The Corfu Food and Wine Festival will honour both Botrinis – father and son
CORFU. The 1st Corfu Food & Wine Festival will take place from 9th-13th May and aims to become an annual event at the beginning of each tourist season showcasing both traditional and new Corfu products.
The festival organizers spoke to the local media on Friday. Those at the press conference were as follows (from left to right in the photo):
- Pericles Katsaros - President, Corfu Federation of Tourist Accommodation Owners
- Vassilis Kontos - board member, HATTA
- Dimitris Moutsos – Vice President, AOCTA
- Spyros Voulismas – President, Corfu Chefs’ Club
- Vassilis Kavadias – Deputy Mayor for Tourism
- Yiannis Koulouris – Regional Councillor, Representative for Ionian Islands Agri-Food Cooperative
- Haralambos Voulgaris – President, Corfu Hoteliers Association
- Nikos Vergetis – Vice-President, Restaurant & Related Professions Association
- Aristotelis Megoulas – Board member, Restaurant & Related Professions Association
Culinary tourism is the tourism of experience and emotion (‘emotional tourism’ as it is now called). A worldwide trend which Corfu is now aiming to become a part of. This year alone Corfu cuisine has won 7 awards in 3 competitions and is now considered to be a significant ‘player’ in the field.
Corfu Chefs Club will play a leading role in the festival and President Spyros Voulismas said that the Club has always been a pioneer in the vocational training of catering professionals and is now becoming involved in the training of the public and visitors, combining tradition with modern expertise.
The new President of the Union of Corfu Hoteliers, Babis Voulgaris, talked about the new goal of Corfu hotels – to promote the Mediterranean Diet and to offer it as one of the main tourist services.
The Festival is being co-organized by: the Ionian Islands Regional Authority (Corfu area), the Municipality of Corfu, the Ionian University, the Hoteliers Association, the Federation of Tourist Accommodation Businesses, Travel Agencies, Corfu Port Authority, the Association of Restaurant and Related Professions and the Chefs Club. The Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) and The Ministry of Tourism are supporting the festival and the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) is Media Sponsor.
The Festival programme
On the first day of the festival there will be a big party - a culinary and musical celebration in Spianada, with Ionian music performed by Philharmonic bands and choirs. At the same time, there will be street parties with food tasting tours (the tsipouro-snack-bars in Spilia, the Mediterranean flavours in Guildford Street along with Corfu Town restaurants).
The following days will be devoted to food-tasting tours in the Corfu countryside - in village squares and other establishments. Through these tours and with the cooperation of local cultural societies, the participants will have the chance to meet the locals and experience their traditional cuisine.
There will also be culinary and food-tasting workshops as well as exhibitions - photography, paintings and others. With the collaboration of the Giorgos Kentrotis from the Faculty of Translation- Interpreting at the Ionian University, there will also be Wine and Poetry Evenings.
Father and son Botrinis to be honoured
The festival organizers will honour the renowned chef Ektoras Botrinis and his father, Etruscos, who was the pioneer of culinary tourism in Corfu. He came from a generation of restaurants in Tuscany and was a renowned chef for years at the Club Mediterranee. In 1992 he decided to take up residence in Corfu, his wife’s home island, and open a small restaurant which then passed to his son Ektoras and has won Golden Caps as well as entering the lists of the best in the world. Etruscos Botrinis passed away two years ago and Ektoras is now an internationally recognized chef.
In recognition of the family’s culinary contribution and their essential part in promoting the island, a special award will be presented.
