“A shared meal does not solve the problems but it improves them,” commented the media chef Maria Nicolau while rolling some cannelloni. She was one of the more than 80 women who responded to the calling power of chef Ada Parellada to participate in the traditional Festa del Davantal that she has organized for 15 years at her Barcelona restaurant, Semproniana, on the occasion of International Women’s Day. and that last Tuesday served to remember Itziar Castro.
The Catalan actress, who died in December of a heart attack, was one of the most veteran davantalers: “She did the impossible to come from Madrid,” Parellada recalls, who as a tribute to her printed a phrase by Itziar Castro on the aprons, “Per ser fort s ‘has to be vulnerable’ (To be strong you have to be vulnerable) and with the drawing of the legs of an octopus, since to say I love you she used the emoji of this animal because it has three hearts.
Anna Tarres was especially excited because she was the last person to see Castro alive: she was rehearsing the performance for the Christmas festival of the Kallipolis club in Barcelona where Tarrés is a coach. “I think now that she’s gone, her message has hit even harder.”
The former Spanish artistic swimming coach now trains the Chinese delegation, which triumphed at the Doha World Championships and hopes to also do so at the Paris Games: “We already have the choreography, now I’m looking for emotion,” she explained to her table companions. . Gemma Recoder, director of Canet Rock, couldn’t stop looking at her phone during dinner. “We’re about to sell out for this summer,” she said.
The conversations were jumping from topic to topic because, as Ada Parellada told this newspaper, “it was in 2010 when I organized the first Festa because there are very interesting women.” Like the anthropologist Agnés Villamor, who has organized food exhibitions with the chef. “Because it is something about women, very little has been studied about the evolution of cooking.” Sexologist Eva Moreno gave her opinion on children and young people’s access to pornography. “Young people must be educated, it is obvious, but perhaps we should start with the adults.”
Lawyer Carla Valls spoke about Dani Alves’ sentence: “It represents an undeniable change in society and in the judiciary.” Flavita Banana, a clearly feminist cartoonist, according to what she shows in El País, where she publishes, revealed that “the world of cartoons is very masculine.” Last year she won the Mingote award and was the first woman to obtain it in 50 years. And they all asked the stylist Marta Pontnou, about the long red dress she was wearing and which she declared was from a low-cost brand, “Elegance is not in money, but in knowing how to wear clothes safely.”
Judith Colell, the president of the Catalan Cinema Academy, made her debut at the feminist gastronomic event, as did the journalist Samantha Villar and compared the Gaudí gala with the Oscars, held hours before: “The budget is the fundamental difference, but we also have to reflect on how the Oscars, with the infinite commercial breaks, lasted almost as long as the Gaudís.” Ana Polo, one of the Gaudí presenters, was also at the Festa del Davantal and said that she would repeat the experience if they proposed it to her. For her part, the vice president of the academy, Maria Molins, was ecstatic because her series Entrevías de ella is currently the most watched on Netflix in a non-English language. Elisenda Roca arrived just after recording Saber y Ganar (La 2) and she was surprised that one of the contestants was younger than the program.
The clown Pepa Plana explained that she has a full agenda of performances throughout Spain after receiving the National Circus award. Cristina Dilla also continues to triumph on the stages of Catalonia with the comedy El joc de la veritat.
After dinner of canapés, vegetable cannelloni, meatballs and cheese mousse, a musical bingo was organized with the songs that Itziar Castro liked, starting with his favorite I will survive “which he kept playing,” his friend recalled. friend, the journalist Imma Just. But bingo soon led to karaoke with the generous Mónica Green, who is preparing to disembark in the United States, her native country; Paula Valls, who has just released the song Exculpa; and Beth, who went to the party accompanied by Uma, his third daughter, almost four months old, and whom some davantalers took care of. She seemed used to it, since nine days old she already accompanied her mother to a concert in Girona.
The list of 80 women who put on the apron was completed by, among others, Agnés Marqués, Ada Castells, Eva Piquer, Maria Rovira, Mònica Artigas, Mai Balaguer, Magda Oranich, Ángels Gonyalons, Sílvia Coppulo, Xantal Llavina, Isabel García Pagán, Nuria Salán, Montserrat Vendrell, Suu, Marta Mas, Cristina Jolonch, Ariadna Oltra, Agnés Marqués, Cristina Puig, Glòria Serra, Mayka Navarro, Therese Jamoa, Mont Plans, Marina Rossell, Nuria Ribó, Carme Canet, Anna Manso, Anna-Priscila Mangriñá , Mar Galtés, Maria Xinxó, Xènia Casaso, Therese Jamoa, Marina Portabella, among others