The Croatian National Tourist Board and METRO, MICHELIN's official partner for Croatia, presented the prestigious MICHELIN plaques to Croatian restaurants included in the MICHELIN 2021 guide at a ceremony organized at the Belaj Castle in Istria. 10 local restaurants earned stars in this global leader and most recognized restaurant guide: Agli Amici Rovinj from Rovinj, Alfred Keller from Mali Lošinj and Nebo from Rijeka are new MICHELIN star winners, while Boškinac from Novalja, Draga Di Lovrana from Lovran, LD Restaurant from Korčula, Monte from Rovinj¸ Noel from Zagreb, Pelegrini from Šibenik and restaurant 360 from Dubrovnik kept their MICHELIN star.
A total of 55 restaurants earned MICHELIN recommendations for 2021, while the list of winners of the Bib Gourmand award, which is given for a great price-quality ratio, included 13 Croatian restaurants.
“With more than 100 years of experience in restaurant selection, MICHELIN’s guide is today an international reference for fine dining and therefore the undeniable importance of such a single recognition for our gastronomy. We realize that creating great cuisine is a tough sport: always competitive, always challenging. Therefore, our partnership with MICHELIN confirms our desire to be the preferred partner of the HoReCa sector. We create unique products under the Metro Chef and Metro Professional brands: they are designed and perfected together with chefs - made for the best chefs in the world”, said Imre Horváth, President of the Management Board of METRO Croatia.
The importance of MICHELIN recognition in the development of the domestic gastronomic and tourist offer has been recognized for years by the Croatian National Tourist Board, which was once again a partner of the event.
“Tourism and gastronomy are closely related tourist products, so the awarding of prestigious MICHELIN labels to Croatian restaurants is of great importance in the further promotion and positioning of Croatia as a quality destination with a rich and diverse gastronomic offer. With this award ceremony held in a beautiful Istrian ambience, together with our partners, we want to further emphasize the exceptional success of our recognized restaurants, which were included in the MICHELIN guides and received this great honor and recognition for our work. Today, our country boasts a total of 10 restaurants with a MICHELIN star and a total of 68 additional restaurants with a label in this prestigious gastronomic guide”, said the Director of the Croatian National Tourist Board Kristjan Staničić, adding that all Croatian regions are rich in diversity, which is why our country can be recognized as a prominent European gastronomic destination.
The MICHELIN award ceremony took place in the heart of Istria, on the site of the magnificent estate of the Belaj castle surrounded by a historic vineyard, and it brought together the best Croatian restaurants as well as their chefs who celebrated their success with METRO. A special ambience for the whole event was given by the unique visual stylings provided by designer Boris Ružić, and especially for this occasion he created an innovative menu in which he used some of the groceries and equipment from METRO brand specially designed for caterers.
