Andorra Manifesto: A commitment to the mountains

The signatories call for new regulations that strengthen rural environments and the viability of their agriculture and livestock farming, and reaffirm their support for high mountain products and their value.

The document, which began to take shape at the first edition of Andorra Taste and is open to those who share its principles, has been released at the close of this second edition of the professional congress, and with it the aim is to ensure the future of mountain cuisine through the preservation of its larder and a gastronomic evolution that does not lose sight of its roots.

The signatories demand, beyond the protection of natural environments, the regulation of direct sales from producers and harvesters to restaurants to facilitate local marketing that helps to retain population and distribute wealth, as well as the creation of support programs so that livestock farming and mountain agriculture have the necessary profitability to guarantee their subsistence.

Likewise, and to protect the uniqueness of mountain products - one of the central themes of this edition - institutions are also urged to promote research and development of processed products that provide added value to producers, harvesters and cooks, along with initiatives that protect them with quality seals.

It is also demanded that rural societies be guaranteed the same rights to health, education and digital connectivity as are offered in urban environments, and that the return of the population to rural and mountain areas be promoted with plans and aid for the recovery of homes and villages.

For their part, the chefs commit to actions such as respecting the seasonality of the products and highlighting their value while preserving the mountain culinary heritage through their creativity.

The Andorra Manifesto represents a clear declaration of intent and continuity of a project that, as explained by Benjamín Lana, general director of Vocento Gastronomía (organizer of the congress together with the gsr group and Turisme de Andorra), has many possibilities because "from the kitchen, awareness can be raised about rural areas and natural spaces."

Andorra, as a country, also assumes this commitment, as stated by the Director General of Andorra Turisme, Betim Budzaku, who affirmed that "Andorra's commitment to gastronomy will be defining for the future of the Principality."

Natural cuisine and high-altitude wines

An example of high mountain cuisine on stage this Friday was the figure of the Swiss chef Rebecca Clopath, the driving force behind the Biohof Taratsch restaurant, located on the farm where she grew up in Lohn.

There he offers his own interpretation of avant-garde natural cuisine, essential and simple because he doesn't want to offer "a spectacular menu, but a conscious menu, so that the diner feels the emotion from the soul, discovering new flavors and sensations."

In Andorra, Ventura continues with his philosophy of loyalty "to a quality product, cooked to order." Taking advantage of the suitability of his new location, the Catalan chef revealed that he is "excited about the idea of ​​being able to work with locally sourced game." Advantages of working in the mountains.

High-altitude wines have been the latest protagonists of the professional part of Andorra Taste, which has had as master of ceremonies the sommelier Ferran Centelles, who has offered a tasting of wines from wineries that work at more than a thousand meters of altitude, which gives them a special identity.

Andorra Taste Popular

Following the closing of the professional sessions of the International Meeting of High Mountain Cuisine, the popular part of Andorra Taste was inaugurated, a fair open to the public on Veedors street in Escaldes-Engordany, where some twenty Andorran or foreign chefs who run restaurants in the country offer tapas and dishes until Sunday that will be combined with cooking workshops, activities for the little ones and live music.