On Tuesday 30 January, Palazzo Santa Rosa, the renowned lifestyle restaurant in Mistra Bay in collaboration with Carnaby Wines will be organising a wine-tasting dinner for all food and wine lovers. The chefs will be matching foods to go with a range of Spanish wines provided by Carnaby wines under the guidance of the latter’s head sommelier Silvio Tonna.
Throughout the evening, new dishes developed exclusively for the evening by Head Chef Claude Camilleri and his team will be served to the guests. With the theme of the evening being “Spanish Wines”, the chefs have evolved dishes that combine Maltese and Spanish influences.
“There are huge similarities between the Spanish and Maltese cuisine”, commented Claude Camilleri, who is also an avid researcher of Mediterranean culinary cultures. “A lot of us understand the relationship between Spanish and Maltese foods from the days of the Knights and their respective Langues, but the similarities go deeper than that. Spanish cuisine, like the Portuguese, the Italian, the Maltese and other Mediterranean cuisines owe their current style to the Arabs. So if one looks hard enough, there are dishes that are extremely similar with only slight regional variations that would have been introduced over time.”
“The task of matching the food with the wines is not easy though. It is a three-dimensional task; we have to match the wine and remain as loyal as possible to both the Spanish and the Maltese cuisine.”
One of the most promising and talented sommeliers in Malta, Silvio Tonna relished the experience of evolving a menu that will astound. “It is not often in Malta that you get the chance to go through such an intense experience on such a level of professionalism. With Claude, everything has to be spot on when it comes to food, from taste to presentation, from the matching of the wine to the level of seasoning. One’s skills come to the test. We spent hours and long evenings preparing all the dishes to enhance and complement the wines for the evening.”
Five different wines will be served complementing the dishes served. “At Carnaby we specialise in a few great wines, mostly Spanish and South American of very unique character and of great value. Our skill at Carnaby Wines is to always find an ideal value-for-money balance. We do not handle cheap wines, but our wines offer an amazing value for money and throughout this evening, we want to show off these superb wines.”
To complement the evening, the water has been provided by San Pellegrino, thanks to their local agents, Charles Grech of Birkirkara. Using the San Pellegrino matching system, natural and sparkling waters will be served according to the food and wine served.
“This is not a high-brow kind of experience,” explains the Head Chef. “We want people to come here to enjoy the conviviality that we are renowned for and to enjoy the food and the wine in an un-stuffy way.
People come to Palazzo Santa Rosa to enjoy life; amazing food prepared with great love, passion and dedication and forget about everyday’s grind for a while.
We are enough evidence that a culinary experience does not have to be stuffy to be a gastronomic feast.
For the evening, there will be one seating at 8pm, a maximum number of 30 guests and the price will be Lm20 inclusive of Carnaby’s Wines, Panna and San Pellegrino. One can book through Palazzo Santa Rosa on tel.:2158-2737 or via email to psr
@maltanet.net.