The biyearly food and beverage exhibition ‘Gastronomia – Gastrognosia 2010’ was held at the Cyprus fair grounds between the 4^th and 7^th of February.

The exhibition was organized by Giorgallis Fair Ltd, The Cyprus Chefs Association, The Cyprus pastry federation and Cyprus Bakery Association.

Mr. Andonis Pashalides, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, opened the exhibit to the public at the inaugural ceremony and what continued was in short, a highly successful exhibition.

Besides housing the 90 companies and organizations that presented new products and services, the CyChefs were also present with their own impressive stall. A great number of people were informed about the gastronomic website www.cychefs.com and the very well known ‘Colour and Aroma in the kitchen’ – the CyChefs latest cookbook.

George Kyprianou of CyChefs with the Minister of Commerce, Industry & Tourism

George Kyprianou of CyChefs with George Tsokkos of WeKreate Tsokkos Consultants Ltd

– responsible for the CyChefs new website

Roughly about twelve thousand people visited the exhibit overall, of which four thousand were professionals in the culinary arts, hotel and tourism industries.

Various demonstrations and displays that were organized included the Barmen associations’ presentation of an assortment of cocktails and recipe presentations from well known Cypriot chefs.

The Cyprus Chefs Association once again assembled cooking competitions both in the savoury and sweet departments and both for professionals and college students. With the availability of the fully updated competition kitchens, excellent live competitions were carried out. The kitchens were a large contribution from the Angelo PO company which is represented by the Anco cooperation in Cyprus.

The ‘Open Restaurant’ live competition, carried out by groups of chefs from different hotels and restaurants, was also accomplished with great success. The equipment for this competition was sponsored by CaterCom and the fully equipped kitchens offered to complete the restaurant menus were as always, kindly contributed by Zanussi – Electrolux from Hadjikyriakos Ltd.

The results from the most popular competitions were as follows:

1. Chef of the Year was awarded to Mr. Andreas Vouzounis from SODEXO. Sponsored by: Amaxulus Prime Foods Ltd.
2. Confectioner of the Year was awarded to Mr. Dimitri Ioannou from the Four Seasons Hotel. Sponsored by: Elle & Vivre – Cosmos Trading.
3. Young Chef of the Year was awarded to Mr. Valentino Michael from the Four Seasons Hotel. Sponsored by: Alion fresh vegetables – Herbs from Cyprus.
4. Two hotels were awarded the gold medal for the ‘Open Restaurant’ competition. The Four Seasons hotel and Le Meridien. The Four Seasons hotel received a higher overall grade.

Sponsored by: Primefarms meats.

1. In the grand prix competition (3 chefs competed together in this category) the gold medal went to Le Meridien and to the Four Seasons hotel and once again the Four Seasons hotel received a higher grade. Sponsored by: S & N Soteriou.

The judges for these competitions included well known Cypriot chefs and world renowned chefs that flew in just for the exhibition.

1. Mr. Tony Jackson from Scotland
2. Mr. Vella Josef from Malta
3. Mr. Gordon Galea from Malta
4. Mr. Stefanos Chrisanthou from Cyprus
5. Mr. George Damianou from Cyprus
6. Mr. Ioannis Gregoriou from Cyprus
7. Mr. Christos Christodoulou from Cyprus
8. Mr. Charis Philippou from Cyprus

The Cyprus Chefs Association would like to thank all the sponsors, supporters and the exhibitioners that partook in this year’s Gastronomia – Gastrognosia and to all those that helped make it once again, a truly successful exhibition.