Autentico Aruba Culinary Festival: The Caribbean’s Most Exciting New Food Festival

Combine that with days spent on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world?  Autentico Aruba Culinary Festival’s week-long schedule of events delights guests with a vibrant tribute to the island’s culture, local community, and the global flavors that have shaped Aruba’s distinctive culinary character.

Although this year’s festival was just the second annual edition, the uniqueness yet cohesiveness of events and collaboration of talent make Autentico Aruba the ultimate foodie escape to paradise.

In Aruba, we like to say that hospitality is in our DNA.  Combine that with our love for celebrations paired with plenty of great food and drink, and you have the ideal foundation for the ultimate Caribbean culinary celebration.  Like the Aruban people, the festival is casually cool and culturally elevated without being pretentious.  A mosaic of events unfold throughout the week to help tell Aruba’s storied culinary past and present—from pop-up dinners on the beach and intriguing international and local chef collaborations to the two-day gourmet block party at the Pavilion.

Bucket List Experiences

These thoughtfully curated and exclusive experiences taking place throughout the week are all about collaboration.  Lucky attendees have an intimate seat at the table to witness the culinary magic that happens when chefs get to play together in the kitchen, revealing gastronomy that is truly bucket-list worthy!

Grill, Chill, and Mix this Way kicked off Autentico Aruba on the dreamy shores of Renaissance Island, where celebrity chef Delilah Winder joined the Renaissance’s culinary team for a one-of-a-kind barbecue feast, signature cocktails, and local live music. 

My favorite dining occasion is brunch and the Autentico Brunch, hosted by Marriott Aruba’s Mercát, was hands-down a next-level brunch journey.  The beachfront restaurant invited some of the island’s favorite chefs to craft exclusive dishes, allowing guests to leisurely sip and savor the afternoon away. The brigade of chefs contributing to the brunch included Chef Urvin Croes, Chef Andres Davila, Chef Zaida Everon, Chef Albert Raven, Chef Ashwin Maduro, and Chef Diego Palacios. 

Chef Teddy Bouroncle, a former Iron Chef Aruba winner and owner and operator of Lima Bistro, tapped into his Peruvian roots with a masterful collaboration with Chef Jaime Pesaque of Mayta, ranked among The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Savor Peru was a five-course wine pairing marrying the bold flavors of Peru.  Teddy’s relationship with local fishermen brought in fresh catches for the menu, and other local ingredients like gourmet mushrooms from Farm A Cure Fungi’s urban garden were genuinely appreciated by guests.

The St. Regis Aruba was the venue for A Culinary Quest featuring Michelin-starred Chef Tim Golsteijn of Amsterdam’s Bougainville. Epicureans took their palates on a foodie adventure, starting at rooftop restaurant Akira Back for the Art of Champagne Sabering ritual at sunset, followed by a capape-infused epicurean tour where the ordinary boundaries between guest and kitchen dissolved for an extraordinary evening. The heart-of-the-house was revealed to guests, with intrigue at every turn.  Every kitchen—including the banquet kitchen, pastry kitchen, garde manger, and butcher station—was a stage, immersing and engaging diners with an amuse bouche paired with a crafted cocktail.

Autentico Restaurant Week

Offered October 11 to 17, more than two dozen restaurants across Aruba’s culinary landscape put great intention into creating special dishes and pre-fixe dining experiences at set prices, encouraging foodies to explore a wonderland of local, regional, and international cuisine during Autentico. 

The Pavilion

Autentico Aruba culminated in a two-day culinary garden party centered around the historic Wilhelminastraat neighborhood in the heart of downtown Oranjestad on Saturday, October, 18 and Sunday, October 19.  This is absolutely the showstopper of the festival.  Autentico is produced and funded by the Aruba Tourism Authority, where embracing our community’s innate hospitality and cherished island-community lifestyle and presenting Aruba not just as a vacation destination, but as a beloved home is paramount.  This is lovingly apparent at The Pavilion, where Aruba’s sense of community was present at every turn. 

Strings of warm bistro lights weaved a canopy over the streets where festivalgoers strolled and sampled from 33 local restaurants and a dozen bars.  More than 2,000 attended each night, with a heavy dose of locals turning out to support what in just two years has become a highlight on Aruba’s social calendar, second only to our Carnival. 

Attention to detail was evident throughout the venue. Brilliant photo-op moments were curated, like one of the city trolleys covered in a rainbow of fresh bougainvillea, and a delightful installation of hanging, brightly painted frying pans crisscrossing the trolley tracks on Mainstreet. Green spaces and parks were adorned with toes-in-the-grass picnic seating with boho flair.  I loved seeing so many families and groups of friends enjoying these spaces. Like me, so many of us locals found ourselves connecting with friends and catching up over delicious noshes and drinks, while also taking in live music on every streetcorner and park—there were 39 musicians and bands featured over the two days.

