The event that was very much expected by all project partners and festival organizers walked through the restaurants located downtown Ivano-Frankivsk, blushed with the bright show in the square in front of town hall, generously served the participants and guests with Carpathian mushroom soup, Hungarian and Romanian “palinka”, good wine from Slovakia, Carpathian cheese, honey, herbs and Stanislaviv (old name of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk) jam. Kids from the morning and nearly till six in the evening played at the “eco-farm” and their parents took part in the delicious workshops.
During all interviews before the festival the organizers were asked by the journalists what would be the highlight of the festival? And it was difficult to answer. Presently after the festival only one association comes to mind: the fest turned to be reach served dining table where many people sat together for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was a good day celebration of taste and humor.
Carpathian culinary show
During the hot day of May 11th under the protecting tent of the large professional stage from 11:30 am to 6:00 pm the city Mayor, heads of the Slovak, Hungarian and Romanian delegations, famous athletes, doctors, journalists, filmmakers, top models, directors of educational establishments and restaurants, as well as Vice-President of the Polish city of Lublin together with the festival guests took part in the live non-stop culinary show.
The same stage witnessed the cooking demonstrations of Slovakian flamed pork from еpatage and incredibly cute chef Alexander Peli, who has surprised the audience not only by his culinary talents but also with a masterful performance on mouth harmonica. The real show on stage was given by the member of Hungarian Association “Szamos Bazar” – great professional in tourism sector Zsuzsanna Méhész, who has prepared two modern Hungarian meals with old-time ingredients: meatballs on grilled apple and polenta sandwich. The finalist of the popular Ukrainian culinary show “Hell Kitchen” Elena Zhabotynska – chef from the local popular network “23 Restaurants”, dressed in authentic Hutsul clothing, demonstrated the cooking process of extremely complicated Galician mushroom dish.
Each demonstration was accompanied by songs and dances. The performances of Slovak, Romanian and Hungarian folk groups were highly professional and incredibly expressive. The festival guests and participants, app. 10 thousand visitors, were impressed by the wealth of traditional costumes from Romania, Hungary and Slovakia and touched by the sincerity of the performance of the young singers from Ivano-Frankivsk the students of Iryna Batyuk.
All contestants and chefs received memorable prizes with symbolic of Carpathian Culinary Heritage and gifts from the company “Bartsher” (professional kitchen equipment producer) and meat-processing complex “Rosana”.
Gourmets’ marathon
The festival gourmet quest was launched at 12:30 pm. and the intrigue began. One was not sure that the idea of the festival organizers will work out: how to encourage people to buy food from the cross-border chefs at local restaurants and thereby win festival gifts. At the same time the quest participants were actively buying products from local craftsmen, tasting mushroom soup from the Association of Organic Agriculture “Clean flora”, traditional drinks and foodies in the tents of Hungarian, Slovakian and Romanian festival participants.
Around 5 pm it was reported that almost all host restaurants where foreign chefs were cooking their national meals were highly visited by festival guests who ordered dishes from the festival menu. The majority of the visitors were not “hunting” for the special festival stickers but simply enjoyed the new and unfamiliar dishes in cafes, restaurants and pubs.
At 5:30 pm the most sold number of meals from the festival menu was recorded in the cafe “Govoryt Ivano-Frankivsk”. Here the traditional pies with apples and cheese from Maramures, baked in “Delikatsiya” by talented and incredibly bright owners of B&Bs Rodica Tiplea and Maria Vraja (Romania) were sold in a glance. The same sale speed was noticed with country style pork chops cooked by Zorica Giurgi who came also from Maramures and is a famous restaurant chef there. The taste of this meal has pleasantly surprised all of the visitors of the beer house “Bochka”. The pub “Zinger” rounded out the top three of the most sold festival meals; there the visitors tasted pork fillet on potato bed from the Hungarian chef László Fülep.
The guest chefs the creators of the most popular meals of the festival also took part in the prize draw. The ice cream maker from the company “Bartsher” was given to the Romanian chef Zorica Giurgi. Another prize draw was organized for the partner restaurants that supported the festival rules and adventured the quest and thus started a new tradition together with the Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network. The juice maker from the company “Bartsher” was given to the pub “Pototskij” (director Volodymyr Borys).
At the end of the show the young participants of the festival the win-team of the Expedition of Carpathian Culinary Heritage “Emsa” was awarded. This part of the festival was greatly designed by the young volunteer from Ivano-Frankivsk Inna Rykhlyuk. The quest winners were awarded with the tickets from a movie theater “Lumiere” and Galych cake cooked by College of Hotel and Restaurant Service and Tourism and decorated by Vasyl Virastyuk famous Ukrainian athlete.
The representatives of the mass media had their own special agenda of the visits to the restaurants where the cross border chefs were preparing their masterpieces and had a chance to interview each of them.
To be continued?
We address now all participants, partners and guests of the festival to share a few words about impression of the Culinary Festival that took place on May 11th, 2013 in Ivano-Frankivsk, to provide good pictures and interesting videos. This will be used to invite tourists – the garments from all over the world to our Carpathian Culinary Festival in the coming years. Join the page of Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network, discuss this very event and give suggestions for the coming festivals of Carpathian cuisine: https://www.facebook.com/events/512534875464372/?mall_view=posts.
The International Carpathian Culinary Heritage Festival was supported by ENPI CBC Programme “Hungary-Slovakia-Romania-Ukraine 2007-2013” and Executive Committee of Ivano-Frankivsk City Council within the project implemented by Tourist Association of Ivano-Frankivsk “Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network”.
The project partners are “Szamos-Bazár Association” (Hungary), Association “EcoLogic” and Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Satu Mare County from Romania, Kosice branch of Chamber of Commerce and Industry from Slovakia.
