5 July 2019, from 19:00 hrs Casemates Square Gibraltar
Calentita
5th July 2019
Full website coming soon
About
Calentita
Gibraltar’s Food Festival
The Calentita Festival is now in its twelfth year of celebrating, through food, the powerful connections within our culturally diverse community. Calentita 2019 brings together the cuisines of many nations and cultural groups in a weekend of foodie indulgence, discovering new flavours and connecting friends and neighbours and with visitors who flock to Gibraltar for the event. What started as a local food festival is now an integral part of Gibraltar's cultural calendar.
Named after Gibraltar’s “national dish”, a simple dish made with chick pea flour, water and olive oil all topped with a touch of salt and pepper, Calentita began as a small food festival where Gibraltar’s various cultural groups prepared their traditional foods for sampling by the rest of the community.
Visitors to the event – at first mainly Gibraltar residents - delighted in discovering that their love of outdoor socialising and their love of food had been brought together in perfect harmony. The festival has since grown in popularity, attracting visitors from overseas, and rapidly became a highlight of Gibraltar’s cultural calendar.
Visitors to Calentita 2018 will be able to enjoy dishes from a whole host of food stalls, enjoying foods from countries as far apart as Brazil, Thailand, China, Italy, USA, and the Philippines : and these are only a sample of the range of flavours to be savoured. With added spice provided by cooking demonstrations, specialist food sampling, music and dance entertainment, Calentita 2019 looks forward to reinforcing community connections through its celebration of food, culture, community and fun.
While the festival has grown in size and popularity, the focus of Calentita remains the same: on food and good cuisine; on culture and celebrating diversity; on sharing the joy of connection, discovery and enjoyment; on reveling in the strength of our community bonds. Not only does Calentita offer a genuine cross-section of our local community’s cuisine, but it is also an authentic street festival of food, fun and entertainment. Join us, at Calentita 2019!
Get
Involved
Bring your speciality cuisine to form part of Calentita 2019 and run a stall!
We embrace cultural diversity and understand that the best way for communities to get to know each other is through food and dining. Wherever you are from in the world, whether you are in Gibraltar for a short time or you are part of a small community here, share with us your traditional dishes.
Stalls for Calentita are now full. If you are interested in participating in some other way please get in touch!
What's
On
Focusing on food and fun, Calentita 2019 is cooking up a feast of live events and entertainment as accompaniments to all our main dishes, for everyone of any age to enjoy. The main stage will be based at Fishmarket Lane and will be host to:
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Dancers
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Musicians
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Performance artists
There will also be a peppering of street entertainers out and about at Casemates Square and its environs, as well as live cooking demonstrations so you can enjoy the sights, sounds, sizzles and spices of cooking a dish from start to finish.
Full details coming soon!
Calentita Kitchen Live
Join us for live demonstrations in on the Calentita Kitchen Live stage. This year we have a number of demonstrations from local and international chefs. Look out for full details coming soon!
Mixology Lab
Tantalise your taste buds to the max and learn the art of crafting cocktails in our Mixology Lab. Call it alcoholic alchemy or creative concocting, Calentita’s Mixology event brings expert drink mixers to push the boundaries of flavour combinations. What used to be cocktails have evolved into taste sensations, and you can learn from our guest experts how to mix these yourself. Engage your senses and apply creativity and you may well be able to devise your own perfectly blended, unique Mix!
KITCHEN LIVE
& FOOD FOR
THOUGHT
Timetable at a Glance:
(times subject to change)
Claire Louise Foster
Kasbar Chef and Vida Verde Cooking
20:15 hrs
Demonstration: Berenjenas en Vinagre
Visit Claire at the Vegan Stall at Calentita
Claire Foster, who has made a name for herself in Gibraltar as the chef at vegan restaurant The Kasbar, began cooking at an early age as a result of an illness, learning how to make nutritionally dense food. Later she turned professional working in the food industry for years. “I love cooking with fresh organic vegetables. I have many dishes that I love making, but right now I have really been enjoy putting together different types of burgers, working to perfect a vegan burger. I want to demonstrate to people that vegan food can be incredibly flavorful, help the environment and maybe even awaken ones third eye”. Apart from taking part in Calentita at the Vegan stall Claire will also be demonstrating her signature walnut pate in the Calentita kitchen “it's a much healthier option than a liver pate and is perhaps more flavorful, people will have to try and judge for themselves. I am really looking forward to the the demo goes well and may use it as a platform to offer cooking classes in the future”.
