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The first major gastronomic festival, Yerevan Gastronomic Days, will be held in the Armenian capital city on June 7-9. During the respective press conference, speakers represented by Mary Badalyan, Nune Manukyan, co-founders of EventToura and organizers of Yerevan Gastronomic Days, as well as the founder-president of the Association of Chefs of Armenia Arbi Garakhani, spoke in detail about how preparations were going for such a large-scale event, why, and most importantly, for whom so much effort and money has been invested, and what to expect for those who are going to attend the festival.

Last year, as part of Yerevan Wine Days, a small gastronomic festival was held. Despite limited resources, the event generated great public interest, prompting organizers to expand the format this year.

This year, the entire process of the event is divided into four sections: restaurant days—with the participation of about 70 restaurants, a focus on chefs, master classes, and gastronomic shows.

“Also, another important part of this entire event is the competition of young chefs in collaboration with the World Chefs Association, which will allow us to understand what kind of relationship we should enter into with international chefs, and will also give young chefs from Armenia the opportunity to participate in a unique project with invited jury from five countries,” noted Mary Badalyan.

This experience will enable Armenia to be seen in the international gastronomic arena as a strong player in the future, and the immediate goal is the International Young Chefs Olympiad in India in 2025. And although no one guarantees an honorable first place, you need to take the first step towards winning it.

One of the important invited guests will be chef from France of Armenian origin Alen Aleksanyan. “We did not allocate a fee to Chief Aleksanyan; in exchange for participation in the project, he said that the charitable projects in which he participates should go for the benefit of Armenia.” Aleksanyan will choose a student from among the participants in the competition for young chefs.

When asked about providing the project with food, the organizers replied that they were cooperating with various companies that would provide the cooks with everything they needed.

“The invited chefs will prepare their national dishes from Armenian products. This can be a unique experience both for the chefs themselves and for all guests who will be able to try international dishes in a new version,” added Nune Manukyan.

The Yerevan Gastronomic Days festival plays an important role also in the development of the economy and service sector of Armenia. The speakers emphasized that the festival will help improve business skills and the quality of customer service. This is an important step to attract international tourists and investors.

A guest from the Czech Republic, Artur Cech, will speak at the festival, and will talk about Georgia’s successful experience in hospitality and how this country has been able to improve its quality of service and attract tourists over the course of the past several years.

Arbi Gharakhani noted the importance of environmental awareness within the framework of the festival, taking into account the fact that one of the global problems today, which, unfortunately, is quite obvious in Armenia, is related to the disposal of food waste. “We tried to calculate everything according to the amount that will be necessary for a certain number of people and for certain purposes in order to obtain minimum residues for disposal. This aspect is also included in the chef competition, where it will be observed and those who closely monitor the process of processing and recycling waste will be awarded an additional point.”

In addition to the main gastronomic part, the Yerevan Gastronomic Days festival will focus on the these topics: food-blogger, buffet with a master class from the famous florist from Russia Arayik Galstyan, organic wine, healthy and vegan food.

The organizers expressed confidence that Yerevan Gastronomic Days will be an important step towards international recognition of Armenian gastronomic culture. The festival will open new opportunities for local chefs and restaurateurs, providing them with a platform to exchange experiences with foreign colleagues, and will also change the way people view Armenia and Armenian cuisine as a modern and dynamic part of the world gastronomic culture.

Liana Aghajanyan

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