The foundation organized together with the Castellón Provincial Council, a day dedicated to the sense of taste
The Foundation, together with the Castellón Provincial Council and the Burriana City Council, organized a day dedicated to “The culture of tourism of taste” in which representatives from different fields participated, all of them related to the evolution, present and future, of the different products that recognize Castellón and its province as a recommended culinary area.
The event was held at the Burriana Nautical Club and began with a welcome from the town’s mayor, Jorge Monferrer, and the vice president of the Castellón Provincial Council, Andrés Martínez.
The technical director of Proava, Rosa Vázquez spoke about “Nature, landscape and agri-food products” focused on Castellón and its agri-food product and referred to its association for the promotion of quality products as well as the axis of taste tourism as “the happiness industry: We are the fourth region in Spain in terms of vineyard area, the second largest exporter of wine nationwide” and called for the creation of business forums that promote the marketing of products and “teach how to fish” with people who have “willingness to work” and coordinate with other institutions and be the link between all interested parties.
For the master, craftsman and pastry chef Paco Torreblanca: “Pastry wasn´t much appreciated in a restaurant. But today it has a lot of prominence and we have recovered our position.” The famous pastry chef told various anecdotes of his travels around the world showing his desserts but reclaiming his roots and his identity. Torreblanca referred to the creativity of “seeing what others do not see” and showed various works with sugar, starch, vodka caviar, chocolate, elements with blown glass… showing the parallelism of many of his desserts with the works of art.
The territorial director of the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Castellón, Mª Luisa Albiol, spoke about the quality and food excellence in Castellón and all the procedures necessary to achieve that excellence, such as the presentation of Nuleta, the new citrus variety of the town of Nules or the hanging tomato from Alcalá de Xivert, the cheeses from Castellón, the seven water bottling plants, the cherries from Salzadella, the prawns from Vinaroz, the cork from the Serra d’Espadán or one of the star products: Castellón oils. And among the future perspectives, the agricultural engineer and director of the Ministry has mentioned rabbit meat, low in fat, suitable for balanced diets, and carob beans.
The biologist of the Castellón Provincial Council, Blai Peñarroya, claimed the natural parks of the province, as well as the 21 municipal natural sites, the protected spaces such as the Millars river with more than 424 hectares of Burriana, Almassora and Villarreal that functions regardless of color political of its town councils, the 55 wetland areas of the entire Valencian Community, in addition to the 37 caves such as the Vall d’Uixó.
Peñarroya referred to the monumental and unique trees, the rock art with more than 500 shelters 7,000 years old or the Valltorta Museum, Cultural Heritage of the CV. It ended with the mention of the 32 blue flags of the beaches of Castellón.
On the other hand, the doctor in Food Technology and specialist in Gastronomy at the UPV, IFood group, Food UPV, Purificación García, spoke about the quality of agri-food based on experimentation and emphasized the union between science and gastronomy : «Try to make and know the processes that occur in these high-quality processes – he stated – so that they continue to have high quality after cooking them. Knowing the product and knowing the techniques that will help the creativity that can be trained: Research transferred to haute cuisine» concluded and claimed the 25 Michelin stars throughout the Valencian Community.
