On November 25 and 26, Mercado do Bolhão sets the table to celebrate the Portuguese gastronomy and promote proximity between “the product and the people who work it”. The Melting Gastronomy Summit will have 12 national and international chefs cooking soups, olive oil, rice, pork, and fish dishes.
“Focused on the theme of the product of the Land and the Sea, the summit challenges gastronomy lovers for raw-material and the national product to think about and value the discoveries and challenges of the sector”, says Associação para a Promoção da Gastronomia, Vinhos, Produtos Regionais e Biodiversidade (AGAVI), organizer of the event.
For two days, those who pass through Bolhão – curious or professional – can “taste the delicacies prepared in front of them”.
In the second Edition, the summit also features “Table Talks”, tastings commented simultaneously with conversations and live cooking sessions. The idea is that, in each one of the five daily sessions, chefs and producers discuss different themes “in a 360º approach to the product”.
Among the foreign guests are the A. Mar Project, from Brazil, which proposes fish Portuguese sausages and a focus on sustainability, in addition to what “the best is done with seafood in the emerging region of Andalusia, by the hands of Edu Pérez (Tohqa) and Juanlu Fernández ((Cañabota)”.
The Melting Gastronomy Summit, also, challenges national chefs for “unprecedent duets”. Nuno Castro (Fava Tonka) and Renato Cunha (Ferrugem) debut a vegetarian “sarrabulho”, André Magalhães (Taberna da Rua das Flores) cooks with Francisco Alves producer of Alentejo pigs, journalist Edgardo Pacheco and oleologist Ana Carrilho, from Esporão, taste and comment on olive oils, João Valente (O Batareo) brings the fish and seafood from his grill and Vasco Coelho Santos (Euskalduna) will prepare a fish soup.
The gastronomic summit at Mercado do Bolhão kicks off with the dinner “Ideias à Prova”, “a moment created to stop and think at the table, unique characteristic of the Portuguese people ”. Chef Marco Gomes takes care of the food, the enologist Luís Sottomayor the wines and both invite the mayor of Porto City Hall, Rui Moreita to be the “catalyst element of thought”.
On Sunday, there are “tripas à moda do Porto” for lunch. The Melting Gastronomy Summit proposes the “Festa da Partilha”, “an afternoon of celebration of entrepreneurship and generosity, while perpetuating the deep affinity that every Porto native has with the city”, with the presence of Federação das Confrarias Gastronómicas and coordination by chef Hélio Loureiro.
AGAVI’s president, António de Souza-Cardoso, says that the goal of the summit is “Portugal has a stage, with national and international projection, to highlight this sector so relevant to tourism and with such an economic impact”.
Ricardo Dias Felner, curator of Melting Gastronomy Summit, adds that “it is no longer about absorbing the best of the world, and processing it in our way, but about showing the best that is made in Portugal, based on our culinary tradition and in our best products”.
