The Culture Minister yesterday stepped in to dampen the controversy after a kiosk selling hot dogs set up shop just two metres away from the statue of Grand Master Jean de Valette in the Valletta square dedicated to him.

The kiosk was towed away in the evening but not before its owner had given the authorities a hard time.

She had at first refused to budge from the prized location, selling deep fried chicken and burger and chips among other gastronomic offerings.

Owen Bonnici sprang into action in the morning, shortly after timesofmalta.com posted a story and pictures of the kiosk sitting next to the statue in the new square built as part of Renzo Piano’s City Gate project.

The vendor was in possession of a permit issued by the local council enabling her to be in the square during carnival. However, the permit was for a “stall” not a kiosk and wasn’t for it to be sited bang in the middle of the square. Dr Bonnici said he had instructed the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts to ask the vendor to remove the kiosk.

As happened every year, he said, the arts and local councils designated certain areas where stalls could set up for the carnival.

“In this case, there seems to have been an issue with the interpretation of the word ‘stall’ and the exact location available for these stands.”

The reaction to the takeaway was instantaneous. ‘Not-so-Dolce Gabbana’ (a play on the Maltese word for kiosk) ran the headline on timesofmalta.com – a title that inspired several variations on the joke.

The gabbana (kiosk) that was placed right next to Jean de Valette’s statue in Valletta yesterday.

Some asked whether the kiosk would be offering Turkish kebabs, a reference to the Ottoman siege of 1565 with which de Valette is mostly associated with.

Others failed to see the funny side, especially as the debacle comes hot on the heels of the controversial decision to relocate the monti stalls next to Piano’s parliament building down the road from Jean de Valette Square. The latter decision is also being reconsidered.

It also comes after Dr Bonnici had to intervene personally last week to ensure that cars would be prohibited from parking in the same square after wardens were wrongly issued instructions not to issue tickets on vehicles that had an official permit on the dashboard.

Earlier in the day, attempts to obtain a comment from the kiosk owner were met with an aggressive attitude from a man who said he was from the “Culture Department”.

He ordered the kiosk owner not to comment on the matter, accusing the newspaper of “sensationalism”.

Prior to his arrival, the kiosk owner said she had been allotted the spot by the authorities following a call for expression of interest. She backed her claim by producing a receipt of the permit fee.

A spokeswoman for the Culture Ministry said the government was willing to discuss improving the stalls’ design. Valletta mayor Alexiei Dingli was keen to distance himself from the location of the kiosk and its appearance.

He said the council had given its go-ahead for stalls to be placed in the square but this did not warrant having a kiosk in the middle of it. “That was unacceptable.”

In a statement the Valletta council said its role was to issue permits after the arts council vetted the applications.

Yesterday’s incident showed it could not trust the choices of the arts council any longer, it said.