The central ideas of the restaurant festival are the exchange of international management experience, expertise from distinguished chefs, examining trends in the coming year and analysing and testing the main approaches to gastronomy.

The company "METRO"; one of the largest international operators of retail and wholesale trading and ‘ExpoForum International’ are once again the organisers of the festival.

The first to speak at the opening ceremony was Rafael Case, Global Director of METRO; "We are glad to be in St. Petersburg, which represents one of the most advanced cities in this industry". He also answered the question: what is the Megustro festival? "First and foremost it is a forum with the participation of eleven chefs with Michelin stars. It is one of the largest events in both St. Petersburg and the entire country. It is also a platform where we can exchange ideas to define the future of our business. It is a place where we can exchange information and help one another and facilitate the development of this industry".

Sergei Volkov, Vice Director General of Expoforum International, celebrated the three-year anniversary of the festival and hoped for "inspiration, development and creativity at the event, so that participants can find new ideas for their business and new recipes for their kitchen, as well as new partners".

Yuri Kalabin, Chairman of the Committee for Industrial Policy, Innovations and Trade of St. Petersburg, commented on market statistics on the food industry in St. Petersburg: “8,300 companies, 570,000 seating places and a 90 billion-ruble turnover in this sector – this is very little for our great city. The issue of low demand is linked with the quality of what we are offering. If we increase the quality of the product, we can replace the spiral of poverty with a spiral of prosperity”.

Elena Podgornaya, Head of the Department of Consumer Market Development of the Committee for Industrial Policy, Innovations and Trade of St. Petersburg, wished everyone success at the event, professional growth, interesting networking and as many clients as possible.

Sergei Lobanov, Vice Director of the Department of Domestic Trade Development, Numerical Tagging Systems for Goods and Legalising Product Turnover of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, noted: "St. Petersburg completely deserves its status as not only the cultural capital, but also the gastronomic capital. Where else but here could a professional event such as Megustro be held?"

The festival included: 10 workshops by chefs with Michelin stars, 90 educational workshops and seminars led by expert speakers and scouting by the 25 strongest teams from the North-western region in the "Chef a la Russe" championship.

Megustro 2019 was held from 5 to 7 November in the Expoforum convention and exhibition centre.