Cookbook:Cuisine of Gibraltar

Cookbook | Ingredients | Cuisines | Cuisine of the United Kingdom

Gibraltarian cuisine is the result of 300 years of British rule combined with the coming together of immigrants from a variety of Mediterranean countries. It is a combination of English, Scottish, Irish (from the different regiments stationed on the Rock during British rule), Maltese, Genoese (and other Italian), Menorcan, Moroccan and Spanish cuisines.

The result is a peculiar cuisine where some dishes are made as in the country of origin, whereas others have been adapted for various reasons. Some dishes were adapted because the ingredients were difficult to obtain during the many sieges the Rock has suffered, whereas others were adapted simply because the cooks were from a different country and were used to other ways of cooking. Whatever the reason, it has resulted in the dishes eaten there today.

It would not be uncommon to go to a Gibraltarian's house and be served pea soup (Irish) followed by a plate of Paella (Spanish) with perhaps some 'pinchitos' (Moroccan kebabs) on the side. Notwithstanding, there are also dishes that are now considered purely Gibraltarian and are hardly found anywhere else in the peculiar form eaten there.

Some examples of the cuisine of Gibraltar:

• Calentita
• Rosto
• Minestra
• Torta de Acelga
• Rolitos
• Panissa