Twenty producers, chefs and artisans will showcase the Bancalet label at the festival taking place this weekend in Dénia.

The Dn*a Food Festival features once again products labelled Bancalet. The label embodies the region’s commitment to its culinary and agri‑food culture. Around twenty farmers, chefs and artisans committed to Bancalet will take part in this festival edition devoted to how cooking has been opened up, shared and written over time. They have much to say about the knowledge handed down from generation to generation because they know it closely. Their stories speak of landscape, of love for the land, of work from dawn to dusk, of techniques preserved and enriched over the years, of flavours, memories and heritage. In essence, they speak of the Marina Alta region. 

The flavours from the Marina Alta, each with its own identity, at the D*na.

On 26 and 27 September, across the festival’s broad showcase, Bancalet cooks, farmers and artisans will invite visitors to taste — and take home — flavours and products rooted in our territory, all of them synonymous with good practice and expressions of local identity.

Meeting them directly will offer visitors the chance to hear their stories first-hand: what lies behind each dish and product, how it can be used, and the curiosities that surround it.

Participating in the festival are: El Marino restaurant, Pichi’s Coffee Roasters, Defangcuit Ceràmica, Ca Paquitina, Helados Palacio, Melaca Miel, El Serralet de Segària, Casa Leyda, Bodega Teulada, Celler Les Freses, Joan de la Casa (viticulturist), Frutos Secos La Pansa, Nyas Coca, La Coquería, Ca Seko and Beekery.

The Bancalet label will also be featured in the workshops. Chef Bruno Ruiz (Aticcook) and fruit, vegetable and aromatic herb producer Joan Folqués (Cult‑eco) will lead the session ‘With Their Own Name: craftsmanship, land and origin cooking in Bancalet’. Ruiz will also take part in a workshop entitled ‘Soul of the Sea: the second life of desalination salt in local haute cuisine’. Meanwhile, José Manuel López (Ca Seko) will dedicate his Saturday workshop to ‘Cooking with history: childhood memories’.

Toni Arabí (Ca Curro) and Fran J. Sancho (Ca Paquitina), members of the Marina’s Association of Artisan Charcutiers, will join the workshop ‘Healthy and traditional charcuterie from the Marina: craftsmanship, innovation and sustainability’. Álvaro Verdú (Verdú Artesanos) will lead ‘Sweet and savoury ice creams with liquid nitrogen’, and Jaume Leyda (Casa Leyda) will present ‘How to identify pure honey and curiosities’.

This year the festival focuses on the transmission of knowledge. Indeed, one of the key reference books on the region’s cuisine will inspire chef José Manuel López’s Sunday talk (5.45 pm) on the main Sea Stage. It will be his tribute to the Vademecum de cocina de la Marina Alta, written by Carlos Llorca and Ángeles Ruiz, a comprehensive compendium of traditional recipes first published in 2003 and now a classic of local food.