Press

21.12.2021

An active year for Hirtshals Fishing Festival despite Covid19
Like many other activities in Denmark, the Hirtshals Fishing Festival in 2021 has also been affected by the Covid19 situation. But luckily it hasn't been completely quiet. Although Hirtshals Fish Festival's main event at the beginning of August had to be cancelled, several activities were still carried out under the auspices of the fish festival, including the two side events; Local Cooking and Herring of the Year.

Local Cooking
The chef competition Local Cooking was held at the beginning of August, and the winner this year was Ruths Hotel, Skagen. This year's fish was turbot, which Jack Cramer from Ruths Hotel had chosen to grill and serve with baby chanterelles, bacon and turbot stock. For the participating restaurants, the competition was held physically at the North Sea Oceanarium, while guests had the opportunity to watch on live stream.

Since 2015, Local Cooking and Hirtshals Fish Festival have taken important steps in the work of making visible Hirtshals' completely unique food resource, namely the fish. Some of Denmark's best fish is landed in Hirtshals, and the local exporters and the fish auction focus on top quality in close competition with other Danish fishing ports. The Local Cooking competition underpins the renewed focus on sustainable fishing of fresh, high-quality fish, which Danish fishing in general is increasingly focusing on.

Herring of the year
At the end of September, the Herring of the Year competition was held, where the winners this year were the critically acclaimed Restaurant HOS in Odense. Restaurant HOS had chosen to combine the herring with gooseberries, juniper berries, long pepper, horseradish and crown dill. As with Local Cooking, only the participating restaurants participated physically, while guests had the opportunity to watch via live stream.

The Herring of the Year competition has been a firm tradition in Hirtshals since the early 90s, and the winning herring must reflect innovation, craftsmanship and, not least, good taste. It must have a balanced and intense taste, which is the special characteristic of an old-fashioned matured herring. The participants in the competition are chefs from some of Denmark's best smørrebrød restaurants.

Food Festival in Aarhus
Last but not least, Hirtshals Fish Festival participated with a stand at the Aarhus Food Festival in August. At the stand, smørrebrød with this year's herring and smørrebrød with fish patties were sold. Hirtshal's Fishing Festival had some terrific days in Aarhus with a large number of visitors to the stand. As the icing on the cake, Aalborg exhibited Akvavit at the neighboring stand, and it was therefore possible to get a schnapps for the herring.

Many thanks and new strength on the way
Coordinator for the Hirtshals Fishing Festival, Mette Jensen, has chosen to stop after 7 years in the post, and therefore the group behind the Hirtshals Fishing Festival is now pulling on their work clothes to find the right profile to take over the job.

The board and the working group behind Hirtshals Fishing Festival would like to send a big thank you to Mette Jensen for the great work she has done for Hirtshals Fishing Festival over the years. The board would also like to thank you for a very good collaboration and wish Mette good luck in the future.

Finally, Hirtshals Fishing Festival would like to wish all guests, partners and sponsors a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - we look forward to seeing you at Hirtshals Fishing Festival in 2022, 4-6. August.