Sirha Budapest, 2018: A culinary capital for three days

István Nagy
secretary of state
Ministry of Agriculture

Already the third Sirha Budapest trade show was organised this year at the Budapest Fair Centre. There were more than 20,000 trade visitors at the event, to see what more than 300 exhibitors from 15 countries had to offer. At the opening ceremony István Nagy, secretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture underlined: a country’s gastronomy can only be good if it is continuously supplied with high-quality produce by farmers. Hungexpo Zrt.’s CEO Gábor Ganczer stressed that by now Sirha Budapest has become not only the biggest but also the most supported event of the hospitality trade.

Gábor Ganczer
CEO
Hungexpo

Sirha Budapest 2018 was waiting for exhibitors and visitors already on 30,000m². Many meetings were held at Sirha Budapest and special software had been developed for businesses before the trade fair, to help them find business partners. Almost 100 companies registered for the matchmaking programme, which was organised by Enterprise Europe Network and PRIMOM Foundation. From 2018 the Hungarian Baker Association and the Guild of Hungarian Confectioners are official supporters of Sirha Budapest, and thanks to this there were more bakers and confectioners present at the trade exhibition than ever before.

Zoltán Hamvas
president
Bocuse d’Or Akadémia

Compared with the previous Sirha Budapest two years ago, there were many new programmes, such as the Hungarian final of the International Catering Cup competition – won by Albatros-Expo Catering Kft. (László Kasuba, Gergő Balázs, István Volenter) or the Public Sector Catering Competition, in which the Eurest Budapest team finished first. Gréta Berta and Emese Kőrösi-Fehér (Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest) won the Sirha Budapest Dessert Competition, which was organised by Zoltán Kolonics.

Zsuzsanna Hermann
managing director
Trade magazin

It is needless to say that the Hungarian final of the Bocuse d’Or generated the greatest attention: Ádám Pohner, the sous chef of Kistücsök Restaurant in Balatonszemes won the contest, so he will represent Hungary in the European final in Torino.

For the third time, Hungexpo Zrt. and Trade magazin organised the Sirha Budapest innovation competition. //