Magazine: Ten thousand visitors at Hoventa – with photos

Between 11 and 14 October Hoventa, the international hotel, restaurant, catering and gastro-technological trade exhibition was organised at the Hungexpo Budapest Fair Center with more programmes than ever before. On 5,000m² 130 exhibitors from 7 countries (Germany, Austria, Italy, Serbia, France, Czech Republic, Hungary) attracted 10,000 visitors. Organisers were satisfied with the results and they were especially happy that the number of professional visitors increased.

This year Hoventa’s biggest partner was the National Association of Interior Designers: at their Trend Island visitors had the chance to get to know more about hotel rooms classified in the star system. The third day of Hoventa brought the regional final of the Giropizza pizza making competition. Gianni Pompetti from Italy won the contest but all ten finalists qualified to the final next March, organised as part of the Pizza & Pasta Expo. There were two Hungarian in the top 10: Csaba Kelemen finshed 5th and Gábor Váradi came in 10th. On the same day the Hungarian leg of the MONIN Cup 2011 Bartending European Championship was held. There were 33 contestants and Nikoletta Nagy from Mercure Korona won the qualifier with her cocktail ‘Shine’ – she will represent Hungary in the Paris final. One of the highlights of Hoventa was the Bocuse d’Or Hungary Selection, even more so because of the recent drastic changes in the management of the Hungarian Bocuse d’Or Academy. The 8 finalists had to prepare two types of dish: one from sole and the other from chicken. Tamás Széll, the chef of Michelin-star Budapest restaurant Onyx scored the highest number of points, followed by László Szabó, executive chef of Sodexo, and the third place went to István Volenter, head chef of Mala Garden in Siófok. Confectioner of the Year and Junior Confectioner of the Year competitions were really popular with visitors. János Kovács, from Jakó confectionery in Kecskemét won among the adults was rewarded with HUF 400,000. This year no Junior Confectioner of the Year was named, due to the below standard level of the competition.