One of the biggest experiences of my last week was an event called Pasión Culinaria, which I guess even those understand who don’t speak Spanish. It was organised by people passionate about food, good company, and meeting people, for people passionate about food, good company and meeting people. So together with my friend, we were in.
We had to sign up in advance in pairs and agree to the terms and conditions: simply to cook something, host people in your flat and go to other, unknown people’s places to eat. The deal is that you cook either a starter, a main course or a dessert, whichever you are told by the organisers – you find this out a few days before the event. And for the other two courses, you go and eat at someone else’s place. You also find out where and with whom a few days before. We got the dessert part, so our night looked like this: at 7.30, we went to have a starter to a Catalán guy’s place. There we met his friend, and two other Catalán girls. We were there for one hour, having a lovely mushroom risotto, then everyone had to move to the next place, seperate ways. For main course, my friend and I had to be in another part of town by 9pm, where two German guys cooked an amazing fish dinner. There were also two Catalán girls joining us there. (Yes I know, I suddenly met a lot of Catalán people!) We spent an hour and a half there, then had 30 minutes to get back home as at 11pm, we were the hosts for dessert. Surprisingly, to a group of Spanish people. We had one hour for eating the Hungarian pancake tart we prepared in the afternoon, drink and a chat, then we had to go to the place where all the people taking part in the evening gathered, and had a fiesta. The great thing about the event is that you don’t know anyone, other than your partner. So over the three courses, as each house hosted 6 people, you had the chance to meet and get to know 12 new people within a few hours. And at the end, at the party, you could meet all the 80 people who signed up for Pasión Culinaria. What a great idea. I’m certainly bringing this back home with me.
