Another successful Hamburg Food Market
Record number of visitors to the popular gourmet festival in Hamburg Wholesale Market hall

Hamburg, 6 September 2010

Last weekend some 40,000 visitors, nearly 5,000 more than last year, thronged Hamburg’s venerable wholesale market hall to enjoy all kinds of regional delicacies. Around 100 exhibitors showcased their very best food offers: more than 25 chefs served snacks and prepared delicious dishes under the watchful eyes of visitors.
Once again, this year’s Food Market was an El Dorado for everyone who enjoys collecting new ideas and discovering food not found on the shelves of the local supermarket: the visitors were most impressed by the variety - pralines, colourful petits fours, rose petal jam, rare kinds of honey, home-made mustard offering completely new taste sensations, fish, meat and cheese specialities, coffees, teas, fine wines and refreshing beer. And it almost goes without saying that during the Food Market in Hamburg’s fresh produce centre the business of selling fruit and vegetables went on as usual. The first of the new crop of local apples from Altes Land gleamed on the stands – along with all the other sorts of fruit, delicious vegetables and every kind of herb imaginable.

It was also apparent that visitors took great interest in healthy foods and regional produce as well as in fine dining. The stands offering information about food additives and genetically modified products were extremely busy.

Apart from food, drink and a wealth of information, visitors, especially the “regulars”, noticed how good the freshly renovated façade and 22-metre-high ceiling of the wholesale market hall now look and they could see that the refurbishment process is progressing well in the other parts of the hall too.

Parents especially praised the fact that there was a special children’s section: the free attractions included a bouncy castle to work off some spare energy, a face-painting section and opportunities to drive a mini fork-lift truck or take part in a quiz.

The gourmet zone was opened on Saturday by Torsten Berens, managing director of Hamburg Wholesale Market for Fruit, Vegetables and Flowers, together with Bernhard Proksch, Senate director with responsibility for the market, and Dieter Braatz, deputy editor-in-chief of gourmet magazine “Der Feinschmecker”. Mr Proksch quoted a Japanese saying that if someone savours a food he has never eaten before, it will prolong his life by 75 days.

“If the thousands of visitors all live 75 days longer, that would be a wonderful outcome. We take good, healthy food very seriously and the response to this weekend shows us that it is also important to many people from North Germany and further afield,” said a contented Torsten Berens as the Food Market closed its doors on Sunday evening.