Three restaurants in Dénia will have in their offer during the remainder of the summer a dish linked to seasonal produce and local producers. The initiative, which emerged from the Office of Innovation and Creativity, is part of the campaign 'Menja't the Navy', which in previous years has been held at the Municipal Market. The health situation and prevention measures have advised changing the model and replacing it with a mixed virtual promotion format and exclusive presence in restaurants.
The campaign has the collaboration of the Association of Hospitality and Tourism of the Marina Alta (AEHTMA) and the agricultural company Hort Obert. As a first experience, three restaurants have been invited to prepare a dish with at least one product, the main one, of local or regional origin. In this way, chefs and restaurateurs are put in contact with producers based in the Marina Alta and, at the same time, it is used to promote local cuisine in the middle of the tourist season. The dish will appear throughout the summer on restaurant menus as a special offer that also suggests a pairing with wines also from vineyards and wineries in the region.
The restaurants that from today will have their plate of 'Menja't the Navy' They are La Xerna del Mar, XqNo and Noguera. The initiative is open and other establishments may join it if they wish, which only have to comply with the requirement of using products from the sea and the orchard of the region or made in it.
From the Office of Innovation and Creativity they will be provided with the image of the campaign and some files containing information about the product and the producer, the dish and the restaurant are described, and the professional profile of the chef is noted. The card also includes the wine or drink, produced by the region, which is suggested as a pairing.
Sergio Furió, from La Xerna del Mar, will use octopus, caught by a Dénia boat, as the main ingredient in his seafood dish with "all i pebre". In the XqNo de Marines, its chef, Santi Chávez, gives prominence to seasonal tomato, marinated tuna and local oil in a Mexican-Mediterranean fusion salad that characterizes his cuisine. For their part, Rosana Guerola and Rafael Sisterna, from the classic Noguera de la Punta de l'Estanyó, have worked the sardines from the Pòsit de Xàbia, which are complemented with almond, tomato and oil also from local tradition.
'Menja't the Navy'
"Menja't la Marina" emerged in 2017 as one of the actions registered in the framework of the Dénia project as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. Until the stoppage or limitation of face-to-face activities, promotions of seasonal products were carried out in the Mercat de Dénia, such as tomato, perelló, raisin or almond; and local traditions and elaborations, such as Christmas sweets or wines.
In each action its producers intervened and a chef from the region prepared before the public a dish of his own creation with the product that was presented.
With 'Menja't the Navy' It is intended to promote contact between the different agents of the food sector of the Marina Alta, one of the axes also of the pilot project 'Bancalet', which will be launched in the coming weeks and with which we want to make local production visible, build connection networks between hospitality professionals and local producers, and give local products a greater presence in the gastronomic offer and in the food markets of the Marina Alta.
