We're cooking, but we're also talking about science, cinema, space, geopolitics, artificial intelligence, climate change, music, and the local area. A mix of current topics that will intertwine in the heart of the Sinis region. All this to celebrate the queen of the town. From September 18th to 20th, the Bottarga Festival returns to Cabras. It won't be a one-off celebration of this yellow gold, but a grand table around which diverse people, regions, knowledge, and experiences can interact. The focus will be on the product tied to Cabras's identity, connecting the major issues of our time. The chosen theme, not surprisingly, is "Relationships of Taste."
The Festival
This is the most important event of the summer, featuring three days of cooking demonstrations, tastings, masterclasses, meetings, workshops, performances, cultural debates, and concerts. The event will swarm the town center, involving scientists, authors, journalists, sommeliers, producers, restaurateurs, fishermen, and artists. And, of course, the chefs. The most anticipated is Hirohiko Shoda. Also coming is Moreno Cedroni. One of Italy's best-known chefs for his research on fish and seafood will be coming to Cabras to engage directly with the event's signature product. The goal is to transform Cabras, for three days, into a grand, widespread experience and use the Festival as a gateway to exploring the Sinis region. This year, too, 40 students from the Oristano Hotel Management Institute will be there. They will assist the chefs in the kitchens and in the dining room set up for the occasion in the town's historic center.
The numbers
A festival with significant numbers: €360,000 will be used for its implementation. Funds come from the Region, the Municipality, the Fondazione di Sardegna, Gal Siis, the Fondazione Mont'e Prama, and sponsors. "It hasn't been a festival for five years, and it shows," Mayor Andrea Abis explained today during the event's presentation. "We're now far from the lines we once had to queue for a simple plate of pasta. The festival is a moment of great cultural exchange that begins with our recipe and then brings together all the other local products. It's a great space for public discussion. The festival also aims to be an opportunity to draw attention to the value of the lagoon and the work needed to protect and conserve it." "This year, too, Cabras and the Sinis area are proposing themselves as a destination of interest well beyond the months of July and August," explains Tourism Councilor Carlo Trincas. "Ours is a challenge that changes the common perception of this seaside destination and creates new opportunities for travel and exploration of the area, involving accommodations, restaurants, producers, businesses, and cultural operators. It's a concrete way to spread tourist flows across a wider period of the year."
The program
The Festival will kick off on Friday, September 18th in Piazza Don Sturzo, which will become the Piazza del Gusto for three days. Starting at 6:00 PM, the producers' market curated by Gal Sinis and the food court featuring local restaurateurs will open, offering menus featuring bottarga and other local produce. After the official opening, the first story will focus on the element that more than any other has shaped the identity of this area: water. "Radici d'acqua" (Water Roots) will bring together Augusto Navone, president of the IMC Foundation of Oristano, Gianluigi Bacchetta of the University of Cagliari, chef Gianfranco Pascucci, and Bernard Bedarida, journalist and correspondent for TF1. The event will be coordinated by Lara De Luna, while sommelier Sandra Ciciriello will accompany the story with a refined selection of wines. At 7:30 p.m., the Festival will broaden its focus to the relationship between the environment and the future with Mario Tozzi, senior CNR researcher and science communicator, who will deliver a lecture entirely dedicated to climate change and wetlands, organized in collaboration with the Sinis Marine Protected Area. Immediately afterward, Pascucci and Ciciriello will return to the stage for "Chiacchiere in cucina," a cooking show hosted by journalist Luciana Squadrilli. The first evening will close with music featuring Il Klan and the Best Rock Soundtrack Show – Quando il cinema alza il volume, a journey through the great rock soundtracks of cinema. On Saturday, the Festival will get into full swing in the morning with "Traiettorie. La
new Sardinian cuisine”, the format dedicated to chefs who are building new gastronomic languages on the island.
The day will open with Angelo Biscotti, chef of Le Dune Piscinas in Arbus, along with author Valeria Usala and sommelier Manuel Golin, coordinated by Chiara Maria Gargioli. Immediately following will be Alessandro Cabona, chef of Le Terrazze in Baja Sardinia, along with sommelier Fabrizio Abis and author Ilenia Zedda, coordinated by Lara De Luna. At 4 pm , "Birra e Bottarga" (Beer and Bottarga) will take place, a discussion on the relationship between the gold of Cabras and craft beer , featuring Fabiu Scintu, UnionBirrai Taster, in conversation with journalist Manolo Orgiana, and a collaboration with the breweries Bam, Barley, and Puddu. At 5 pm, the Festival will change tack with "Salt in the Blood" by Franco Brogi Taviani, who will be in Cabras to accompany the screening of his film . The event will be introduced by Rossella Sanna of the Associazione Paesaggio Gramsci and will offer a glimpse into the Oristano lagoons, fishermen, and communities, connecting the 1960s and 1970s to the present through memory, landscape, the Sardinian language, and lagoon culture.
