Willemstad – The renewed concept of the recently renovated Restaurant The Pen was the higlight of Monday evening as the Star Chefs, Matthijs Mulder of Landhuishotel De Bloemenbeek, from The Netherlands and Avila’s Chef de Cuisine Noam van der Kaaij took the fully reserved restaurant on a 7-course culinary journey. The Michelin-Star experienced Chefs in collaboration with local farmers and project developers had the opportunity to delight the attendees of this unique evening with refined and colorful dishes created with local and regional ingredients.
Concept developer and Food & Beverage Manager of the Avila Beach Hotel, Nico Dingemans, under whose supervision this concept ‘From Farm to Fork’ has been developed in Avila’s Restaurant The Pen is excited of the fact that many islanders are becoming more aware and showing interest in the origins of the ingredients used in dishes that they consume. With this renewed concept, the hotel supports local farmers and products and gives Avila’s guests the opportunity to discover these local products in a gastronomic way.
Monday October 1st, was the launching of this renewed ‘From Farm to Fork’ concept in Restaurant The Pen, whereby delectable small appetizers, refreshing cocktails, such as the ‘the Long Island Pen-Tea Cocktail Digestif’, made from local ‘simia di Basil’ tea and local Triple Sec and other colorful dishes like ‘The vegetable garden’ with sweet-and-sour vegetables and ‘microgreens’ grown locally at Fuik were served. The splendid musical performance by the beautiful local pianist and singer Aemy Niafeliz made this culinary evening complete. This 7-course culinary journey was served for only US$ 70, – per person considering Avila Beach Hotel’s upcoming 70th anniversary celebration. Therefore, the decision was easily made to donate half of all the proceeds of this event to charity.
Since this new concept embraces the cultivation of local products, the most obvious conclusion was to offer this donation to ‘Fundashon Let’s Grow together’ which raises awareness with the underprivileged and children with educational limitations of locally cultivated products through excursions to Hofi Cas Cora. They also give information of the cultivation process whereby the children receive the opportunity to get acquainted with the different tastes of these products. Nico Dingemans on behalf of Restaurant The Pen, handed over a symbolic cheque with the amount of US$. 2500,- from the dinner proceeds together with another Nafl. 1500,- that came in after the auction of Nico’s book ‘From Farm to Fork’ to ‘Fundashon Let’s Grow together’ in support of this charitable project.
For regular updates of events at Restaurant The Pen please visit: https://www.avilabeachhotel.com/restaurants-bars/restaurant-the-pen
