Within the framework of the Turkish Cuisine Week, the cooking competition, which was organized for the first time among high schools throughout the province in order to raise awareness of Kastamonu local flavors and Turkish Cuisine, started with the hosting of our Tourism Faculty.
38 teams from 6 districts participate in the competition, which will be held between 3rd-24th of May, 2023.
Kastamonu Governorship, Kastamonu Municipality, our University, North Anatolian Development Agency, Kastamonu Provincial Directorate of National Education, Kastamonu Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, Kastamonu Tourism Infrastructure and Service Union, Kastamonu Special Provincial Administration, Kastamonu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kastamonu Commodity Exchange and Kastamonu Tradesmen and the Union of Chambers of Craftsmen, an inter-school cooking competition will be held for high school students between 3rd-24th of May, 2023.
38 different teams from Araç, Devrekani, İnebolu, Centre, Taşköprü and Tosya participated in the competition hosted by the Faculty of Tourism of our university.
The qualifying rounds of the cooking competition are on 3rd-11th of May; The semi-finals, in which the group winners will compete, will be held on 17th of May at the Faculty of Tourism of our University. The final competition, in which the 4 finalist teams that are successful in the semi-finals will take part, will be held on 24th of May, 2023, under the auspices of the Presidency, under the coordination of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, within the framework of the Turkish Cuisine Week events.
The qualifying rounds of the cooking competition held between on 3rd-11th of May started at the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Practice Kitchen of the Faculty of Tourism of our University. In the competition where 38 teams from 6 districts competed, the students presented their delicious dishes to the jury members by displaying their skills in the kitchen. Jury members gave grades to the students after tasting the food. In addition, the members of the jury made recommendations to young high school chefs. After the qualifying rounds of the competition are completed, the semi-final and final competition will also be held.
Dean of the Faculty of Tourism of our University Prof. Dr. Alptekin Sökmen stated that they wanted to organize an event during the Turkish Cuisine Week and said that the idea for an inter-high school cooking competition came up.
Prof. Dr. Sökmen stated that he undertook this job as the host of the National Education Directorate, North Anatolian Development Agency, Kastamonu Municipality and our University, and stated that the stakeholders covered the entire financial burden of the three-week competition, including supplies, materials and prizes.
Prof. Dr. Sökmen also said, “I would like to thank everyone who supported us, as Kastamonu is an exemplary province in this context.”
Contributing to the competition, Buket Kapağan, a teacher in the R&D Unit of the Kastamonu Provincial Directorate of National Education, stated that the organization to be held under the leadership of the Governor's Office consisted of a 3-week long marathon and said, “All of our teams participating here are not cooking high schools, not vocational high schools. There was a great participation from our other high schools as well. On the one hand, we encourage their knowledge and skills. We're trying to see your other talents. They are very enthusiastic, and we are trying to support their wishes. Our aim is to make this competition a tradition," she said.
Hazal Batur, a student of Saime İnal Savi High School, said that they hesitated to enter the competition and later decided to participate in the competition with a dish called Matbahi, consisting of soup with yogurt, stuffed onions and stone pancake.
Batur said that he wanted to be a lawyer, but he also loved the kitchen, and he changed his mind after seeing the kitchen of the Faculty of Tourism, emphasizing that he wanted to be a cook.