Sardines recently caught by Pep Tomaca, fisherman from the Jávea brotherhood
"My favorite product is the seasonal product." Federico Cervera is pure gastronomic inspiration. And not only. In his project, Els Magazinos, a warehouse of gastronomy and culture which he refers to as a “space to live socially”, he has been able to materialize an initiative that he had on his to-do list.
kitchen of territory is an annual calendar of local products that are governed by seasonality and that connects with the true protagonist of our gastronomy: the producer.
“When they talk about the tomato, it is as if they were talking about their lover. I have never seen a farmer narrate a product so passionately.” Luis Cañizares is the communication director of this space where you can celebrate life, of this place of meeting and coexistence in the open air which is Els Magazinos.
Boiled red prawn from Denia
And so was born, for example, the contest La Millor Tomaca de la Marina (The best tomato in the Marina). Here they do not stop creating to value what is close, with actions like this but also with names and surnames.
Like Joan Folqués, from Cult-Eco, who has been growing organically for 12 years and who presented 18 varieties of tomatoes, who speaks to us (also) with pride about his hot peppers: “I am growing about 15 different ones, from chillies to many chili peppers that have brought me seeds from South America”.
And its peas, snow peas or its artichokes. “Now, as many people only do their shopping at the supermarket, they have lost the notion of what seasonal products are. I have met cooks who ask me for artichokes in the summer”.
And the same thing happens with seafood: how little we know about the red prawn, which in Denia is a religion.
“What is famous is the product, but we never know who is behind it. Everyone knows the Denia red prawn, that explosion of flavor that is one of the most demanded products, but nobody knows when, how it is fished or at what depth. We don't know how it gets to the plate." Paco Sala has been a fisherman since he was 16. And he has been in a boat for 32, dedicated to this coveted crustacean, which he prefers to eat boiled.
“It is a product that does not have a season as such as other species but suddenly, you are in a fishing ground making acceptable catches, it disappears and you have to go look for it in another. And it is fished with a net that we drag at ground level at a depth of between 500 and 800 meters”.
'El Surdo' drying bacallarets on his boat
And he clarifies that highlighting the origin makes sense: “It is the same species but those of us who work with it and touch it all day notice a difference even between one fishing ground and another. The one that is fished in the north of Denia is redder and has a harder, heavier shell. If you take it further south, it is more whitish, it seems more enlisted and not red. Today, in Denia, we make 5 size classifications. The caliber of first corresponds to about 20 pieces per kilo, for example." Every talk with them is a master class.
Tomato (July, together with cod), artichoke (February, with mackerel) or red prawn (September, with rice with Denomination of Origin, such as the Pego bonbon) are some of the products that Cuina de Territory , but there are many more, because each month they choose a product from the sea and another from the land to honor it and put a face to the producers behind it.
In January it is the sea urchin and wild herbs, in August the furó and the muscatel grape (raisin), which, as Luis tells us, has conditioned the economy of the Marina Alta. “Els Magazinos was a port warehouse for raisins. What are now orange groves were previously Muscatel grape vineyards”.
Grilled seasonal artichoke
Back to the calendar in October it will be crayfish and leafy vegetables, in November pumpkin and galley, and in December, vegetables from the Nadal pot (Christmas) and octopus.
Although in 2021 there will be news: "We will expand to meats, sausages, olive oils or cheeses from the Valencian Community, although we also plan to carry out a tuna ronqueo”.
And all of them put them on our table, with the proposals of the stalls and their restaurants: "We wanted to create that link between our gastronomic spaces and the producers."
Diana Cervera, gastronomic manager of Els Magazinos, confesses that Cuina de Territori is a daily learning: "It's a gift to be able to have those conversations with the real protagonists."
La Marina Millor Tomaca Contest
Xavier Mulet (from L'Horta de Xavier, in Pedreguer) is another of the farmers behind the product. “We highly value carrots in winter and tomatoes in summer, but we cannot ignore chard, arugula, cabbage, broccoli or leeks. Winter is one of those products in which you eat the leaf or the root. In summer, aubergine, pepper, melons, watermelons, or courgette”.
Paella with seasonal vegetables and squid with pego rice
Cuina de Territori is a return to the seasonal product, which we were forgetting. When you try the galley paella, the cod mullador and chaplain or the all i pebre de mussola at Les Cuinetes or at A la Fresca, the red prawn carpaccio at Baret de Robert, the figatell with bao bread and raisins from Llíber from Ca Curro or the oyster with sea urchin roe, strawberry and ponzu sauce from ostrarium, you get it
And, at this point, we agree with Diana: “We should all learn more about Spain and promote what is ours. In Italy, for example, they sell theirs as if it were gold: they are their own ambassadors. It is high time that we value our product”.
Pickled mackerel and artichokes
In Els Magazinos they do it. This space, which was going to be a car park, is now (fortunately) much more than a market. When you meet Luis he will tell you. “Federico told me that many cities in the world had their own gastronomic market. And that he did not understand how Denia, Creative City of Gastronomy by UNESCO, did not have one. He knew that if he didn't do it, no one was going to do it for his people. That's why he wanted to create the best food market in the world."
And he continues: "Fede loves Denia, the Marina Alta region, its products and its gastronomy, its people and the Mediterranean lifestyle. And he asked me that everything we did in the market had a positive return for gastronomy, for Denia or for the people here. This is how the best food market in the world became the market for a better world.” A world in which, finally, we realized that our gastronomy, without producers, without product, is nothing.
kitchen of territory