A week featuring Maltese cuisine was organised by the Cent-Trieze restaurant in Binningen, a suburb of Basle, Switzerland.

The event was the brainchild of Hildegard Borer, owner of the restaurant, and Theresa Valentino, who have been good friends for many years. Valentino used her culinary skills to introduce a rather drastic variation to the restaurant’s staple menu and also to promote Malta.

Supported by the Malta Tourism Authority, which provided a number of Malta posters to adorn the walls of the restaurant, as well as pamphlets and souvenirs, the event turned out to be a success, also because its launch coincided with the village festival day.

The food was prepared daily by chef patron Florian Mathis under the direction of Valentino.

The Maltesische Spezialitaten menu included soppa tal-qarabali (marrow soup), timpana (baked pasta), torta tal-qarabali (marrow pie), pulpettun (meat loaf), braġoli (beef olives), merluzz mimli (stuffed cod), and zeppoli ta’ San Ġużepp (ricotta-stuffed sweet pastry).

The sourcing of the Mediterranean ingredients proved to be a simple task in a country where a wide choice of foods from all over the world is available.

Residents enjoyed the food so much that the chef intends to retain one or two of the Maltese recipes on the restaurant menu throughout the year.