24.9.2023. Golf Adriatic – Kempinski Hotel Adriatic

The prestigious association gathers young chefs full of ambition, passion and talent to spread their knowledge to new generations to come! One guiding thread of all JRE restaurants is family. As they like to say that they are a big family, one of the basic postulates is that every restaurant within the JRE association must be family-owned, that is, that the family / family is involved in the business of the restaurant.

This is how our Croatian JRE family gathers together once a year and organizes a memorable event that is open to the public! This year we organized our meeting in the Croatian luxury golf and spa resort with 5 stars Kempinski Hotel Adriatic, where we were greeted with a warm welcome in a beautiful setting.

At the very location of the event, we were welcomed by all the family members, more precisely by the 14 restaurants that presented themselves with their signature dishes. Along with rich flavors, we also enjoyed welcome cocktails prepared by the association's partners: Old pilots, Maraske and Nonina.

Gastronomy and golf this year was the theme of the seventh Talent and passion event in a row, and we had the special honor of being guided by licensed instructors and testing our golfing skills on a world-renowned course that has recently become PGA National Croatia, representing the most standards of golfing excellence.

As a gastronomic event organized by restaurants cannot be complete without food and wine during the break between our golf skills, we rested with a glass of Pol Roger champagne and creative plates from the JRE-restaurant. We rested in the Metro lodge, which is an official partner of the JRE association.

After champagne for refreshment and the way to this golf point, we set off with an Old pilots gin and tonic in a can!

A wonderful gathering on the slopes of Savudrija at sunset marked the beginning of the third phase of the event - after with all the partners, small producers and winemakers of the JRE-Croatia association.

We spent the last part of the event in the Slice restaurant located on the first floor of the Golf Adriatic Club House, where we tasted the products of small producers and winemakers with live music! Metro, as an official partner of the association, is responsible for providing the food that JRE chefs prepared during the event, and Metro itself also encourages the development of products by small producers in order to help them and be a firm hand of the partnership for all caterers to provide a wide range of products and services in a relatively quick time deliver fresh groceries to the door of the restaurant!

We would also like to single out the creations of JRE chefs who created dishes with products from small producers. So, for example, we tried the meatballs with slaw made by chef Vjeko Bašić from the tavern Boba from Murter. For his dish, he used beef shop meat and paradise tomatoes!

Chef Stiven Vunić from restaurant Zijavica in Mošćenička draga prepared creations with Risa Venere - a special brand and type of rice from partner Nikas.

Restaurants Lešić Dimitri from Korčula and Zadarska Foša prepared sea bass fillets from Marfish with Asian ratatouille.

The Kvarner duo of restaurants and hotels Navis and Draga di Lovrana prepared steaks from the small producer Sin Ravnica with Karlić truffles.

It's hard to write down everything we tasted and pick out what we liked the most, but it was certainly wonderful to watch the sunset through the big rock jars and enjoy the still summer night in the company of the giants of the gastronomic scene!

We are looking forward to new gatherings with the JRE-Croatia restaurant association and visiting restaurants!