Sumba Food Festival at Cap Karoso (2026)

Set to be Sumba’s premier gastronomic event, the Sumba Food Festival at Cap Karoso features a curated lineup of acclaimed chefs from across the Asia-Pacific. The festival includes ‘4-Hands Dinners,’ farm-to-table workshops at the resort’s organic farm, and foraging expeditions led by local experts. A key focus is the ‘Sumba Food Project,’ where proceeds support local food entrepreneurship and clean water initiatives. Visitors can also experience ‘Mini Pasola’ exhibitions and traditional weaving workshops between the high-end dining sessions.

Weekly Schedule

Week 1 (5-11 October)

• Joseph Lidgerwood (Restaurant Evett, Seoul): Story-driven cuisine rooted in Korean ingredients, shaped by fermentation, foraging, and sharp contemporary technique. Joseph brings two Michelin stars and a deeply personal style of cooking to Cap Karoso this October.
• Brando Moros (11 Woodfire, Dubai): Raised in Colombia, Brando has made fire his signature language. Expect Latin American soul and open-flame precision: dishes that are bold, generous, and deeply rooted in smoke, heat, and raw ingredients.
• Dan Bark (Cadence Restaurant, Bangkok): Progressive fine dining that blends global influences with meticulous technique. His sweet corn agnolotti with truffle sweetness, smoke, and umami in a single bite has become the dish people travel for.
• Eelke Plasmeijer (Locavore NXT, Ubud): The pioneer of Indonesia’s locavore movement, Eelke has spent over a decade championing hyper-local ingredients and environmentally driven gastronomy; a philosophy that finds its purest expression on Sumba’s own shores.

Week 2 (12-18 October)

1. Keiko Kuwakino (Sanaburi, Satoyama Jujo): A celebration of Japan’s mountain terroir through wild vegetables, fermentation, and ancestral culinary traditions. Her Noppe – a traditional Niigata dish layered with mushrooms, root vegetables, and deep umami – has become iconic.
2. Gaetan Biesuz (Rumari, Bali): A refined, vibrant approach to Indonesian cuisine drawing on the country’s regional flavours with elegance and clarity.
3. Davide Garavaglia (Côte by Mauro Colagreco, Bangkok): Riviera-inspired cuisine with a Mediterranean sensibility and a rigorous zero-waste ethos. His signature Red Cliff – red mullet, red prawn, consommé of fish bones – is a study in elegant restraint.
4. Yusuke Takada (La Cime, Osaka): Playful, highly refined, full of personality. His iconic Boudin Dog, a one-bite black hot dog inspired by boudin noir, captures everything about his approach.