Gourmet Festival and Sziget are organised by the same company. Both were founded by Károly Gerendai, who has a passion for cuisine. He owns Onyx Restaurant, for example, the only one that has earned Michelin stars in Budapest. Gerendai considers it an honour that the top kitchens take part at the Gourmet Festival, which presents renowned masters of Hungarian and international cuisine, proving that Hungary has its share of talented new chefs.
The festival is not only for lovers of exclusive food, and besides fine wine and goose liver paté we can taste humble “street food”. Everyone should be able to enjoy something – be it a hamburger or a lobster.
In 2013 more than 100 exhibitioners participated at the Gourmet Festival and more than 12,000 visitors walked among the stalls during the three days. It is a good opportunity to try the best of Hungarian cuisine in one place.
Zangio, for example, will have a stand, presenting the country’s best chocolates. Zangio is a family enterprise composed of Zoltán, his wife Olga and daughter Angi. The small family has been producing chocolate from the finest ingredients to its own method for a few years. The pralines combine bittersweet chocolate with undertones of ginger, salty fudge and chestnuts. They are made lovingly by hand and they look like a real piece of art too.
Zangio’s story is interesting: Zoltán, before he started to manufacture chocolate, used to be a successful manager. After many years in a responsible position he swapped his briefcase and office chair for a cook’s hat and cocoa powder. “Luckily,” he says today, because “nothing makes people happier than chocolate.”
Beside confectioneries and sweet manufacturers such as Zangio and Gerbeaud, there will be many restaurants (such as FUJI, ÉS Bisztró, Vörös Homár), wine cellars and pálinka distillers (for example Sauska, Légli, Ararat) present.
Apart from the stands, visitors will be entertained with a colourful stage program. The cooking shows of domestic and international chefs will run alongside numerous workshops and tastings. This Friday, the first day of the festival, the top chefs of three Hungarian restaurants will give a presentation on regional cuisine from the best ingredients.
This Saturday visitors may learn how to prepare traditional Hungarian strudel from layered pastry, while Wang Mester (Master Wang, owner of the Chinese restaurant with the same name) will speak on stage in the afternoon to bring Asian cuisine closer to Hungarians. On the Sunday two food bloggers will present their favourite topic – cooking, of course.
While last year the highlight of the festival was goulash, this year the participating chefs will be challenged to reinvent the traditional Hungarian dish “rakott krumpli“ (potato gratin in the Hungarian way with eggs, sausage and red pepper powder) in their individual approach. On the final day there will be a competition on stage where chefs can compete with their creations.
Gourmet Festival
30 May to 1 June, 10am-6pm
Millenáris Park, District II
Tickets: HUF 6,500 (daily tickets: HUF 3,300)
www.sziget.hu/gourmetfesztival
