Top diplomats of the Spanish Embassy in Abuja have confirmed their participation in  this year’s NIHOTOUR Gastronomy Festival. This will be the Spanish Embassy’s consecutive appearance at the crowd-pulling food festival – which is emerging as one of the fastest growing food festivals in Africa.

The Spanish Embassy Consul in Abuja, Patricia Gomez Lanzaco, confirmed to the Director General of NIHOTOUR, Nura Sani Kangiwa, that the embassy will increase its participation in the annual Gastronomy Festival. Specifically, Patricia Lanzaco said the Spanish embassy will be inviting and sponsoring a renown Spanish Chef to come to Nigeria for the festival, as well as, to deliver masterclasses on ‘emerging best practices in Culinary Arts’ to groups of Nigerian Catering and Culinary Schools.

When responding, Nura Sani Kangiwa, the Director General of National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), who’s brainchild is the NIHOTOUR Gastronomy Festival said, “we are most grateful to the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria and, equally excited at the support the Spanish government is providing to NIHOTOUR, especially relating to the festival!”

Kangiwa continued that, “Such technical support of bringing Spanish Culinary Arts experts, all the way from Spain, to train Nigerian catering and culinary schools, is hitherto, unparalleled and predictably transformative for Nigerian hospitality industry and food culture.”

The DG of NIHOTOUR further clarified, “Suffice to say, the Spanish Embassy in Nigeria is inexplicably contributing to putting Nigerian cuisines on the global gastronomy tourism map.”

“As a matter of fact, since I became the DG of NIHOTOUR, my goal has been to deepen the knowledge and technical capacity of personnel in culinary schools, catering enterprises and  the tourism industry across Nigeria.”

It is noteworthy that NIHOTOUR Gastronomy Festival is conceptualised and programmed to upskill Nigerian gastronomes and culinary artists on the technicalities, and emerging global best practises, of processing, preparing, presenting, packaging and promotion of foods, especially Nigerian traditional cuisines.