All the flavours of the Mediterranean in Kvarner

Emotions and experiences – that’s what guests remember about a restaurant, a hotel, a city or a region. They will get all of this during the Festival Taste the Mediterranean, the prestigious international gastronomic event that takes place from September 11 to 14 in Mali Lošinj, in Kvarner – the European Region of Gastronomy. The distinctive flavours of the Mediterranean will bring together the award-winning chefs from the restaurants of Lošinj Hotels & Villas and the chefs from several of the city’s best restaurants with renowned chefs from France, Italy, Slovenia and Spain. Their creative gastronomy, the exchange of knowledge and experience through culinary workshops for students will put the accent on the preservation of the Mediterranean cultural heritage.

From September 11 to 14, the city of Mali Lošinj will host the most distinguished Mediterranean cuisine festival in Croatia, Taste the Mediterranean (TTM). Its 13th edition was presented at a press conference at the Bellevue Hotel in Lošinj’s Čikat Bay by Dalibor Cvitković – Director of the Mali Lošinj Tourist Board, Ingrid Badurina Danielsson – Founder and Director of the Festival TTM, Irena Peršić Živadinov – Director of the Kvarner Tourist Board and Zoran Pejović – Member of the Board of Jadranka turizam d.o.o., whose Lošinj Hotels & Villas will host the festival participants.

“Taste the Mediterranean has been promoting Croatia as a desirable Mediterranean destination for years, bringing together leading international and Croatian chefs. We are especially pleased that this year’s Festival is being held for the first time in Kvarner, on the occasion of the prestigious award “Kvarner, European Region of Gastronomy 2026″, that this unique destination has rightfully obtained” – said Ingrid Badurina Danielsson.

A small part of this uniqueness will be discovered by both participants and guests of the Festival during the 3 days rich programme. “We are proud that the festival is taking place at a time when Lošinj is celebrating the golden age of its maritime history. Namely, at the end of the 19th century, Lošinj was the third largest port on the Adriatic in terms of shipping and shipbuilding, and every year in September we celebrate this tradition with the Losinava event, which is also attended by representatives of the Italian cultural community from Venice. It is no coincidence that the bronze statue of the young athlete Apoxyomenos was found in 1997 under the sea of the island of Lošinj, which has always been a link between the southern Mediterranean and Greece with the northern part and Venice. At the opening of the Festival the guests will have the opportunity to taste the dishes of the authentic Mediterranean cuisine, similar to those served at the time of Apoxyomenos, 2.000 years ago. The legendary chef Adrijano Nikolić, in collaboration with the restaurant Za Kantuni, will create an exclusive Apoxyomenos banquet with fish, olive oil, cereals and wine,” said Dalibor Cvitković, director of the Mali Lošinj Tourist Board.

The famous Lošinj croquant (brittle) will also be part of the festival opening – protected as an intangible cultural asset, it recently entered the Guinness Book of Records. To celebrate 140 years of tourism on the island, the pastry chef Petar Goleš and his team from the Moby Dick pastry shop created a 14-tiered croquant, 2.73 meters high. According to the tradition, a slightly smaller one will be broken with a sword at the opening of the Festival, by the chefs participating in Taste the Mediterranean while the Kvarner Wines association will mark the opening with the local sparkling wine 100% made from the autochthonous Žlahtina grapes.

Ingrid Badurina Danielsson – founder and director of the Festival TTM launched in 2014 when UNESCO included the Croatian Mediterranean diet on the list of World Intangible Cultural Heritage – revealed the programme of the exclusive dinners that will be prepared together by the local chefs and their visiting colleagues.At the leading Mali Lošinj restaurant Alfred Keller (1 Michelin* 4 Gault&Millau toques), chef Michael Gollenz – Gault&Millau 2022 Great Chef of Tomorrow Trophy – is hosting chef Raffaelle Ros and sommelier Michela Berto from the restaurant San Martino, in Scorzè, in Veneto, (1 Michelin*). In the Bava Innovation restaurant of the Bellevue hotel, the executive chef of the Bellevue hotel Roko Nikolić – Gault&Millau 2024 Great Chef of Tomorrow Trophy – and the Spanish chef Teresa Gutiérrez, from the restaurant Azafrán in Villarrobledo, (Michelin Bib Gourmand, JRE European Heritage Award 2022) will cook together. The Slovenian chef Jure Tomič from Ošterija Debeluh, in Brežice – 4 Gault&Millau toques and JRE member – will be cooking with Dinko Lekić, chef at Konoba Cigale, the nice tavern in Čikat Bay awarded 2 Gault&Millau toques.

The restaurant Bocca Vera located on the Mali Lošinj waterfront and its owner and chef Drago Rančić are hosting a fish feast prepared by Japanese-French chef Ippei Uemura from the restaurant Tabi in Marseille (3 Gault&Millau toques, Michelin plate). The Italian chef Marco Danelli from the restaurant Palazzetto My Venice will be hosted at Gastro Pub Deveron where he will cook together with chef Zdravka Grgić.

“The year 2025 will be marked by awards and celebrations for the success of our company as well as the success of the Kvarner region, so I am happy that Lošinj Hotels & Villas will be the co-organizer and host of such a festival. Gastronomy, along with health wellness and outdoor activities, is one of the three pillars on which we build our global positioning and communication in the premium segment,” says Zoran Pejović, member of the Management Board of Jadranka turizam d.o.o. In a dozen of their restaurants, they offer a variety of food, ingredients and price categories, so that their guests have always something to explore while staying in their hotels and villas. “The French historian Fernand Braudel said that the Mediterranean represents not one but countless landscapes, that it is not just one sea but many seas that merge, and that the Mediterranean is a combination of civilizations that lean on each other. I am free to complement him and say that the Mediterranean is not one cuisine but a whole series of gastronomies that lean on each other. Our guests like to return to proven values but also discover new dishes from our renowned chefs, so I believe that we have also contributed to Kvarner becoming a European region of gastronomy” – says Zoran Pejović.

During the Festival TTM, on September 13th at the Apoxyomenos Museum, there will be a special conference dedicated to the great international success of the Kvarner region and the prestigious title “European region of gastronomy 2026”. Two main topics will be discussed: The Identity on the plate – showing how gastronomy is a driver for highlighting the region, and Return to the roots – about the honest cooking based on seasonal ingredients from local farming. Under the auspices of President – one of the special partners of the Festival TTM – the young students and future chefs from the school Ambroz Haračić, a secondary catering school in Mali Lošinj, will attend the master classes of the renowned Festival’s chefs discovering how they create their dishes.

“The Festival Taste the Mediterranean is of exceptional importance for Kvarner, because it confirms what we have been building for years – that our gastronomy is much more than food; it is an emotion, an experience, the identity of the destination and the people who bring knowledge, creativity and love for what they do every day. We are organising this festival with long-standing partners, and it comes at the right time – as part of the strategically planned activities within the Action Plan for the Development of Kvarner Gastronomy, but also as a strong introduction to the year in which Kvarner holds the prestigious title of European Region of Gastronomy. Thanks to the arrival of international chefs, gastronomic professionals and renowned foreign media such as the British The Guardian, the Festival has also an exceptional marketing value. It is a powerful tool for promoting our region on the global market, because the story of Kvarner – about our indigenous ingredients, wines, knowledge and hospitality – goes beyond local frameworks and becomes recognized throughout Europe and beyond. Through its flavours and local wines presented at the Festival, Kvarner will offer to the guests and the media a reason for coming. What they will experience at the table will remain forever in their memory as a unique experience of the region – said Irena Peršić Živadinov, director of the Kvarner Tourist Board.