Bursa hosted a delicious festival on September 26-27-28. Organized by Bursa Metropolitan Municipality “The Route is Being Rebuilt” The three-day event, held at Merinos Park, was themed 4th International Bursa Gastronomy FestivalThe festival hosted 1 million guests from outside the city and beyond, in addition to visitors from Bursa. The festival featured numerous programs, including panels, gastro-conversations, presentations, special sessions, a Geographical Indications Summit, as well as sectoral and academic events, including culinary workshops and competitions.
Nearly 100 events, attended by 145 guest speakers and chefs, included competitions, gastro-intensive talks, tasting and flavor workshops, and four concerts. Merinos Park, which featured eight international booths, also featured 40 non-governmental organizations, 11 of which were in the gastronomy sector. The majority of these NGOs were women's cooperatives and associations. Fifty restaurants and businesses further enhanced their brand recognition and offered their delicious flavors to visitors.
Supported by academics and students from seven different universities, the programs were held on six different event stages. The festival also hosted the 1st Bursa Geographically Indicated Products Summit, the "My Route: Bursa Flavors" National Photography Competition, the launch of the book "From Registration to Plate: Bursa Gastronomy," and two photography exhibitions.
The festival, which aims to strengthen the city's gastronomic brand nationally and internationally by showcasing its signature flavors to the world and create economic value by supporting local producers, chefs, artisans, and artists, offered three days of high excitement, enthusiasm, productivity, and dynamism for both participants and visitors. Events were organized in parallel across multiple areas: the Main Stage, Gastro Talk Area, Competition Area, Flavor Workshop, Alternative Stage, and Children's Stage.
Opened with Friendship Soup!
The festival, which kicked off with the Friendship Soup bonfire, made with ingredients brought from many countries and cities and organized by the Chefs Association, and then the Procession from Merinos Park B Cafe to the Main Stage, hosted hundreds of events over three days.
In the opening gastronomic scene, "A Taste of Bursa Presented to the World," local and international chefs Atakan Özen, Alparslan Bayrak, Emre Uslu, Shunichi Horikoshi, Rudolf Van Nunen, and Chris Maxwell prepared dishes featuring Bursa produce at two different stations on the Main Stage. International chefs prepared "Grilled Keles Lamb Küşleme, Karacabey Onion Chestnut Puree, and Grape Syrup Reduction," while local chefs prepared "Lamb Saddle with Caramelized Figs," while Cüneyt Asan, a veteran of the gastronomic world, added his enthusiasm to the event.
“We want to make Bursa an indispensable stop on the world's gastronomy routes.”
Bursa Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mustafa Bozbey took the stage in the festival's first session. In the "Bursa's Gastronomy Vision" session, moderated by Communications Strategist and Gastronomy Writer Zeynep Kakınç, Mayor Bozbey shared his vision and goals for Bursa's culinary journey. This session, which will shape the future of the city's culinary culture, was one of the festival's most striking events. In his conversation with Kakınç, Bozbey emphasized Bursa's ambitious culinary journey, saying, "Bursa is the heart of Türkiye, not only with its history and industry, but also with its gastronomy. Our vision is to preserve our traditional recipes, blend them with modern presentations, and bring them to the world. Our goal in the next 5-10 years is to see Bursa among cities renowned for its gastronomy, like Lyon, Barcelona, or Tokyo. Our culinary culture has a deep-rooted story that extends from the soil to the plate. By bringing this story to the international stage, we want to make Bursa an indispensable stop on the world's culinary routes."
The city's Gezek culture came to life at the festival with the contributions of the Bursa Friendship-GezekMusîki Association.
Visitors had pleasant moments with Gezek, a 650-year-old culture based on the philosophy of creating a bridge between Bursa's past and future.
The Geographical Indications Summit, held in the Gastro Talk Area, addressed the topic from many perspectives. The two-session summit was moderated by YÜciTA President Prof. Dr. Yavuz Tekelioğlu.
The Gala Dinner, held on the grand terrace of the Atatürk Cultural Center's Merinos Park Campus in the evening, was prepared from recipes in the book "Bursa Gastronomy from Registration to Plate," which was introduced at the opening ceremony. The menu, created with the finishing touches of Bursa chef Atakan Özen, was admired by the special guests in attendance.
Brother Tables Gathered in Bursa
The "Sister Tables Meet in Bursa" event, which attracted participants from countries such as Bulgaria, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Ukraine, Belarus, Tatarstan, the People's Republic of China, Indonesia, and Moldova, was notable for its diplomatic and cultural significance as well as its gastronomic value. Chefs from these countries built an intercultural culinary bridge with the gastronomic scenes they organized throughout the festival.
