The Concept
typically Gozitan foods, made from authentic recipes.
Embrace slow food and travel with experiences that bring you to the heart (and belly) of our people. It’s more than food and drink, its memorable moments in relaxed and beautiful surroundings, meeting artisan producers, farmers and vintners while enjoying the true tastes and flavours of Gozo.
Savor farm-fresh honeys, wines, cheeses, seasoned meats and conserves, made when our seasonal and reared ingredients are at their very best.
Tuta restaurant (and retreat) is set on our 14-hectare farm estate, lined by carob trees, almond trees, beautiful wild herbs and olive groves, near the village of Kercem.
Gozitan Culinary Tradition
In the past, our ancestors survived by eating what they could grow or forage. So, preserving food and extracting nature’s rich flavours became a way of life. Sea-harvested local salt or olive oil was used to sun-dry or pickle foods like tomatoes, capers, onions and tuna. Fruits, herbs and nuts became delicious jams, syrups, infused oils, wines and liqueurs.
‘Patata l-forn’, ‘aljotta’, ‘fenkata’, ‘minestra’, were and still are part of our main daily diet, bubbling away in our stoves and ovens – with potatoes, pork, fish, rabbit and vegetables, grown on sun-blessed fields, where wild garlic, onions, fennel, mint, sage, parsley or thyme are also grown to season these much-loved Maltese dishes. Fenek (or rabbit) is a typical local meat, often fried in garlic and served with potatoes.
Resourceful and worldly-wise, Gozitan’s can make a meal from next to nothing. ‘Bebbuxu’ (Maltese snails cooked in garlic) is a local appetizer which was often cooked up the day after a thunderstorm, when snail-hunting was easy to do.
Local Produce
Malta’s name comes from the Greek word Melite; meaning honey. Our wild flowers and fruit are a haven for honeybees making many different seasonal varieties. Springtime honey is multifloral, delicate and light. Autumn Carob honey is darker, sweeter and more intensely flavoured.
Gozo’s climate is ideal for olive and wine cultivation, both need lots of sunshine and soft warm winds. Growing and cold-pressing olives has been practiced here since the Roman era. Many olive varieties grow locally, some are used as table olives, others to make our aromatic extra virgin olive oil.
Islanders are proud of their local food, and rightly so, our bread (the Maltese Ħobża) is part of our cultural identity, famous for its delicious soft doughy centre and dark crunchy crust.
Ġbejna is Malta’s unique local cheese made from our distinctly flavoured sheep and goat milk, which is loaded with proteins and amino acids. Gbejniet, (meaning small cheese) blends and coagulates sheep and goat milk with rennet and salt. This local delicacy is sold fresh, dried, or cured and seasoned with pepper or herbs.
Local tomatoes, grown throughout Gozo are pale red and super juicy. Kunserva is a tomato condiment made by sun-drying tomatoes and condensing them down into a rich, highly concentrated paste. Originally made by housewives during high-summer, Kunserva is now a booming business. This kitchen cupboard staple is now one of Gozo’s greatest exports.
Our Contribution
Raised on the family farm, Joechen, Fritz Patrick and Stephan Tabone tended to animals and crops, developing a respect for nature, animals and rural life.
Dairy farming is essential to life in Gozo, bringing fresh, nutritious milk to our people involves hard work. Joechen Tabone is a 3rd generation dairy and cattle farmer. Milk from the farm is sold to Malta Dairy Products Co-operative, known as BENNA – suppliers of milk, cheese and dairy products across Malta. Because Gozo is so small, milk can get from our farm to the store in 24 hours.
Fritz Patrick Tabone is a registered sheep and goat breeder. Sheep and goat milk is loaded with vitamins and minerals and always in high demand, so too is their meat.
Chef Stephan Tabone, has expertise in tourism and hospitality and uses his faming know-how when in the kitchen, blending our fresh ingredients into classic Gozitan dishes, steeped in history.
Tuta will allow us to consolidate our expertise across agriculture, heritage and hospitality; creating exciting new ways for visitors to experience local Gozo life.
