Doha: Qatar National Tourism Council’s first-of-its-kind Chefs of Qatar virtual food festival ended recently after a successful six-week run.
Launched by QNTC on April 1 in collaboration with talabat, Qatar Airways, and Qatar Charity, the festival saw a record 6,924 orders placed with talabat’s exclusive Chefs of Qatar collection, with each order automatically contributing QR7 towards Qatar Charity’s meal fund. A weekly raffle draw saw a total of 12 lucky customers winning two free return flight tickets each to any destination that is part of the airline’s global network.
Haya Al Noaimi from the Marketing & Promotions department, Qatar National Tourism Council, commented, “We are extremely pleased with the public’s response to Chefs of Qatar. Occurring virtually, this food festival aimed to enrich offerings for customers while supporting the hospitality sector during Ramadan.
“Through it, we highlighted Qatar’s local and international culinary talents and provided an innovative and safe experience for citizens and residents. We are grateful to our festival partners for their contribution towards making it a success.”
Nineteen celebrated chefs representing 29 top restaurants - all Qatar Clean certified – participated in the festival, allowing residents to enjoy the chefs’ signature dishes at home while restaurants remained closed for dine-in services. Two hotels had exclusive collaborations with Qatari chefs to introduce local delicacies in their Chefs of Qatar menus.
Participating chefs included Hasan AlIbrahim, Noor AlMazroei, Salvatore Silvestrino, Chef Gina, Vinay Kumar, Mert Duran, Sezar Esper Eliass, Timur Fazilov, Marios Papadopoulos, Steffen Schnetzke, Marc Fery, Kamal Mers, Friedemann Heinrich, Steven Peter, Elias Gemayel, Maroun Gebrael, Hisham AlBrahim, Chaiwat Kawikitpraphat, and Surjan Singh Jolly.
The festival’s delivery partner talabat featured a special tab for Chefs of Qatar that listed special menus from participating restaurants, with options for 3-course meals and iftar-dinner combos, all at promotional prices.
Francisco Miguel de Sousa, Managing Director of talabat Qatar, said: “We are thrilled to have hosted the first online food festival. Chefs of Qatar has brought a taste of Qatar’s fine cuisine to the homes of our customers. We would like to thank all our customers for participating in this special event and for making it a success.”
Qatar Airways, the festival’s airline partner, gave away 12 return tickets during the festival.
Two winners were chosen through a raffle draw each week, receiving two return tickets each that will be valid for travel for one year.
The winners of Qatar Airways return tickets are Naim Hachem (order number 439486013), James Hammonds (order number 438868796), Ousmane Coulibaly (order number 442987273), Mark Allan (order number 442201421), Rana Qadi (order number 443911226), Maryam Mattar (order number 444389968), Abdelrahman Orabi (order number 449598904), Karima Jamal (order number 449326032), Hasin Mansour (order number 440152548), Gregory Encinas (order number 440871500), Mariana Diaz (order number 456045502) and Mirjana Lakicevic (order number 456499702).
