Once again this year, gastronomy lovers must visit Millenaris Park to attend the OTP Gourmet Festival, between May 16-19, exhibiting the county’s best restaurants, confectionaries and wineries. The festival also introduces current delicacies and the best of international gastronomy. This year’s highlighted themes at Gourmet Festival will be Paprika, bread ends, and beer. Do not expect soups, ragus and bread ends! Let’s see the program list of today! EXCLUSIVE PROGRAMS 12PM AND 3PM – SPRING BREEZE: AUTHENTIC KOREAN LUNCH WITH LEE JONG KUK 104 (Unfortunatelly for this program all tickets were sold) What does a 15-year-old soy sauce taste like? We will find that out and much more from the creative yet tradition-honoring chef Lee Jong-kuk, who brings his Michelin star Seoul restaurant to Budapest. Michelin has dedicated a special guide to Seoul for three years now, and this is no coincident: it includes 61 Bib Gourmand restaurants with a great value for your money, 5 places also deserved 2 stars. There are 19 starred places, including chef Lee Jong-kuk, also known as the renewer of Korean cuisine, and his restaurant, Lee Jong Kuk 104. The sauces take the lead, that is jangok (the guide also draws attention to these and highlights living traditions): the 50-year-old soy sauce, 30-year-old red chili paste (gochujang) and vinegar, which is aged for 5 years. Overlooking the city, the restaurant is located in a diplomatic and fortified neighborhood with ultra-innovative and contemporary ceramics. The restaurant received its name after the chef’s grandfather who fought for independence. The guide describes the dishes as works of art. On the ground floor of the three-story restaurant, noodles are sold with entrees and desserts. On the second floor, seasons determine the menu, and the third floor is fine dining: here chef Jong-kuk himself cooks dinner for VIP guests. Guests at Gourmet Festival can experience the latter: the chef will also host exclusive lunches at Millenaris. 1/4 × GASTRO STAGE PROGRAMS 1PM – The croissant story – FREYJA bakery One of the most successful store openings this year is the Freyja Bakery, where everything revolves around croissants. Péter Dormán, Founder, will talk about the croissant’s story while introducing spectators into the mysteries of leafy dough made with sourdough and a lot of butter. If you haven’t had a chance to visit the Szövetség Street Shop, then it’s time to taste the perfect croissant! 2PM – From ear to tail – Max Stiegl (Gut Purbach, Burgenland) Max Stiegl, the Austrian gastronomer reveals how French cuisine has inspired him to refreshen traditional Burgenland flavors, and why he’s so fond of offal. Anthony Bourdain even made a detour to visit his restaurant. Max will bring his creativity to the Gourmet Festival stage, preparing meat with horseradish and beer. 3PM – Beer and gastronomy – János Szilva (Borsodi), Dániel Bart, beer writer, Dani Varga (Aum Restaurant) In the past decade, quality beer culture has increased in Hungary, which is slowly but surely infiltrating into more demanding gastronomy. János Szilva, Director of Borsod Brewery, Dániel Bart, beer writer, Dani Varga, Chef of Aum Restaurant, will prepare Asian cuisine to go with special beers, while they discuss these topics. 4PM – Mangalica from the producer to the table – Zsóka Fekete and Szilárd Tóth Every year, there is a discussion about a certain kind of raw material, from production to making it onto the table. This year’s choice: Mangalica. To do this we invited two professional guests: Zsóka Fekete, Mangalica producer and Szilárd Tóth, last year’s Gourmet Festival award-winning chef. During cooking and the tasting, Szilárd will also tell the audience about his new restaurant, opening soon. 5PM – New York’s new ambassador of Hungarian cuisine: Jeremy Salamon We are sure to hear a lot about, the young chef of Hungarian descent, in the future as he will certainly be the passionate and authentic American voice of Hungarian cuisine. Only 25 years old, and extremely talented, he had just begun is culinary journey, when New York noticed him. He grew up on his Hungarian grandmother’s cooking and the legendary György Láng’s cookbook later became his bible, which inspired his passion for Hungarian cuisine. He sees our gastronomy freshly, creatively and wisely, and knows how to make it thrive and attractive in the world’s culinary capital. He will give audience members a taste of this on stage. 6PM – Ádám Pohner (Kistücsök) and the Bocuse d’Or team The Hungarian team competing at Bocuse d’Or’s prestigious World Championship will be introduced to the Gourmet Festival audience once again this year. Chefs, Ádám Pohner and Richárd Csillag along with coach Viktor Segal, will talk about the challenges of this year’s competition while preparing dishes such as mussels, green asparagus from Szemes, egg yolk ravioli and pastis sauce, to round off the performances on the Gatro Stage. 7PM – Gourmet award ceremony and closing toast Based on the votes of the audience and the decision of a professional jury, we highlight and recognize the best exhibitors and food of the festival. This will happen on the final day of the event, where we thank exhibiting restaurants for their hard work. 1/7 × Text and photo: Gourmet Festival Press