maridarte 2025

21 Friday Feb 2025

Posted by in art, gastronomy, hotels, sevilla, spain

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My friend Eva @flamencakitchen has helped organise this very special event for the past two years, which brings together Gastronomy and Art in the city. Fourteen hotels are showcasing Maridarte 2025, along with their chefs and ten local artists. Today Eva invited me to attend the presentation of chef Antonio García and artist Daniel Franca at the Radisson Hotel Magdalena which, quite handily, is just around the corner from my house.

The premise is simple but also quite unique. At each hotel an artist displays certain pieces of their work and then the chef “pairs” dishes with them. Which at first I thought was a bit “yeah okay…” but today listening to Antonio and Daniel talk about how they influenced each other and what each painting and dish meant to them was actually quite moving. And then we got to taste the dishes. If you’re in Sevilla, Maridarte is on until March 2nd. You can find their programme below for meeting the artists, but you can also just show up any time to view the art and taste the dishes.

Programme Maridarte 2025

voyage en cuisine: les tapas

19 Wednesday Feb 2025

Posted by in andalucia, films, gastronomy

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Last June I was contacted by French Arte.TV and asked if I could help them organise an upcoming shoot they had planned for a short film on Tapas Culture in Sevilla. They were specifically looking for a chef to feature, but one that made traditional tapas, and they were also interested in me taking the presenter and some local foodies on a tapeo.

For me the best guys for the job were Jaime Guardiola and Pedro Ruiz-Ocejo  as they are both actually chefs (most tapas bars tend to have cooks, albeit excellent ones at times, but this was not what Arte-TV was looking for). They also run two bars that are dedicated to traditional food – Salmedina and Taberna Zurbarán. Also, Jaime’s family has their own fish market in Rota, Cádiz, so that also got included.

For my part I took them out on a tapeo and, well, OKAY. I mean, they could have really done it without me since by then it was all organised (by me) but in the end, after having contributed so much, I wanted to be there. My main stipulation was that they wouldn’t film me too much, so you may catch glimpses of me here but it was up to the others to stuff food into their mouths and talk about how great it was.

Anyhow, here it is, in French (subtitled in Spanish and German if that helps!) Gotta admit I got a bit teary eyed when I saw myself walking down the street using only a cane. Those were the days!

Andalousie: Les Tapas