June 23, 2019 – To some people, it has been clear for a while now that tourism does not just consist of the “sun and sea“, and that a very important part of the experience when visiting a country is the food, combined with local wines. Obviously, gourmet tourism is on the rise everywhere and since more and more tourists recently are not only passing through Zagreb but staying in Croatian capital at least for few days, an idea of a gastronomical festival was born.
The people behind the idea are experienced lifestyle journalist Tomislav Stiplošek and Silvija Munda who, in collaboration with Procaffe in Tkalčićeva street, started the festival under the name G.E.T. Fest – a festival of wine tourism. On the first day of summer, 21st of June, they announced the beginning of this summer event with a media breakfast/brunch inspired by Croatia and its regions. The members of the press were welcomed with an appropriate glass of sparkling wine Perla rosé and offered an interesting meal on the terrace of Procaffe. The meal is intended to be offered and consumed as breakfast or as brunch, but instead of being just a meal – it is to be a sort of education or at least information about the specific Croatian region.
Thus, it will give an opportunity to the consumer to learn about the producers and indigenous varieties of wine, there will be workshops and master classes about wines of Croatia named “Walks through Croatia“, wine cocktails will be offered and other small events will be held in order to give basic or advanced information and experience of Croatia through the palate.
Recipes for the breakfasts were created by Ružica Jukičić, a very well-known Croatian chef and international culinary judge, and member of the International culinary Association. For the beginning, she designed 4 different Croatian breakfasts – named after Croatian wine regions: „Bregovita Hrvatska“, Slavonija and Podunavlje“, „Istria and Kvarner“ and „Dalmatia“. The main ingredients for the breakfasts/brunches are indigenous of the region and offer the consumer a chance to literally taste the region.
Wine tastings will be held in the afternoons and evenings every day except Thursdays and the weekends. The “Wine walks“ will offer 4 or, alternatively 8 different wines of the selected region and will be accompanied by matching finger foods. During the weekends – cocktail parties will be organized, predominantly offering wine-based cocktails.
The organizers with impressive experience in promoting wine and gourmet tourism said:
“We, as the G.E.T. Report association, have been consistently trying to promote a different kind of approach to tourism – mainly through food and wine – for years. We are delighted to have finally found an adequate partner in Procaffe – to put this effort into a concrete festival form, and hopefully, this series of interesting small events will enrich Zagreb’s summer tourist offer in more ways than one. The project has been recognized by the Tourist Board of Zagreb, companies such as Agrolaguna, Feravino and Gastrofanatik just as well as the small local food producers. We would also like to thank Pisinium, Belje, Medea, Perak, Markota, Trdenić, Toreta, Jagunić and others who enthusiastically welcomed and supported our idea.
More information can be found at Facebook page G.E.T.Report and Facebook page of Procaffe.
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