Local and foreign chefs' gastronomic stages, along with flavors created with products unique to Bursa, were presented to visitors for three days. Many renowned chefs, including Maria Ekmekçioğlu, Cüneyt Asan, Yunus Emre Akkor, Rafet İnce, Doğa Çitçi, Yaren Çarpar, Ömer Bozyap, Asuman Kerkez, Memet Özer, Murat Özipek, Gökhan Çilak, and Eyüp Kemal Sevinç, took the stage alongside chefs from Bursa, preparing a wide variety of flavors on stage, from Keles Lamb and Chestnut Candy to Gürsu Okra, Gedelek Pickles, İnegöl Meatballs, Tahini Pide, and Walnut Turkish Delight.
Women's Power!
The panels and interviews were held in collaboration with the Mutfak Dostları Association on Saturday and Gastro-Der on Sunday.
The visibility and inspiring experiences of female chefs were shared with the panel “The Power of Women: The Changing Balance of the Kitchen.”
Throughout the festival, the following topics will be presented: “Unknowns of Bursa Cuisine”, “Social Gastronomy: The Role of Food in Social Change with Its Production and Presentation Dimensions”, “Gastronomic Culture, Art and Craft”, “The Effects of Gastronomy Culture on the Development of the Food and Beverage Sector”, “Communication of Food Culture: Transition from Traditional to Digital”, “Gastronomic Diplomacy: From Table to Cultural Brand”, “The Status of Olives and Olive Cultivation in Türkiye; Marmara Olive Cultivation”, “Resource Use in Agriculture; Steps for Water and Soil Health”, “Gastronomic Route Experiences”, “From Cooperatives to City Tables: The Place of Women’s Labor in Gastronomy”, “Bursa’s Tourism and Gastronomy Future”, “Tasting Gastronomy in the Digital Age”, “A New Vision in Bursa Gastronomy”, “City Brands Shaping Gastronomy Tourism”, “The Hot Cuisine Movement from the Balkans”, In the panels and talks titled “Sufficiency, Sustainability and Responsible Consumption in Gastronomy”, “Traces of Bursa Gastronomy”, “Bursa’s Flavor Economy: Agriculture, Production and Local Development”, “The Impact of Gastronomy on Tourism in Bursa” and “Let’s Eat Dessert and Talk Sweetly”, not only Bursa but every discipline of gastronomy was examined by experts in the field.
“Take Care of Your Culinary Heritage!”
Before the festival, academics and gastronomy students from İzmir, Antalya, Hatay, and Bursa searched for lost recipes in villages as part of the "Clean Up Your Culinary Heritage!" project, documenting flavors that had been lost. The discovery and inventory of these nearly lost dishes were shared at the festival by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Turgay Bucak from Dokuz Eylül University's Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Department, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Adem Arman from Akdeniz University's Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Department, Instructor Fatih Yıldırım from Bursa Uludağ University's Culinary Program, and Instructor Dr. Duygu Babat from Hatay Mustafa Kemal University's Culinary Program.
The project, whose creative director is Communications Strategist and Gastronomy Writer Zeynep Kakınç, and whose project coordinator is Yalçın İnam, UN World Food Programme Officer, explored and documented Bursa's rich gastronomic heritage, aiming to pass on forgotten culinary practices to future generations. The study explored both Cretan immigrant cuisine and the historical culinary culture of Tirilye in detail through field research.
Two Full Days!
Workshops were held on local Bursa delicacies such as cantık (Turkish flatbread with tahini), walnut Turkish delight (Turkish delight with walnuts), Gedelek pickles, and milk halva. In many workshops, where women's cooperatives also played an active role, master chefs recreated local delicacies.
This year, gastronomy in Bursa left its mark not only on the palate but also on culture, cinema, and narrative. Visitors experienced a vibrant and entertaining event, with food presentations, gastronomic stages, competitions, workshops, gastronomic-themed film screenings, talks with directors and producers, and concerts held in various venues and stages.
During the festival, participants' transfers between Istanbul and Bursa were covered by İDO and BUDO, with visitors receiving a 15 percent discount from İDO and a 16 percent discount from BUDO.
The 4th International Bursa Gastronomy Festival left a mark on the memories of participants and visitors with its centuries-old flavors that bring tradition and the future together at the same table, presentations and tastings, talks, Bursa's well-established culinary destinations, handcrafted delicacies from women producers, workshops, competitions, concerts, and much more.
Bursa, with its 8,500-year history resembling an open-air museum, tangible and intangible cultural and touristic values, as well as its deep-rooted gastronomy and culinary culture, hosted 1 million people this year and has already begun preparations for the 5th International Bursa Gastronomy Festival to be held next year.
Source: HORECA Trend and International 4th Bursa Gastronomy Festival