Culture and gastronomy converge in this delicious festival, which will be held in various locations in the city from the 17th April to the 2nd of May. It offers something to suit everyone's tastes – and not just activities to be enjoyed at the table.
One of the ideas most commonly associated with Gastrofestival since it started in 2009 is that to really get to know Madrid you have to experience what its bars and restaurants have to offer. A great many of them, as well as museums and cultural spaces, participate in the city's great culinary event – which this year will be held in spring - offering special menus and activities.
Gastronomic Madrid
The 2021 edition of Gastrofestival is essentially unchanged and features all its usual sections, such as Gastronomic Madrid, which will include a special focus on the flavours of Ibero-America to celebrate the fact that this year, as was the case last year, Madrid is the Ibero-American Capital of Gastronomic Culture. This is not solely due to its wide variety of Latin American restaurants, but also because municipal markets across the city offer ingredients like avocados, coriander, soursops, mangos and guavas. Many of these markets will once again enjoy a central role in this edition, playing host to countless activities. This is the case of the Prosperidad and Antón Martín markets, where there will be workshops, food and wine tastings and a whole host of surprises.
Gastroculture
In 2021, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her death, this section will highlight the literary legacy of the writer Emilia Pardo Bazán. Recognised as Spain's leading exponent of naturalism, she was also the author of one of the first culinary books to be written in Spanish, La cocina española antigua (Old Spanish Cuisine). The flavours and aromas evoked by its pages will be the subject of one of this edition's online cultural activities, Casa Emilia. Guisos e historias alrededor del fuego, offering a set menu of "dishes and stories around the fire" at this virtual eatery. Each dish will be accompanied by a text written by the Galician author, and dramatized by the writers María Folguera and Silvia Nanclares.
Throughout the entire Gastrofestival, the tour The Delights of the Prado at the Prado Museum will showcase a selection of work related to gastronomy, food and, of course, the senses. Journey into the relationship between art and flavour before finishing off your visit at the museum’s café, where cakes and sweet treats inspired by Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights will be served exclusively for the occasion. On the 29th, the Cerralbo Museum will host From Dining Room to Dining Room. Gastronomic traditions at the Cerralbo Palace, a conference organised by Julio Acosta Martín on the decoration and furniture of Spanish dining rooms in the 19th century. The four dining rooms of the house-museum will also be analysed, including the recently renovated Marchioness’ Room. What’s more, don’t miss out on the Museum’s art competition on Instagram! Markers, watercolours and paintbrushes at the ready: the theme is “illustrated recipes” and the prize, free entry to the capital’s public museums. Some Very Romantic Sweet Treats is the title of the visit, in Spanish, organised by the Museum of Romanticism to discover that period's favourite delicacies (20th, 21st, 27th, 29th and 30th).
Gastrofestival will also feature the participation of a number of other institutions such as the Reina Sofía Museum; CaixaForum; the National Archaeological Museum, which will offer two themed tours, one on food in Egypt and Greece (21st and 22nd) and the other on drinking as a fundamental aspect of society throughout history (23rd, 28th and 30th); the Gómez Pardo Foundation's Félix Cañada Art Museum which, thanks to its splendid Modernist collection, will recreate New York's Cotton Club on its ground floor from Wednesday to Friday; the Museum of the Americas, with themed tours (on Instagram or in person) on topics ranging from the pre-Columbian era to contemporary indigenous societies, not forgetting the period of the American Viceroyalties (from 20 to 30 April); and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, with four guided tours from the perspectives of allegory, myth, religion and festivities (20th, 22nd, 27th and 29th).
To celebrate Gastrofestival, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum will offer visitors its Gastronomy audio guide, with which they can follow a tour of a selection of paintings, including Juan van der Hamen y León's Still Life with Porcelain and Sweets. The visit ends in the La Bola restaurant where we can enjoy a meal which includes their renowned cocido madrileño (chickpea stew) cooked and served in an earthenware pot.
The festival's online presence includes actions planned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, which will post a video on its YouTube channel on gastronomy interpreted through its exhibits.
Further cultural delights will be offered by, among others, Microteatro, which will perform "microplays" related to gastronomy; Cuervo Store, the world's first pizzeria/record store; the Café de la Academia del Cine and Ochoymedio, the bookshop which specialises in the seventh art. The fashion industry, thanks to the collaboration of the Madrid Capital de Moda initiative, and the design industry, through the Casa Decor platform, will also participate in Gastrofestival.
Sensory experiences
A brunch at La Casa Encendida's Pum Pum Café (24th and 25th) and a voyage on board the San Diego carrack for children at the Naval Museum (24th) are some of the other suggestions we can enjoy in this tasty — and now classic — section of Gastrofestival.
To mark the occasion of World Book Day on 23 April, the National Museum of Natural Science has prepared a guided tour entitled Curious Banquets in the Animal Kingdom. Conducted in Spanish, the tour will be filled with literary and culinary delights to illustrate how research is conducted on food and the positive impact this has on our health. The guided walks offered by the Royal Botanical Gardens will teach you all about the varieties and curiosities of olive trees and the secrets of aromatic plants. And they’ve also prepared a very entertaining workshop in Spanish, Food is to Be Played With, to teach children healthy eating habits.
And what's more...
The rest of the programme's sections are also packed with activities. As in previous years, Eno-culture and Gastrohealth will link gastronomy with values that go beyond cuisine as we understood it until relatively recently, such as wellbeing, beauty, sustainability and tradition. Gastrofestival will also embrace the fact that the restrictions have generated a boom in food delivery and takeaways in recent months, allowing us to enjoy meals prepared by Madrid's chefs in our own homes.
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