Belief in the future at GastroNord & Vinordic

GastroNord & Vinordic at Stockholmsmässan came to a close on Friday last week. These fairs gather together the whole industry for hotels, restaurants, catering, fast food and drink, in order to meet and do business. A total of 360 exhibitors from 21 countries participated, and the fairs attracted more than 20,000 visitors.

"There was a great atmosphere out on the floor. We would like to thank all the students, exhibitors and visitors for four successful days that really breathed inspiration. It was clear that the participants had great belief in the future. We also saw a lot of great collaborations and new initiatives. “We have to do this again!” was one of the comments we heard many times from our partners," says Daniel Fritzdorf, Area project manager for GastroNord & Vinordic.

This year, GastroNord focused on the theme of the future of the industry. Among other initiatives, we established our student restaurant “Grow”, which was entirely run by students. The schools of Skärgårdsgymnasiet, Stockholms internationella restaurangskola, Sågbäcksgymnasiet and Stockholms Hotell- och Restaurangskola all took it in turns to be in charge for a day.

"We had a great time and would really like to take part again, if possible. The students found it both rewarding and fun. They received some really positive feedback from their guests, who all paid according to how much they thought the food was worth; everybody thanked them and both the food and the service were a great success. Somebody even asked if it was possible for them to buy food to take home with them," said Ted Ringkvist – one of the teachers at Sågbäcksgymnasiet.

For the first time, Sweden’s Junior National Culinary Team had a pop-up restaurant at GastroNord. This was a successful enterprise, as was Vinordic’s new Barnordic, which was organized in conjunction with Sweden’s top bartenders. GastroNord was also the organizer of Sweden’s first Food Truck Championship and the first Swedish Ice Cream Championship.

Competitions and winners:
Food Truck Championship: Pernilla Elmquist and Jens Almgren, Nordic Street Food, Malmö
Ice Cream Championship: Kenneth Erlandsson Snö, Stockholm
Burger Battle: Glenn Göransson, Malmö
Pizza Championship: Niclas Lundewall, Restaurang Asplund, Solna.
Student Chef of the Year: Fredrik Kristensen, Stockholms Internationella Restaurangskola

GastroNord & Vinordic are northern Europe’s most important trade fairs for hotels, restaurants, catering, fast food, wine, beer, spirits and cider. The fairs are organized every two years at Stockholmsmässan.

Daniel Fritzdorf, project manager: daniel.fritzdorf@stockholmsmassan.se, + 46 (0)70 789 41 96
Lotta Signeul, press manager: lotta.signeul@stockholmsmassan.se, + 46 (0)70 789 43 36
www.gastronord.se, www.gastronomicweek.se