During February and March, Brindisa, in true Catalan style, will host their annual Calçotada feast at both Brindisa Shoreditch and Brindisa Rupert Street.
If you’re not au fait with your Spanish festivals, fear not as we’ve got the lowdown:
One of Spain’s more unusual traditions, family and friends gather together to celebrate the humble Catalan onion – the calçot. Armed with bibs and jugs of red wine, communities gather together as the calçots are chargrilled, peeled, dipped into romesco sauce and then dramatically lowered into mouths from great heights – a rather messy affair!
Brindisa’s Head Chef, Josep Carbonell, has created a feasting menu centred around traditional Spanish vegetable dishes, including calçots with romesco sauce; a classic Catalan white bean stew; whole grilled artichokes; roasted red peppers and a Vegan Crema Catalana, all washed down with copious porrons of red wine and cava.
‘The Calçotada is a messy affair – it goes beyond celebrating a vegetable, it’s part of our heritage! Great fires are lit, long tables are set outdoors and bundles of calçots are piled onto the flames as we feast and drink into the night. It’s quite the performance, with grandfathers skilfully pouring porrons straight into open mouths, and hanging calçots dripping with romesco sauce” says Brindisa Kitchens’ Executive Chef, Josep Carbonell.
Sounds like a festival we can get on board with.
Saving us a trip over to Spain, Brindisa are kindly letting us in on the fun here in London, every weekend throughout February and March.
