RICE, GRAINS AND PASTA: Rice

Saturday, March 3, 13:30 h

Chef: Mari Carmen Vélez (Alicante)
Specialist: Lourdes March

Description:
Adapting traditional rice dishes to modern times will be the main theme in Mari Carmen Vélez’s Ágora. This prominent chef from Valencia will show the audience how to get surprising results by using the oldest tricks in the recipe book.
Lourdes March, a specialist on this food family, will provide a brief and brilliant introduction prior to the chef’s performance.

Mari Carmen Vélez has become one of the leading representatives of Alicante’s gastronomy. Her restaurant La Sirena de Petrer features the region’s very best raw materials and the region of Valencia’s most exquisite rice dishes. Her restaurant is listed in the planet’s most prestigious guidebooks and is considered a true reference point for sampling the essence of the Mediterranean Diet. Mari Carmen Vélez has received numerous awards, notably the first prize in the National Arroz a Banda Competition and the Premio Prestige Gourmet 2003.

Lourdes March has written several highly successful historical-gastronomic books on rice, Mediterranean cuisine, Spanish gastronomy, olive oil and olives, preserves, food manuals, articles and other publications which have been translated into several languages. She frequently participates in International Forums and Conferences on Food. Commissioned by the International Olive Oil Council, she promotes olive oil by staging theoretical and practical demonstrations in different countries. March serves as gastronomic advisor to restaurants specialising in Mediterranean cuisine and participates in radio and television programmes on a regular basis.

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