Pag Cheese Festival Transforms Tradition Into a Culinary Spectacle

"For years now, it‘s not just a festival, it‘s much more than a festival. These are days dedicated to Pag cheese – our biggest island brand," the organizers said ahead of another Cheese Festival on Pag and added: "As every year, we have prepared a rich program, and besides the main part which is on Friday, August 29, when we have the fair and concert, we have also organized a number of other events in the days leading up to the Cheese Festival."

Thus, among other things, as part of this event, there was a drawing workshop Say cheese and paint, a salt drawing workshop, and on Wednesday, August 27, cheese sommelier Marina Selak will visit, who will hold a masterclass called ‘Cheese on Stage - When Flavor Takes the Stage: The Culture of Tasting, Serving, and Enjoying Cheese‘. With these workshops, the organizers say, every year, including this one, they want to bring visitors closer to the ways in which cheese and wine can be paired and how cheese can truly be enjoyed.

On Thursday, August 28, there will be a dinner called UverSIRa, with a special focus on Pag cheese and lamb. Former Masterchef Croatia contestants Iva Novosel and Sergio Varela will be cooking, and Zadar sommelier Ivan Stiblik will join them in creating the menu.

"Iva and Sergio will try to use every part of those local Pag ingredients, they will extract something from every part of the Pag cheese production, and use the lamb in its entirety; from whey and rennet to cheese rind, from head and offal to tail, from leaf to fig essence. It will be a true gastronomic delight," the organizers say.

"And we come to that famous Friday, the last Friday in August when our central part of the Cheese Festival takes place. Everything starts with the opening at 7 p.m., and indications are that this Festival could be opened by President Zoran Milanović and after the opening ceremony, there will be a fair of products not only from the island but from all over Croatia, and even outside Croatia. This year we have exhibitors from Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, so our Festival is getting an international character. There will be about 47 exhibitors, 15 cheese producers, then cured meat products, wine, liqueurs, souvenirs, plenty of food and drink and good entertainment with a concert by Danijela Martinović. At the Festival itself, famous Zadar chef Renato Kraljev will be cooking for us, as well as the famous Kolan chef, our barba Emil Oštarić, who will prepare a traditional lamb dish for us.

Paun Paunovic/Cropix/Cropix

This year we also have a special guest, Michele Buster. Michele is a great cheese expert, a judge at the World Cheese Awards, importer of European cheeses to America, and a prominent figure in the cheese world and cheese industry. Michele adores Pag cheese, she has been importing it for more than 15 years, and she deserves great credit for promoting our island brand. In fact, she has done a lot for the promotion of Pag cheese and maybe not everyone in the world knows about Pag cheese as they do about Italian Pecorino or Spanish Manchego, but thanks to her, world experts and cheese specialists know about our island brand. Thanks to her, Pag cheese has been written about in the New York Times, Culture Cheese Magazine, BBC. She has presented it at many famous and prestigious locations and fairs such as Fancy Food in New York and many others," they add.

Matija Djanjesic/Cropix/Cropix

At the opening of the Cheese Festival, the organizers will present Michele Buster with an award for her contribution to the promotion of Pag cheese worldwide.

Also, in addition to the mentioned content, as part of the Cheese Festival there will be a lecture on protected designations of origin, which will be attended by Dubravka Živoder and Danijel Mulc from the Ministry of Agriculture, who will try to dispel the myth about complications regarding the documentation and certification of Pag cheese. And that‘s just part of the program prepared for this Cheese Festival on Pag, so if you are nearby and interested in this topic or just want to enjoy good food, be sure to stop by. More information awaits you here.