Hungarian importers, chefs and food industry professionals gathered at a cooking school in Budapest this week for a different kind of trade promotion: one conducted over a hot stove.
The Embassy of Pakistan held the first Pakistan Rice Festival in Hungary at the KuktaParty Chef Academy, an event built around a single product. Pakistani basmati, the long-grain aromatic rice is among the country’s best-known exports, and the Embassy’s aim was to put it in front of the Hungarian trade in the most persuasive form available: cooked, served and eaten.
The guest list reflected that purpose. Importers and business leaders from the food and agriculture sector made up the bulk of the room, joined by leading Hungarian master chefs, representatives of several public sector bodies and members of the diplomatic community.
A grain with a legal identity
Ambassador Asif Hussain Memon opened the event, telling guests that Pakistani cuisine has considerably more range than international audiences tend to realise, and that spices and rice sit at the centre of it. Much of what is recognised abroad as Pakistani food, he suggested, represents only a fraction of what our kitchens actually produce.
He also drew attention to something that matters more to importers than to diners. Basmati is protected under Geographical Indication, a designation that ties the name to rice grown in specific regions of Pakistan and assures buyers of both its origin and its quality.
Alongside the rice, the Embassy displayed a selection of other Pakistani food products, most notably Himalayan Pink Salt, sold worldwide in both culinary and decorative forms. Guests were invited to sample its different grades, from fine ground to coarse granulated.
Among those attending were Hungarian master chefs István Asztalos and Péter Korpádi, who spoke warmly of the depth and complexity of the dishes on offer and of the quality of the rice at the centre of them.
Biryani, built in layers
The centrepiece of the afternoon was a live cooking demonstration by the Embassy’s Trade & Investment Attaché, Shehryar Qaisrani, who prepared and explained the process of making biryani in front of the room.
Biryani is among the most celebrated dishes in Pakistani cooking, and also among the most demanding. The rice is parboiled rather than cooked through, then layered over spiced meat with fried onions, herbs and saffron, never stirred, and sealed under a lid to finish in its own steam. The technique, known as dum, gives the dish its characteristic separation of grains and the three-tone colour that appears when the pot is opened.
Each guest left with a sample of Pakistani basmati and a short recipe book the Embassy had prepared in Hungarian, featuring a range of rice-based dishes, so that they could try cooking them at home.
László Asztalos, owner of KuktaParty, said that hosting the event was a source of pride for the school. He described it as a welcome opportunity to contribute to the promotion of Pakistani gastronomy in Hungary while supporting the development of professional and cultural ties between the two countries.
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From the kitchen to the trade floor
The food was also a route to business. The Ambassador invited participants to attend FoodAg 2026, Pakistan’s international food and agriculture exhibition, which runs at the Expo Centre in Karachi from 23 to 26 November. The exhibition brings together several hundred exporters across rice, fruit, seafood and processed foods, and offers Hungarian importers direct access to Pakistani suppliers.
The commercial ambition behind the event is not incidental. The Government of Pakistan established a dedicated Commercial Wing at its Embassy in Budapest just last year, as part of a broader effort to build trade relationships in European markets where Pakistan has not traditionally been active.
Mangoes first, then rice
It is not the first time Pakistani produce has made an impression in Hungary. When the Embassy shared Pakistani mangoes earlier this summer, the response was unusually warm, and Prime Minister Péter Magyar posted his appreciation publicly.
Speaking about the wider relationship between the two countries, Ambassador Memon said that food has proved one of the most natural bridges between them.
“Relations between Pakistan and Hungary have traditionally been friendly, built on mutual respect and trust,” he said. “I believe this relationship holds considerable untapped potential, and my aim as Ambassador is to turn our political trust into real economic results and lasting friendships between our people.”
He added that the Rice Festival was an illustration of what that means in practice.
“It allowed us to introduce Pakistani basmati to Hungarian chefs, importers and food professionals in the most direct way possible: by cooking it and sharing it. Diplomacy is often conducted across a table. On this occasion it happened around one.”
