Taste 1973 hosts the II Jornada Cárnicola with Frimancha Canarias, Ibéricos Montesano and Jamones La Joya
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A carving stand at the door and the larder open
Taste 1973, Hotel Villa Cortés (Playa de las Américas, Arona). 30 October 2025.
On 30 October 2025 we opened the doors of Taste 1973 for the second edition of the Jornada Cárnicola: a day devoted to meat produce, with carving stands set up at the entrance, live carving and a display of matured beef cuts in the larder. We told the story that same day on the restaurant’s account, in two posts: a video at 11:39 and, shortly after, a carousel of ten photographs at 13:02. The video was titled with a phrase that sums up what it was all about: “Carnícola by Frimancha Canarias & Restaurante Taste 1973”.
The carousel’s caption said it plainly: “It is a real pleasure to work with products that are true top-tier culinary gems, like those of Frimancha Canarias and Montesano. Their premium meats, exceptional hams and, above all, the human team that makes up Frimancha Canarias, have made the second edition of the Jornada Cárnicola possible.” And it went on with the part that matters most to us: “Thank you for your support from the start and for being one of our biggest sponsors. Together with Hotel Villa Cortés and Taste 1973, you represent excellence and passion for quality.”
Who brought what
Frimancha Canarias was the main sponsor of the event, and its brands came along with it. It is a meat company that is part of Grupo Vall Companys and manages, among others, Montesano and La Joya for Iberian cured meats, Carnícola for matured beef and La Jurada for Canarian short-supply-chain produce, as well as providing a ham-carving service through “La Jamonería”. The portal Eurocarne confirms that map of brands and their weight in the islands’ hospitality sector, and the magazine Cárnica reported on the process by which Montesano Canarias came to operate under the Frimancha Canarias umbrella. It is worth putting it this way, as a process still in progress: on the day of the event, the Instagram caption still spoke of “Frimancha Canarias and Montesano” as two separate accounts.
The third name seen that day is Jamones La Joya. It is not mentioned in the text of the post, but it is present in the photographs and in the tagged accounts: an apron and a hanging brand sign on one of the carving stands, next to Montesano’s. La Joya also features among the brands in Frimancha Canarias’ portfolio listed by 3tres3, so we report it as what it is — another Iberian cured-meat house present at the door, with its own carver — rather than as a separate sponsorship that no one has announced.
The meat, labelled piece by piece
What interested us most about the event was not the ham, even though the ham was what drew the eyes at the door. It was the larder table: Carnícola’s fore-rib racks set out on slate, each with its own sign, “Rubia Gallega Lomo Alto”, “Barrosa Lomo Alto”, and a bigger one announcing “Carnícola Barrosa Dry Aged” with its origin written underneath, Portugal. Two breeds, two kinds of fat and two different ways of behaving in the ageing chamber, laid out on the counter to be examined up close.
Anyone who knows this house knows why that stops us in our tracks. We have spent years with our hands in the science behind meat maturation and in the maturation techniques applied to Canarian goat, which is our own path within Canarian cuisine. Having a Rubia Gallega fore rib and a Portuguese dry-aged cut side by side on the same day is a quick, free lesson: you compare the crust, you compare the marbling, you ask about the days in the chamber and you go back to the kitchen with one more idea.
A relationship that goes back further
The Jornada Cárnicola was not our first encounter with this house. In June 2024 we already hosted an edition of the TOP DINNERS events sponsored by Frimancha at the restaurant, with chef Chele González as a guest, and the series has continued at Hotel Villa Cortés in later years. It is a long-running sponsorship, the kind that does not show on the menu but keeps half the house running: produce, training and people you can build a day like this one with.
There is one thing we do not know and would rather say so: the caption speaks of a “second edition”, but we have found no public trace of the first, either on our own accounts or in any media outlet. Nor is there press coverage of this one. So everything told here comes from the two posts from that day and from what can be seen in their photographs.
Of all the images in the carousel, this is the one that best explains the day. There is no single chef holding a ham: there are some twenty people from the kitchen and front of house, standing on the steps, with the carvers and guests in front. A produce-focused event is organised in a couple of meetings, but it only comes off if there is a team behind it that sets it up, serves it and clears it away. That, in the end, is why the caption that day ended with a thank you.
We welcome back the TOP DINNERS 2024 event, sponsored by Frimancha!