The festival where the biggest eaters win

In the 3rd Bursa International Gastronomy Festival organized by the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality this year with the theme ‘Bursa in My Palate’, Cemil Bakırtaş won a gram of gold by eating 8 cantık in 16 minutes.

The 3rd Bursa International Gastronomy Festival, prepared with a rich content to reveal Bursa’s gastronomic culture, hosted colorful events and competitions on its second day as well. This year, a cantık eating contest was held again. Due to Bursa’s license plate being 16, 16 contestants participated in the competition, where the lucky one who could eat the most cantık in 16 minutes was sought. As the minutes passed in the fiercely contested event, the contestants struggled to swallow their bites and drank plenty of water. In a struggle where some contestants gave up early, Cemil Bakırtaş, who was the first by eating 8 cantık, became the owner of a gram of gold.

On the second day of the festival, within the scope of the ‘Awareness Event’ prepared with the contributions of the Celiac Disease Association, a ‘Living with Celiac’ show was staged by Altıparmak Secondary School Theater, moderated by Serkan Durmuş, President of the Bursa Food Engineers Chamber, alongside Dietitian İrem Üşenmez, Dietitian Hilal İğdeli, and Association General Coordinator Nurevşan Karaağaç.

In the ‘Open Kitchen’, Chef Recep Kantar and guest chefs from foreign sister cities prepared ‘Muradiye Soup’, and workshop activities were organized with Chef Sinem Çapraz for gastronomy students and chefs. In the ‘Gastro Talk’ section, the story of ‘Cantık’ was discussed with Yusuf Pideci, moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sebla Arın Ensarioğlu.

In the ‘Selections from Bursa Cuisine Contest’, Bursa chefs, with the contributions of the Bursa Chefs Association, cooked forgotten Bursa dishes.

While ‘Gastro Taboo’ competition was held with the contributions of the Bursa Gastronomy and Travel Association, visitors also enjoyed a pleasant day with a concert by Esra Turan.