Latvian cooking festival tours the country

The “Flavour of the Region” festival is touring Latvia until September, promoting local cuisine and produce

The festival started over the last weekend in Valmiera, under the slogan “The taste of Latvia in Vidzeme”. Local producers and master of the cooking arts attended the festival – bakers, cheese makers, beekeepers and honey makers, meat distributors etc. According to the organisers, the goal of the initiative is two-fold. On the one hand they aim to popularise tourism around the whole country by creating a map of the best taverns, inns and restaurants that serve local cuisine. On the other hand, they also want to shine to spotlight on all the regions’ producers and get citizens to buy local. By attending these fairs people will no longer buy their products from the faceless supermarket but also have the opportunity to meet the business owners and craftsmen face-to-face. Local businesses and producers will also be tagged on the final map so that consumers are able to find them more easily and even meet them.

The event is planned and organised by the Latvian Rural Advisory and Education Centre and it brings together all the country’s big regions. The fair’s next stops will be in Sigulda, Padure, Ceraukste and Kraslava. A final event will also be held in the country’s capital Riga at the end of September.