

For her part, the cook Rosa Martí highlighted what “D*na brings to all restaurateurs” and stated that it is “a wonderful project” that must be transferred and supported. “It is the best advertisement that can be done for Dénia,” she pointed out.