WHAT IS TASTE BALATON FESTIVAL?
TASTE BALATON will be held between 7-16 March 2025; Its 10 days will revolve around encounters, gastronomy, culture, Lake Balaton, and all the ways these are intertwined.
We have dreamed and created a Balaton festival where restaurants can showcase their flair on their home turf. Our aim is for everyone to be part of the action, which means you may easily find yourself at a cooking workshop, by an outdoor table, time travelling, or even listening to your favourite musician playing at dinner. We have designed TASTE BALATON to give you and the restaurants space to connect even better. Setting the date for early spring has been an intentional choice, since we are certain that Lake Balaton can offer its guests as much at this time of the year as it does in summer.
The 10-day TASTE BALATON festival was brought to life in cooperation with 26 prominent restaurants and gastro hotels of the Balaton region, in addition to wineries, cultural institutions, and Balaton Bike 365. All participating restaurants have put together selected programmes and a special menu that is only available during the festival, therefore all the events are unique and unrepeatable!
There are more than 100 special events waiting for you; along with the exceptional culinary experiences, you can enjoy dinner concerts, book premiers, fashion shows, culinary walks, exhibitions, and workshops. All you need to do is to pick anything you like and register!
Take a look around our website, click on the events, plan your own experience, and discover the perfect full-bodied festival of Lake Balaton!
WHO ARE WE?
CSAPODY BALÁZS
FOUNDER
Gastronomy expert, restaurant owner
Owner of Kistücsök FOOD & ROOM in Balatonszemes, one of the best known faces of Hungarian gastronomy and tourism, who has focused entire decades of his work on the future of Lake Balaton. He opened Kistücsök in 1992, which has since become one of the best known spots not only in the region, but also in the country. In 2021, the restaurant was expanded with accommodation options and opened the Chef’s Room, which also offers a degustation menu. Since starting out, Balázs has been thinking exclusively in terms of a four-season Balaton. His goal is to discover and promote the best regional produce and wines. Balázs is Chairman of the Pannon Academy of Gastronomy and member of the Hungarian Bocuse d’Or Academy. He was Restaurant Owner of the Year in 2014, the Gundel Award winner in 2017, and distinguished with the lifetime achievement award at the 2021 Balaton Ünnepe festival.
DÓRA BUDAVÁRI
founder, project manager, head of communications
Dóra is passionate about Balaton, gastronomy, great wines, and creating the all-year Balaton season towards which she’s been working for 10+ years. Dóra works in culinary and wine marketing and PR, planning events and writing articles. For a while now, she’s been sharing her time between two homes, one of which is the house and vineyard on Szent György-hegy. She has also opened a pop-up wine store in the bottom of the press house, carrying local wines. She has been the originator, as well as the mover and shaker of many initiatives revolving around Lake Balaton; she was the editor-in-chief of the WeLoveBalaton website at its beginnings; for years, she played an integral role in the creation and planning of Paloznak Jazz Picnic; she’s been on the team of Badacsony’s Gasztrohegy event since 2018, she is also the founder of the festivals Szent György-hegy HAJNALIG and MATINÉ, and she is the mind behind the 1bor1vers project. The cornerstones of her work are sustainability, value creation, and connecting the stakeholders of the region.
GYÖRGYI KALAS
co-founder, project manager, director of events
Culinary writer and journalist
Györgyi has been roaming Balaton’s regions relentlessly for over 10 years, exploring and promoting local restaurants and producers, as well as the cause of four-season Balaton. She’s been a pioneer of Hungarian culinary journalism and one of the firsts to report on Lake Balaton’s gastronomical revolution. She turned her experiences into myriads of articles and the Magyar tengeri gasztrokönyv (The Culinary Book of the Hungarian Sea); currently, she is also on the Street Kitchen team as a journalist and editor. She is devoted to promoting Lake Balaton and other rural regions, as well as the evolution of Hungarian gastronomy. She holds the cause of sharing gastronomical knowledge dear; she’s published four culinary books with resounding success. Her culinary book for children has won the Children’s Book of the Year award in 2023. She leads culinary walks, gastronomy panels, and gastro workshops for kids in multiple locations.
BENCE CSAPODY
creative advisor
Hotel manager, gastronomy and tourism advisor
Following in the footsteps of his father into hospitality has never been a question for Bence. After his university studies, he worked on the Hungarian showcase for the Dubai World Expo, then moved on to work with the Hungarian Tourism Agency where he acted as the project manager responsible for the hospitality strategy portion of the National Tourism Development Strategy. Afterwards, he returned to Balatonszemes, where he has been managing the 21-room accommodation of Kistücsök FOOD & ROOM since 2021. He is also a PhD candidate and lecturer at the Corvinus University of Budapest. His research foci are the short value chains in hospitality, gastro-tourism, and culinary festivals.
BIANKA BALOGH
project manager
Wines and gastronomy – discovering unique spots and exciting flavours. To taste, to experience, and to tell you about it – these are the motivations that drive Bianka. Her aim is to create value through her work, so the decision to join the Taste Balaton team was a no brainer. She is also the marketing communications manager of the wine retail company Bortársaság. For her, constant self-improvement is a must, hence she completed the mid-level WSET course and her next goal is to acquire the advanced certification. As a social media manager, she is privy to the everyday life of multiple restaurants, and stays committed to advancing the communications of stakeholders in the world of gastronomy.
Rebeka Szomora
social media manager
The world of gastronomy and hospitality has long been a defining part of her life. With passion, she explores unique locations and exciting flavors, eagerly sharing these experiences with others. As the social media and content manager of Taste Balaton, her goal is to deliver memorable experiences and value to an audience dedicated to Lake Balaton. She has gained her expertise in marketing for prestigious hospitality venues in Hungary, including a Michelin Green Star restaurant. Her work has encompassed content creation, social media management, and event organization.
