- Following its domestic showcase, Heraklion’s gastronomic footprint expands to Western Europe as the Greek National Culinary Team heads to Expogast & RAK Porcelain Culinary World Cup 2026 in Luxembourg.
- Running from November 21 to 25, 2026, the high-profile event brings together international chefs, industry professionals, and culinary delegations to evaluate contemporary Cretan cuisine.
- Luxembourg serves as a platform to project professional culinary innovation, modern gastronomy, and export-grade local products.
From November 21 to 25, Heraklion will be represented at EXPOGAST & the RAK Porcelain Culinary World Cup 2026, where the city’s status as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy will meet an international audience of chefs, culinary professionals, and food enthusiasts.
The Municipality of Heraklion says its participation is part of a wider effort to promote the city’s gastronomic identity beyond Greece, with the Olympic Gastronomy Team of Greece taking part in the international event.
This is a different stage from the rakokazano the city is taking to Thessaloniki earlier in November.
From Cretan Tradition to International Competition
EXPOGAST is held every four years in Luxembourg and brings together culinary professionals, food producers, chefs, and gastronomy enthusiasts from around the world.
The 2026 edition will run for five days at Luxexpo The Box, with culinary competitions, demonstrations, exhibitions and professional meetings. The RAK Porcelain Culinary World Cup is a main attraction. Organizers say teams representing around 55 nations will be present in Luxembourg, with national, junior and community-catering teams competing over five days.
For Heraklion, the event offers a very different way to present Crete.
There will be no village square, raki still, or traditional Cretan gathering around a table. Instead, local ingredients, culinary traditions, and contemporary interpretations of Cretan food will be presented to an audience that includes professionals from the international gastronomy sector.
Putting Cretan Ingredients in Front of International Chefs
The city’s participation is intended to highlight the connection between traditional Cretan food and contemporary gastronomy.
That means the story is bigger than any single product. Olive oil, herbs, vegetables, cheeses, grains, and other ingredients associated with the Cretan diet carry the history of the island’s cooking, while chefs continue to reinterpret them in modern kitchens.
For Heraklion, the UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation adds another chapter to that story.
The city joined UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network as a City of Gastronomy, giving it an international platform for promoting its food culture and culinary sector.
At EXPOGAST, that identity meets a professional audience looking at gastronomy from another angle — through chefs, restaurants, suppliers, culinary education, hospitality and new business connections.
A Much Bigger Culinary Stage
The scale of EXPOGAST makes the Luxembourg appearance particularly relevant for a city trying to build international recognition around food.
The organizers describe the 2026 edition as an international meeting point for the gastronomy and hospitality sectors. The event will feature more than 200 exhibitors, while the Culinary World Cup will bring competing teams from around the world to Luxembourg.
The event also has a strong professional networking component, bringing together chefs, producers, buyers, distributors and other industry representatives.
That allows Heraklion to put its culinary identity in front of people who can do more than taste it.
Two Very Different Faces of Heraklion’s Food Culture
The Luxembourg appearance comes only days after Heraklion takes a very different piece of Crete to Philoxenia in Thessaloniki.
There, the city will bring a traditional rakokazano, Cretan chefs, meze, and music to recreate the social experience surrounding raki production.
In Luxembourg, the setting is international and professional, with the Greek Culinary Team participating in a major culinary competition.
Together, the two November events present two sides of Heraklion’s food culture: the traditions that still happen around the Cretan table and the chefs and culinary professionals taking those traditions into contemporary gastronomy.