Among the key events of the fifth edition is "Food Meets Space, a Journey Beyond the Edge of the Earth." Taking the stage will be Marcello Spagnulo, aeronautical engineer and scientific advisor to Limes, journalist Eva Giovannini, author and geopolitician Alessandro Aresu, Bernard Bedarida, correspondent for TF1, and Gianluca Buttarelli of Fradis Minoris. The focus will be on the relationship between food, technology, and resources in the new space race, as well as the implications this challenge could have on research, production, and our vision of the food of the future. Lorenzo Cresci, journalist for Il Gambero Rosso, will be in conversation with them.
The program will then return to earth with a focus on new Sardinian cuisine with Francesco Stara, chef of Fradis Minoris, along with Sandra Ciciriello, Lara De Luna, and chef Salvatore Camedda. At 9 pm, it will be time for "Dinner among the Stars – The Great Guest Chefs," featuring a live cooking session by Chef Hiro. Joining him on stage will be Andrea Fulgheri, creative writing instructor, and Luca Gardini, sommelier and editor of Le Guide de L'Espresso, in conversation with Francesco Bruno Fadda.
The night will continue with another shift in language. In Piazza Stagno, at 10:15 PM, the eVenti Verticali company will perform "Sfera," a performance suspended twenty meters above the ground in which vertical theater and dance explore the relationship between humanity, technology, and the environment . In Piazza Don Sturzo, starting at 11 PM, the music of i Patagarri will close the second day of the Festival. Piazza Eleonora will also have its own identity and will host exhibition spaces, the Slow Food Terre Oristanesi taste workshops, masterclasses, entertainment, and meetings with producers.
On Saturday, the masterclass "Bread, Oil, and Young Vernaccia: Pop Flavors" will be held , featuring Ivan Paone, Enrico Gaviano, and Michele Cherchi. With the Game of the Goose and Mullet, curated by Laura Fortuna and Andrea Fulgheri, food will become a game and a source of entertainment, while "The Sinis Tells Its Story: Producers at the Table" will allow local businesses to present their products, stories, and people directly to the public. The square will also host "A la fresca!" by the Spanish company Anna Confetti, a traveling show produced in collaboration with Spazio-T/Mamatita Festival.
On Sunday, September 20th, the program will resume with Traiettorie. First on stage will be Vito Senes, chef of the Da Vito restaurant in Sennori, along with Sandra Ciciriello. Next up will be Bruna Melis and Cristian Carboni, from the Arkè restaurant in Quartu Sant'Elena, along with sommelier Fabrizio Abis. At 4:00 pm, a new presentation will challenge the palate: "Fruit, Bottarga, and Aperitif." Chef Luca Marciano will interpret the aperitif by playing on the sweetness of fruit and the savory flavor of bottarga. Hosting will be Giulia Mancini, journalist for Il Gusto – La Repubblica. At 5:00 pm, Vernaccia will take center stage with the masterclass "Vernaccia: the color of the sun, the taste of tradition," led by Luca Gardini and coordinated by Manolo Orgiana. In the afternoon, Traiettorie will return with Osteria de' Mercati in Sassari, represented by Salvatore Cadeddu, Simone Pinna, and Federica Ghiani, in conversation with Luciana Squadrilli. At 7:00 PM, the Festival will bring to the stage one of the most curious and anticipated presentations of the 2026 edition. Featuring Davide Scabin, a key figure in the transformation of contemporary Italian cuisine, the theme will be "Italian Cuisine Meets Artificial Intelligence." Scabin will be in conversation with Alessandro Aresu and Bernard Bedarida, with the participation of Federica Ghiani and hosted by Lara De Luna. This encounter will bring one of the great contemporary questions to the center of the Festival: what relationship can be established between technological innovation, creativity, matter, memory, and gastronomic identity? Pasquale Torrente and Salvatore Camedda, two chefs, two seas. The journey will continue with "Four Hands of Taste." Taking the stage will be Pasquale Torrente, of Ristorante Al Convento in Cetara, and Salvatore Camedda: two chefs, two seas, and two dishes to build a dialogue between different territories and sensibilities through cuisine. The final major culinary presentation of the fifth edition will be led by Moreno Cedroni. One of Italy's most renowned chefs for his research into fish and seafood will arrive in Cabras to engage directly with the event's signature product. At 9:25 pm, Moreno Cedroni's interpretation of mullet bottarga will be the focus of a live cooking show featuring Luca Gardini and Lara De Luna. The cuisine will also be intertwined with the musical explorations of Arrogalla, who will participate in the performance and then take center stage in the evening's closing live show.
A Festival (also) for children and families : on Sunday Piazza Eleonora will continue to liven up with Taste Workshops, tastings, masterclasses and activities for families.
