If in the first years of organizing Transilvania Gastronomică the aim of the organizers was to connect the restaurants of Sibiu to the small local producers of the county and to create and bring to life the concept of  the Transylvanian New Cuisine, this year they dare to take this September 3 days event one big step further.

The team behind

Needless to say that we’re talking about some very passionate group of people who truly believe that broadening the horizons of people involved in the food industry is one of the best ways to bring in front of the consumer modern concepts and techniques, not leaving behind traditions, classic ingredients and a centuries old strong food culture.

Asociatia My Transylvania is one of the main organizers. Together with their team of volunteers they bring the village life, its beauties, its traditions and its true taste closer to people who still believe in simplicity and authenticity.

Dana Mitea is the one who invited the chefs, selected the master classes and built up the program for the 3 days. She is a lawyer, but very passionate about gastronomy and local products and she is the co-president of Slow Food Sibiu.

From Festival to a Gastronomic Symposium

This year’s Transylvania Gastronomica goes beyond what happened in the previous years of the event – it’s becoming a gastronomic symposium, having an educational role, targeting chefs (young and well-known), but also gastronomy passionates and foodies.

Masterclasses, live cooking sessions, visits to local producers, plenary meetings concentrating on products and producers, on cooking equipment and techniques, on modern trends, encouraging chefs to use and innovate local recipes and products.

Why in Sibiu?

Sibiu will be the 2019 European Region of Gastronomy. If it’s not enough, I would be adding to this a rich diversity of products and recipes and a multicutural society in a 900 years old city, plus some very talented and passionate chefs and some really cool restaurants that have opened in the recent years.

The Sibiu county cuisine is something to say the least, special. It’s incredibly diverse, a culinary mosaic with so many influences. In this region, we are talking of about no less than 11 different cuisines: we first have the people that have lived here (Romanians, Saxons, Hungarians, Armenians, Jews and Roma), but also the influences from Austria, Turkey, Russia, France and Greece.

Our choices

Being truly passionate about tasty, authentic and as natural and local as possible food, plus enjoying to cook from time to time some more complex recipes, we’re not missing this year’s Transilvania Gastronomica edition. The full program is to be found HERE and below is a list of the events we’ll be attending.

Master classes:

Cooking Fish by Radu Dumitrescu (Bistro Voila, Bucharest) – because fish is always a good and healthy replacement of meat

Molecular Gastronomy by Mădălina Șanta – because we’re curious to see and learn about some super modern cooking techniques

Wild Mushrooms by Alexandru Dumitru – because the Romanian forests have so many wild mushrooms and they are super tasty

New Romanian Cuisine by Alex Petricean (Maize, Bucharest) – because we love how traditional recipes are transformed into modern tasty and good looking plates

Romanian Truffles by Radu Rughinis (La Bottega del tartufo, Bucharest) – because who doesn’t love truffles?

Dinners:

Blide din imprejurimi (Dishes from around) – Tasting menu with wine pairing (9 courses). This event is a collaboration between Bistro Jules and Restaurant Pasaj and this is why we chose this dinner. Because I think that collaborations always turn into a succes – plus each restaurant gets to try new dishes and extend their gastronomic horizons.

Zero Waste Dinner – taking place at Syndicat Gourmet. We chose this one because food wasting is a serious problem in our modern society and everyone should try to reduce this waste as much as possible.

Innovation on Tradition – Three course dinner with main course prepared by the winner of the 2018 regional competition of Young European Chef Award, Andra Andriuc. Perfect occasion to check out and support the young chefs.

Extra:

The Sibiu Gastro Tower, happening every Friday and a very nice brunch happening on Sunday in Nucet.

See you there!