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 Spain now has an incredible number of prestigious international gastronomy and wine fairs, so many in fact that
few Spaniards, even hardened professionals, can keep up with them. Things kick off in January with Madrid Fusión,
which has become one of the world’s top gourmet encounters in only five years.
Barcelona’s huge biennial Alimentaria fair is a no-miss event where the best of Spanish and international
food and wine purveyors show their wares. And, every year it seems, new ferias appear. El Garrofó gastronomic
day in March--organized by Rafael Vidal of El Levante restaurant (Benisanó, outside Valencia)--
celebrates garrofós (garrofones in Spanish), the large lima beans grown in La Comunitat Valenciana, which
are an essential element in true paella valenciana. (Chicken, rabbit and duck, along with lima beans and green beans--but
no seafood—are essential elements in the real thing).
In late April, the new Congreso Mundial del Arroz (World Rice Congress) was held in Cullera, Valencia, with star
Spanish chefs Ferran Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak, Quique Dacosta and Raúl
Alexandre. The first Bilbao Gourmet Plus Feria de Gastronomía takes place this year in mid-June.
Along the way are numerous smaller food and wine fairs and fiestas, celebrating everything from shellfish and Albariño
wines in Galicia to Spanish cheeses at the national Feria de Quesos in Trujillo (Extremadura) in late April; saffron
in La Mancha in autumn and such esoteric products as ajo morado (purple garlic) in Las Pedroneras (La Mancha).
Interspersed among the food fairs are a series of wine events, including Encuentro Verema in Valencia (also
in January); Fevino, a Galician wine fair in Ferrol in March; Vino Elite and Vino a Toda
Vela in Valencia in April; and all in early May, Premios Zarcillo, the top wine fair in Castilla y León; La
Fira del Vi, where each new vintage of Priorat wines makes its debut; and the biggest Spanish wine show of them all, Fenavin in
Cuidad Real.
My favorite of all Spain’s food and wine fairs is Madrid’s annual Salón Internaciónal del Club
de Gourmets, which took place in Madrid this year from April 16-19. El Salón de Gourmets, as it is popularly
known, has just completed its 21st year as the top annual food and wine fair in Spain. In 17,000 square meters of exhibition
space at three pavillons—Pabellón de Cristal, Pabellón Telefónica Arena and Pabellón Satélite—some
40,000 gourmet products and wines are displayed in a fairly easily negotiated route of three contiguous buildings.
I never miss the El Salón de Gourmets, the brainchild of the great “Paco” López Canís,
who founded this fair and runs it with his partners and three grown children, Francisco, Reyes and Myriam. Apart from running into
old friends such as Juli Soler (El Bulli), Juan Mari Arzak (Arzak), José Gómez (the
supernal hams of Joselito), the Pérez Pascuas wine producing family of Ribera del Duero, Marino
González, the prime purveyor of Asturian cheese and artisanal products and scores of others and attending star-studded
gastronomic gabfests at the Hotel Wellington, I am constantly amazed by the quality of the products I sample. This year I sat down
with Angel Sánchez Delgado of Selecciones Delgado, who has some of finest delicatessen
products in Spain, including sublime conservas de latería (tinned foodstuffs), spectacularly good mejillones (mussels) de
las Rías de Galicia, superb small calamares en su tinta (squid in ink sauce), jarred piquillo peppers and
asparagus from Navarra, and fine olive oils from Columela. He told me of his plans to work with star chef José Andrés to
import his products into the United States this year. If Americans, who are accustomed to eating tinned sardines and anchovies,
discover the quality some of the other tinned seafood products such as mussels, beberechos (cockles) and almejas (clams)
that Selecciones Delgado offers, the United States should become a booming new market for these excellent, but little-known Spanish
products. I also found Poma, an exceptional new cider (which will soon be imported to the U.S.) from the Trabanco group
in Asturias, and scores of other products.
Gerry Dawes was awarded the Spanish National Gastronomy Prize (2003). Please contact gerrydawes@aol.com with any Spanish product
or restaurant news. | |
