International and Local Chefs Join Calentita Food Festival

The Organisers have announced:

‘We are really pleased to announce that this year’s Calentita Food Festival has attracted interest from a number of international chefs that will be travelling to Gibraltar to run stalls and also to carry out cooking demonstrations at our Calentita Kitchen Live’.

Travelling from Malta, Chef Alan Warren Cefai will be a familiar name to fans of GBC Television series ‘Inspired By Malta’, Gibraltar has long and historic ties with Malta and we are delighted to welcome Alan to Gibraltar to participate in Calentita and to provide an authentic taste of this Mediterranean island which holds such a dear place in the hearts of so many locals. Alan plans to bring the best of Malta with him to Calentita, preparing a delicacy of rabbit stew arancini with white bean, garlic and parsley puree drizzled with prickly pear sauce. All his ingredients, from the prickly pears to the spices, will be sourced in Malta – a true taster of this beautiful island.

London-based chef Richard McLellan will bring a wilder touch to the food festival with his stall “Wilder x Gibraltar”. With years of experience working with some of London’s top Michelin starred chefs such as Tom Aitkens, Adam Byatt, and Alyn Williams, Richard’s stall promises to offer a gourmet experience for festival goers. ‘I will be creating a dish that draws a connection between Gibraltar and my home city of London’. Richard will be using wild ingredients from local sources - hence the name of his stall ‘Wild food opens your eyes to a wider range of ingredients and its vast array of flavours’.

Alan and Richard will both carry out cooking demonstrations at Calentita where they will be joined by pastry chef, cookery teacher, activist and bestselling author, Henrietta Inman. Henrietta will also lead a team of chefs catering for the Dinner & Dialogue event that will take place on Sunday 23rd June 2018.

Henrietta Inman is a pastry chef, cookery teacher and author, specialising in patisserie and all types of food, made with natural and wholesome, seasonal ingredients. After gaining a distinction in the Professional Patisserie Scholarship at Westminster Kingsway College, she worked in a number of award-winning kitchens including Heinz Beck’s Michelin-starred Apsley’s formerly at The Lanesborough Hotel, and for Skye Gyngell. She has published two books “Clean Cakes” and “The Natural Baker” and is a contributing author to “Cook for Syria” which will be published on 20th June 2018.

Vicky Bishop, Claire Foster and Nico Fitzgerald will also join the demonstration lineup. Vicky is a health supportive chef and owner of Vicky’s Natural Kitchen Deli and catering outlet. She believes that cooking from scratch is about “connecting with nature and your ingredients.”

“For me it’s about getting inspiration from the vegetables and foods available to you; whatever the natural source I am working with and designing my menus and recipes around that”. Vicky will be carrying out a demonstration at the Calentita Kitchen.

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 enjoying putting together different types of burgers, working to perfect a vegan burger. I want to demonstrate to people that vegan food can be incredibly flavourful, 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 flavourful, people will have to try and judge for themselves. I am really looking forward to the demo going well and may use it as a platform to offer cooking classes in the future”.

Nico Fitzgerald is already making a name for himself in international circles. 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. Nico will be carrying out a demonstration in the Calentita kitchen.