The flavours and scents of the Mediterranean will dominate Hvar from 22 to 25 May 2019. World-famous international and Croatian chefs will gather at a unique international festival celebrating Mediterranean food, which has been included in the UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage. Hvar, one of the most beautiful Adriatic islands, the island of living heritage whose cultural treasures are also part of the UNESCO list, will become the gourmet centre of the Mediterranean, reports Jutarnji List on April 17, 2019.
While the Hvar’s Pjaca will host a Mediterranean marketplace with all the traditional products, such as olive oils, cheeses, jams and various desserts, the best restaurants will offer Mediterranean/Dalmatian dishes prepared by local and foreign chefs. The top chefs from Spain, Italy, France, Slovenia, Albania and Croatia will present their specialities and show what is common to Mediterranean cuisines and what makes each one of them unique.
The special guest of the festival is Bee Satongun, the best female chef in Asia in 2018, as selected by the elite list of 50 Best Restaurants. Bee Satongun, the chef of the Paste restaurant in Bangkok with one Michelin star, has devoted her culinary career to the renewal of traditional Thai cuisine.
She shares this approach to gastronomy with chef Hrvoje Zirojević, one of the best Croatian chefs, holding the title of the 2019 Chef of the Year according to Gault&Millau Croatia. Together they will prepare an exclusive dinner at the Laganini restaurant on Palmižana.
The Taste the Mediterranean masterclass workshop will be held by Fabricio Vežnaver, the 2019 Big Chef of Tomorrow, Vesna Miletić, the 2019 Traditional Cuisine Chef, and Biljana Milina, the 2019 Chef Confectioner, as well as other recipients of Gault&Millau Croatia titles.
The participants will have the opportunity to learn from Spanish chef Vicente Patin, one of the best chefs in Valencia from the Saiti restaurant, which has the BIB Michelin label, and from the Italian chef Marcello Trentini from the Magorabin restaurant in Turin with one Michelin star. Igor Jagodič, the 2019 Chef of the Year according to Gault&Millau Slovenia will also take part, as well as chef Sokol Prenga, the ambassador of the “new” Albanian gastronomy, and local Croatian representatives: chefs Sandra and Dane Tahirović from Split, Nataša Vukmirović, Tonči Jerković and Igor pl. Živanović from Hvar.
A long-time friend of the festival, chef Lionel Levy, the owner of three Gault&Millau toques and one Michelin star, will present Provence as the region at the heart of the world’s largest French gastronomy project, the Good France event. He will be joined by Japanese-French chef Ippei Uemura, the 2017 Young Talent as selected by Gault&Millau France, who will demonstrate the Japanese fish cutting and processing techniques.
The programme will also include tastings of the best wines from Spain, Italy and, of course, Croatia. The Masciarelli wine tasting workshop will be held by Mira Šemić, a renowned sommelier and director of Gault&Millau Slovenia, while Siniša Koceić and Alen Gulen, the wine culture promoters from Winebox from Split, will present Spanish wines.
This year’s Taste the Mediterranean festival will also present the Mediterranean through the aspect of its cultural landscape. The rebuilt Arsenal will host a series of lectures on sustainability and ecology and the preservation of the UNESCO-protected intangible cultural heritage of islands, nutrition and the Mediterranean lifestyle, ecological agriculture, the fishing traditions, dry stone walls, and decorations of Mediterranean interiors.
The Taste the Mediterranean festival is a unique opportunity to get to know global culinary stars at one location and get the latest on the original Mediterranean diet and lifestyle. The detailed programme of the Taste the Mediterranean festival can be found on the internet. Make sure you book dinners, lectures, wine tastings and workshops in time.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
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