Chef of Zadar's Foša Participated in a Big JRE Gastro Spectacle

The all-day gastronomic tourist event was organized by JRE Croatia, part of the large international Association of caterers Jeunes Restaurateurs. It was a joint project of this Association, 14 restaurants that are members of the Croatian "JRE", including the Restaurant Foša, the municipality of Mošćenička Draga and several partners.

The chef from Zadar was part of the "Dalmatian team" of JRE, which also included the restaurants Pelegrini in Šibenik, Boba in Murter and Boškinac in Novalja. The innovative concept of this event consisted of six cooking sections placed in the squares, atriums and alleys of the old Liburnian town of Mošćenica, which collectively were visited by groups of 20 visitors each. The guests tasted the dishes cooked by two chefs in each section on essential foods in their part of Croatia and listened to a historical story retold by a trained guide who showed them around.

Began was in the cooking section located in the 500-year-old olive mill, Toša, where horses pulled the millstone. In his own way, the Zadar chef reconstructed the former peasants' marenda, which pickers took with them when harvesting in September. It consisted of figs, bread, olive oil and salted sardines. Began first placed a fig carpaccio on the tasting plate, followed by olive oil mousse, then sea bass cubes marinated in root beet, and finally made a "sponge" from ground olives, a delicious bite that "played the role" of the old brown bread. The dish was sprinkled with hydrolate of the boiled olive leaves and twigs to give the whole plate a specific scent of olives.

Great applause of the guests was a reaction to this enjoyable culinary performance. Began and the other chefs from the best Croatian restaurants took part in meal preparation at a big party on the beach in Mošćenička Draga in the evening. He prepared tuna and sea bass ceviche for guests, which he had brought from a farm near Zadar.