eat! BRUSSELS – The Brussels Restaurant festival

Over 4 days, from 12 to 15 September, more than 30 restaurateurs from the 19 municipalities of the Brussels Capital Region as well as various Brussels Capital Region partner regions come together in the Bois de la Chambre/Ter Kamerenbos park during eat! BRUSSELS to share their knowhow and passion for delicious products with connoisseurs and gourman ds who are always on the lookout for superb quality, discoveries and tradition, but also new taste sensations and adventures.

eat! BRUSSELS brought together around 30 restaurateurs during its first edition in 2012, on the initiative of the Department of External Relations of the Regional Public Service of Brussels and 7 partner regions (bilateral partners of the Brussels Capital Region).

eat! BRUSSELS provides an excellent picture of the diversity that Brussels is rich in, with the menu displaying an array of discovers from the four corner of the globe. Restaurants and products from Europe, Africa, the East, France and Belgium set about as creatively as possible to amaze and spoil every visitor, young and old alike. And thanks to the smaller portions, visitors can sample several cuisines in one meal and thus, as it were, embark on a journey through a range of various food cultures.

eat! BRUSSELS a sustainable event
Just like last year, for this year’s edition of eat! BRUSSELS it was also decided to work with recyclable material and an individual system for waste management. The cutlery and plates for the festival are fully biodegradable, the various types of glasses are reusable materials, while the collaboration with VIVAQUA makes it possible not to use any plastic bottles but rather to work for the entire festival with large “carafes” of water situated all around. 

Gastronomic Festival in the sky over Brussels

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Gastronomy has close ties to Brussels as the success of Brusselicious demonstrated in 2012. 
Dinner in the Sky, among the most surrealistic gastronomic concepts, is still a resolutely fixed item in the heavens. Over a period of six years, Dinner in the Sky has become world famous and has managed to build up a solid reputation among the community of top chefs, the most famous of whom have been creating meals in the kitchen of this unusual dining concept. Belgian and Brussels since its inception, Dinner in the Sky has prepared thousands of meals in more than 45 countries including more recently Qatar, Morocco and the Las Vegas Strip.
Following the success of Dinner in the Sky as part of Brusselicious, an ambitious gastronomic festival will be held in the sky over Brussels in partnership with Visit Brussels , an annual festival which will see seven Brussels - based starred chefs interpreting the gastronomic culture of a country invited to perform in front of one of the most beautiful squares in the world , the Grand Place: Brussels in the Sky.
This first edition of "Brussels in the Sky" will be held from 3 to 30 June 2013 at the Mont des Arts and will be welcoming 22 guests to partake of a lunch and two daily gastronomic dinners in the sky in the European capital.
The seven Brussels-based starred chefs are:
·         Yves Mattagne of Sea Grill **
·         Lionel Rigolet of Comme chez Soi **
·         Pascal Devalkeneer of Chalet de la Forêt **
·         David Martin of La Paix *
·         Giovanni Bruno of Senzanome *
·         Gaetan Colin of Jaloa *
·         Luigi Ciciriello of Truffe Noire *
Information & reservations: www.dinnerinthesky.be

Mexico City Hosts Second Annual Mesamérica Event with Leading Chefs & Restaurateurs

Master culinary icons from around the globe came together in Mexico City from May 20 to 22 for the second annual Mesamérica Congress. 
The three day affair, which took place at the Blackberry Auditorium in Mexico City, provided a venue were culinary powerhouses could share their passion for the profession through cooking demonstrations and activities, gastronomy seminars and passionate speeches. 
Mesamérica is one of the few events in the world that unites these highly respected individuals who are building the history of contemporary cuisine. Among the renowned participants in attendance were those on the most recent San Pellegrino List of the Best Restaurants in the World including Jordi Roca (Spain), René Redzepi (Denmark), Massimo Bottura (Italy), Andoni Luis Aduriz (Spain), Daniel Humm (United States) and Alex Atala (Brazil). Other big players in attendance included Eneko Atxa (Spain), Gastón Acurio y Virgilio Martínez (Perú), David Kinch (United States) and Carlos García (Venezuela). The best from Mexico were also in attendance, among them Mario Espinosa, Diego Hernandez-Baquedano, Antonio de Livier, Edgar Nunez, Elena Reygadas, Jorge Vallejo and Aquiles Chavez. 
Over the three days, the attendees demonstrated the power of gastronomy. Among the topics discussed with the audience, which included students and the media, was Mexican cuisine, gastronomy as an art form, the rise of Latin American cuisine, the next generation of chefs, as well as how each culinary icon was contributing to contemporary cuisine. 
One of the most memorable speeches given was by Andoni Aduriz, chef of Spain's famed Mugaritz, where he engaged the audience by asking volunteers to try “grapes” which were in fact his restaurant's macaron de caza. When volunteers could not identify anything other than the foie gras ganache for the “grapes,” Aduriz revealed that they were actually made of pork blood. 
Mexico City continues to establish itself as an eclectic culinary destination that boasts delectable experiences ranging from the most sophisticated restaurants in the world to highly celebrated street food. In 2010, UNESCO declared Mexican food as an intangible heritage of humanity. 
Mesamaerica will take place once again on May 19 – 21, 2014. Next year’s theme will be street food.