If you find yourself planning your travels around where to eat and what to eat, we've rounded up our pick of culinary festivals to whet your wanderlust.
There’s something about gourmet festivals that make us feel like a kid in a candy store. With so many restaurants, chefs, and producers present on festival grounds, there’s plenty to taste and even more to discover. But more than ever, gourmet festivals are proving themselves to be larger than a collective of pop-up kitchens. Yes, food’s a highlight, but we’re beginning to see festival organisers curating activities and events to satisfy both the body and the mind. Be it a synergising platform for chefs to exchange ideas or a food trail that takes you straight to the farms, these festivals give you good reason to linger for more than a meal.
MadridFusión
When: 27 – 29 January 2014
Where: Madrid, Spain
Why go? The namelist of chefs who have participated in this festival reads as a culinary Oscars of sorts. From Alain Ducasse to Ferran Adria, grand chefs and vanguard chefs work and play alongside each other at MadridFusión, an undisputed star on the culinary festival circuit. The festival’s progressive DNA continues to impress itself upon this year’s programme, which explores culinary creativity from an urban point of view. It also throws the spotlight on lesser-known cuisines from the Andean axis, travelling from Peru through to Bolivia and Chile. Masterclasses will allow guests to get up close with chefs such as Joan Roca of El Celler Can Roca, while tastings, demonstrations, and lectures pack the rest of the three-day festival. In a nod to time-honoured cooking methods, this year’s installment of MadridFusión sees the debut of Tasting Spain, a conference dedicated to the art of traditional Spanish cooking.
Chefs sighted: Ferran Adria, Grant Achatz, Juan Mari Arzak, Paul Bocuse, Michel Bras, Alain Ducasse, Pierre Gagnaire, Thomas Keller.
Savour
When: 6 – 9 March 2014
Where: Singapore
Why go? As its name suggest, this three-year-old food festival goes the whole hog in dishing up a plethora of food and gourmet experiences for you to graze on. Top chefs from Singapore and the world pitch their culinary tents on the festival grounds, bringing with them a selection of dishes from their kitchens — all without the Michelin price tags. Besides catching chefs in action at the masterclasses, there are plenty of inspired workshops ranging from Nonya kueh making to food photography to keep gourmands of all ages busy. The festival also pulls together a veritable marketplace of produce and libations — all waiting to be discovered by you.
Chefs sighted: Alain Passard, Mauro Colagreco, Alvin Leung, Margot Janse, Jason Atherton, Claude Bosi, Moon Kyung Soo, Andre Chiang, Bart de Pooter, Julien Royer.
Noosa International Food and Wine Festival
When: 15 – 18 May 2014
Where: Queensland, Australia
Why go? The festival throws the spotlight on Australian produce and producers — and why shouldn’t it? The Queensland belt has plenty of fresh ingredients to showcase, and the festival makes it easy for you to discover just that. Organised food trails take you to spice farms, farmer’s markets, and even spanner crab plants, but you don’t have to go far to discover the lay of the land as producers across Australia converge on festival grounds to showcase their wares too. In recent years, the festival has seen its fair share of international chefs who front cooking demonstrations as well as showcase signature dishes from their famed restaurants. Engaging talks, fine wines, live entertainment and a breathtaking landscape set a charming backdrop for what is arguably one of Australia’s finest food festivals.
Chefs sighted: Mark Best, Andre Chiang, Mauro Colagreco, Carlo Cracco, Peter Gilmore, David Kinch, Yoshihiro Narisawa, Ben Shewry, David Thompson and Tetsuya Wakada.
MAD
Photo courtesy of MAD Symposium and Mikkel Heriba
When: 24 – 25 August 2014
Where: Copenhagen
Why go? Founded by René Redzepi, chef-patron of Noma, MAD is quite unlike your run-of-the-mill food festivals. The two-day festival is curated by chefs and could be described as the TED talks of the culinary world. MAD goes beyond the carnal pleasure of eating and pulls together a stellar line-up of top chefs to question, investigate, examine, and discuss issues simmering in the world of gastronomy. And the stars aren’t always the chefs. Food historians, scientists, sea urchin divers, and fermentation revivalists — amongst others — complete the eclectic mix of speakers. The fourth installment of MAD takes place later this year and features Alex Atala of D.O.M.as co-curator.
Chefs sighted: David Kinch, Alain Ducasse, Barbara Lynch, Margot Henderson, Pascal Barbot, Christian Puglisi, Ferran Adria, Danny Bowien.