Nico Fitzgerald
Head of Pastry, The Hinds Head, London
21:15 hrs
Demonstration: Top-to-tail rabbit garnished with garlic, spinach, tarragon and pancetta elements.
Passionate about food from a young age, Nico grew up knowing he wanted to be a chef one day. After a brief detour through University, Nico attended the world renowned Le Cordon Bleu in London, where he graduated with a Grand Diplôme de Cuisine et Pâtisserie. After completing a work placement at the 2 Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in Knightsbridge, Nico was offered a job at one of Heston’s other Michelin-starred restaurants, the Hind’s Head, where he now runs the pastry department.
Vicky Bishop
Vicky's Natural Kitchen
22:15 hrs
Demonstration: Preparation of a tasty fresh fish dish that takes into account some simple sustainable principles.
Our Local chef Vicky Bishop is back again this year with her own personal style of cooking. Best know for her TV programs Vicky’s Natural Kitchen and as a judge on Local TV program Rock Chef over the years.
Vicky is also member of the International Food Festival chef team and has represented our local cusine in Food Festivals in the Guernsey, Brighton, The Hague and Europe with guest dinners and cooking demonstrations.
She was also invited to participate at the Gothenburg Food Festival this year and represented Gibraltar fusing our own fresh, healthy style of cooking with their seasonal produce.
Vicky trained as a Health Supportive chef in NY, as a vegan chef and to teach Vegan Fusion Cusine under Mark Reinfeld. She currently runs courses in Catering for Health Needs at the university of Gibraltar as well as running her own local catering company of 22 years and a new Deli she has opened in town recently.
Her work has seen her catering for various members of the British and Emirate Royal families, the Gibraltarian government, as well as various celebrities at major events including the Gib Music festival VVIP lounge.
“I love cooking food simply and with health in mind. Big flavours, colour, local herbs and spices. My focus is always on delivering a delicious, healthy and balanced plate of food. My dish this year will be the dish I prepared at the Gothenburg food festival but using locally sourced produce majoring on vegetables, including herbs, lemons and figs from my own garden. Also using spices from Morocco as I love big flavours.”
Adri
22:45 hrs
Demonstration: Flair Cocktail.
Cocktail Terrace Take Over
by Gibraltar Bar Tenders Association
Main
Stage
Dinner and Dialogue will gather together members of the community of Gibraltar and sit them down to participate in the universal activity of enjoying good food and drink whilst enjoying a discussion - a member of parliament with a member of a youth club, a faith leader with a political activist, an environmentalist with an entrepreneur.
The idea behind Dinner & Dialogue is to create an informal setting where the views of people whose paths might not ordinarily cross can engage in dialogue, and share ideas with a view to promoting a closer, more understanding and over all better community of Gibraltar.
The dinner is being hosted and organised by the Mayor Kaiane Aldorino together with the organisers of the Calentita Food Festival Word of Mouth. It is due to take place on Friday 5th July 2019.
To ensure a genuine cross section of the community attends the Mayor will be sending out invitations to some individuals and representative bodies. However, members of the the public that would like to attend, are very much encouraged to nominate themselves either online via the Calentita.gi website or by collecting a form from the Mayor’s Office at City Hall in John McIntosh Square. There is no charge for attending the dinner which is being supported by the Parasol Foundation.
Partners
Calentita 2018 is made possible with the support of our generous and dedicated partners
Contact
us
It takes only a few moments to send us your thoughts and queries and get in touch. We’d love to hear from you!