(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula
DOHA: The ninth Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF), the country's longest-running food festival, opens today at Hotel Park.
Over the course of the coming 11 days, residents and visitors are invited to sample and enjoy a variety of gastronomic experiences, including a fresh farmers' market, garden picnics and special festival menus at participating restaurants around Qatar. The Festival will run from 4 pm to 12 midnight from Saturday to Wednesday and will extend to 1am on Thursdays and Fridays.
QIFF 2018 is organised and delivered by QTA with the support of numerous partners representing the entertainment, hospitality and F & B sectors in Qatar. The Festival's Strategic Partner is Katara Hospitality, the global hotel owner, developer and operator based in Qatar. The award-winning five-star national carrier, Qatar Airways is the Festival's official airline. Other partners include Msheireb Museums, Doha Film Institute, beIN, Qatar Culinary Professionals, Askar, Mini Zoo Events, AlRayyan Water, RAW ME, Zomato, Talabat, UBER, Qatar TV, Al Rayyan TV and Olive Radio
To mark the launch of QIFF 2018, an opening ceremony will be held at 6pmwith one of Hollywood's favourite chefs, Wolfgang Puck and Qatar's very own Aisha Al-Tamimi sharing the QIFF Cooking Theater stage for an exchange of culinary insights that span from East to West. Their discussion will be followed by the Theater's first demonstration by US Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and the event will culminate in a fireworks display above the Doha Corniche.
The festival's signature feature, the QIFF Cooking Theatre, returns this year to provide a space for connoisseurs and novices to learn all about how to handle, prepare, cook, present and even photograph food. With a special theme for each day, it will run live competitions and demonstrations daily from 4pm to 10.30pm. The US's Christine Ha, Kuwait's Sulaiman Al Qassar, the Philippines' Luis Rey ‘Niño' Logarta ,India's Ranveer Barar, Lebanon's Chef Ramzi, Turkey's Murat Bozok and Qatar's Aisha Al-Tamimi are among the 14 internationally-renowned chefs who will take to the stage to share their secret ingredients and techniques.
And in celebration of the aromatic coffee bean, there is a new coffee zone offering a truly unique experience. Other special features include a Mini Zoo in the zone dedicated to young children.
Adding to the festive atmosphere at Hotel Park, the main festival stage will host a variety of cultural shows from countries all across the globe. They include Ethiopia, India, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam. And on the second weekend of the festival, Kuwaiti singer Abdulaziz Louis and Lebanese band, Wahdon will take to the QIFF entertainment stage for free live performances on the evenings of March 23 and 24 respectively.
Throughout the festival, there will be live performances by Doha-based hip hop dance troupe, Beats and Bytes as well as Music Vending Machine, The Doha String Quartet & Friends, Doha Jazz and an American music band.
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