The details of the Tenerife presence in the Basque city have been presented at a press conference by the president of the Tenerife Council, Pedro Martin, the island councilor for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla, the CEO of Tourism of Tenerife, David perez, the contest director, Benjamin Lana and the coordinator of the Tenerife delegation, Juan Carlos Clemente.
Martín has pointed out that Tenerife attends this event, which will be held from November 14 to 17, as “a two-way road” with which to promote island products to go “beyond the sun and beach” and as a “mirror in which to look at yourself “and observe and compare what is on the island” that is also needed.
David Pérez has pointed out that the presence of Tenerife in ‘San Sebastián Gastronomika’ is part of the “diversification” strategy of the destination and also serves to “make visible” the quality of the island’s products.
He has said that gastronomy brings “identity” to the destination and is increasingly appreciated to attract visitors and new profiles, and it is not so much about exporting products as that tourists want to travel to the island and taste them in a comprehensive 360-degree experience .
Parrilla pointed out that Tenerife’s products will be the island’s “ambassadors” in the “most important” gastronomic event in Europe, highlighting especially the value of livestock, which is “essential” to sustain the landscape and generate “emotion” among tourists.
“People are more interested in eating than football”
Benjamín Lana has valued Tenerife’s “intelligent commitment” to diversify the tourism product through gastronomy, which also “is beginning to be understood in a different way, in a transversal way”, to the point that “people are interested in eating more than football. ”
In addition, he stressed that it “treasures values” such as territory, identity or modernity.
He pointed out that they focus “with great enthusiasm” the return of the congress to the face-to-face mode and recalled that ‘San Sebastián Gastronomika’ was a “great revolution” because it marked the beginning of the knowledge shared by chefs.
Lana has also indicated that it has gone from making visible only “the great chefs” to looking at “the entire process” of the production chain, appealing to banish the concept of “failed society” to rural settings.
He has pointed out that this year’s edition is the one of “reunions”, both between cooks and people in general “who have had a very bad time” due to the pandemic, and “between French and Spanish cuisine” after some decades in the that stopped looking at each other as a result of the ‘boom’ of Ferrán Adriá. “We hope to recover that love story,” he said.
Clemente has shelled some of the activities of the Tenerife delegation such as a presentation by Erlantz Gorostiza dedicated to black pig, the sponsorship of a dessert contest with tropical fruits from Tenerife, thematic breakfasts or lunches dedicated to the sea with “little known” products in the Peninsula like cabrillas, old women, limpets or burgados.
