JEDDAH —

Three famous Czech executive chefs are currently showcasing their talent at the Czech Food Festival that kicked off on Sunday at the Jeddah Intercontinental Hotel.

The festival, officially inaugurated by Ali Shobokshi, and Khalid Shobokshi from the Czech Consulate continues till March 23.

Baris Altinkok, director of food and beverage of InterContinental Hotel Jeddah, said “we are targeting the people who are looking for food variety from all around the world. The traditional Czech cuisine is in our menu today, but we add some local side dishes also, but our main course is traditional Czech cuisine.”

Tomas Pechacek, Executive Chef of Holiday Inn Prague, along with Pavel Budin and Filip Telvod, a team of expert chefs from the Czech Republic will serve traditional Czech food in all five days of the fest.

Tomas Pechacek, who has a long experience in his field, said “this is my first time to Saudi Arabia. It’s different for me. We brought a couple of items or spices from Prague but most of the items are available here.”

Day one menu was duck with red cabbage, chicken dumplings, beef with vegetable sauce and cream, fish like trout with herbs, chick peas with almonds, chicken soup along with potato cream soup, etc, with a variety of salads, fruits and other dishes.

“I prepared some dessert like Czech cake with cottage cheese, pancakes with different method of using traditional Czech yeast, blue berries and sugar, some home made bread with vanilla cream. Some of the dessert I prepared which my grandmother used to prepare and its very traditional and delicious too.”

According to him, different cuisines from different parts of the Czech Republic are prepared every day during the festival so guests can enjoy the richness of the country’s food.

Roasted beef with cream sauce, spinach, potato, dumplings, and roasted duck were among the main dishes at the festival.

«Today we prepared some of the traditional dishes of the Czech Republic and during this one-week food festival, we will introduce the Czech cuisine to the people of Saudi Arabia.”

AMMAN —

The 3rd Jordan International Energy Summit (JIES) (www.JIES-Summit.com) is being held under the patronage of King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development on April 2- 3, 2017 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel & Conference Centre in Amman, Jordan.

There are billions of dollars of projects under discussion at the Summit; in Jordan as well as affecting the whole region. The program is hosted by the Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources in Jordan; with official international delegations to the Summit led by: Dr Ibrahim Saif, Minister of Energy & Mineral Resources, Jordan; Moulay Hafid Elalamy, Minister of Energy, Mines, Water & Environment, Morocco; Eng. Tarek El Molla, Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources, Egypt; Dr. Dr. András Aradszki, Minister of State for Energy Affairs of the Ministry of National Development, Hungary; Qasim Al-Fahadawi, Minister of Electricity, Iraq;Hela Cheikhrouhou, Minister of Energy, Mining and Renewables, Tunisia; Abdullah Al-Akwa›, Minister of Electricity & Energy, Yemen; Dr. Mohamed Zayed Awad, Minister of Petroleum & Gas, Sudan; Eng. Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Electricity & Renewable Energy, Egypt; Khalid Jolo, CEO Nebras on behalf of the Qatar Government; Dr. Panos Kelamis, CEO, Cyprus Hydrocarbons Company on behalf of the Cyprus Government.

The JIES Summit is centered around a world-class programme with speakers from Governments, global energy companies and experts in their fields and is combined with an international exhibition to allow companies to showcase their projects and expertise whilst giving Jordan access to the latest technologies and products.

The commercial importance of the Summit is underlined by the strength of support from major Energy companies in the region. — SG

Amongst more than 140 companies participating, major event sponsors include: Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company, AES, Vestas, Housing Bank, Arab Potash, Baynouna, Masdar, Mass Energy Group, Capital Investments, Karak International Oil Co., Rosatom, FAJR and Petrojet. — SG