Aruba’s colorful culinary tapestry is sewn from our diverse population of more than 90 nationalities.  The 33 restaurants represented a delicious cross-section of cuisine, sharing tastes ($5/$10) of dishes.  I wanted to try everything (not possible!) but had to be strategic.  Luckily my friends don’t mind me grazing from their plates, and I was able to cover a lot of culinary ground in one evening.

Highlight of some of my Pavilion favorites 

Terra by Jeremy Ford: There are two entrances to The Pavilion, and Terra was one of the first restaurant booths I came across.  The restaurant opened just days before this event, so a lot of us were eager to sample the approachable yet elevated farm-to-table cuisine from this Miami-based celebrity chef.  On the menu was 72-hour smoked beef rib with pickled seasonal slaw in a lettuce cup and charred Caribbean jerk carrots.

Elements Restaurant: The signature restaurant of Bucuti & Tara Suites offered a taste of their heralded vegan cuisine with vegan falafel and hummus.  Chef Jaime Pesaque, fresh from his Bucket List dinner collaboration, joined the culinary team at Elements to infuse his Peruvian roots into a shrimp and rocoto ceviche with leche de tigre on a crispy corn tortilla—it was perfect for the warm, sultry evening.

Wilhelmina & Olivia Restaurants: These sister restaurants are permanent residents of historic Wilhelminastraat, so they set up shop streetside.  I tried Wilhelmina’s insanely rich ravioli stuffed with braised beef short rib, foie gras, and mushroom over baby spinach with a truffle-balsamic dressing.  From Olivia—specializing in Mediterranean cuisine—I dipped my fork in the Garidas Saganaki with shrimp, ricard, plum tomatoes, roasted grape tomatoes, and feta with Olivia’s sourdough bread.

Aloe Restaurant at EPB: EPB is a vocational school on the island and their culinary program has nurtured quite a few of Aruba’s chefs.  The students had their own booth and pivoted two popular local dishes with unique twists.  The Island Soul Tartlet was a tartlet from funchi (an island version of polenta) layered with compressed beef, banana cream, pickled red onion (a favorite local condiment), and topped with a cilantro gel.  Pan bollo is Aruba’s local bread pudding.  The students topped it with ice cream and roasted sweet breadcrumbs and a syrup made from local Papiamento Rum.

Infini by Urvin Croes: Infini is a chef’s table concept by Chef Croes.  During The Pavilion, he collaborated with international Chef Tim Golsteijn to present a Crispy & Spicy Guilty Pleasure.  A dish from Chef Tim’s hometown of Amsterdam, layers of crispy potatoes are topped with sambal, and gurkin-Belper Knolle cheese from his grandmother. 

Akira Back & Eskama Cucina Italiana: Aruba’s newest luxury hotel, The St. Regis Aruba, offered dishes from two of their restaurants: Akira Back’s Wagyu beef tacos, using crispy wontons as the taco shell, and Eskama’s lobster ravioli finished in a lemon butter sauce.

Fish House Island Bar & Restaurant: Seafood is a mainstay of Aruban cuisine and Fish House served fresh local fish deep fried with pan bati (a cornmeal pancake that’s a traditional side dish with seafood). Conch in a creamy garlic sauce with funchi was also featured here. 

Ever Restaurant: This harbor-side restaurant has both a chef’s table experience as well as an a la carte menu.  For The Pavilion, Chef Ever shared his king fish tostada with jalapeno, apple, sweet potato, and an umami aioli.  His asado negro (South American dish with braised beef) was presented atop a Jamaican Johnny cake with local Madame Jeanette pepper and Gremolata. 

T2Pan: This local bakery began a few years ago by offering sourdough bread varieties, and now offers a wide assortment of baked goods and pastries as well.  On the savory side, T2Pan collaborated with celebrity chef Christian Petroni to present a crispy sesame breadstick wrapped in prosciutto with Parmigiano Reggiano and pickled veggies.  On the sweet side, we tried the Ora Autentico, a croissant with cashew paste.

Old Dutch Bakery:  This is a new bakery in a renovated Dutch colonial home on Wilhelminastraat.  I was too stuffed to eat one more bite, but they conveniently offered “Sweet Boxes” with samples of various cakes and brownies.  I took two home!

Good to know:

·                The Pavilion is a cashless experience—simply top up your wristband with your credit/debit card at the entrance or any of the top-up booths conveniently located throughout The Pavilion

·                The Pavilion uses sustainable plates and utensils

·                There are complimentary water stations

·                The Pavilion is a family-friendly event

Follow all the exciting details for next year’s Autentico Aruba Culinary Festival here.