COMMENT: The Cyprus Gourmet is an idea whose time has come

The food, wine and hospitality industry of Cyprus is no longer a baby. It has matured into a lusty adult, having to face the intensive competition from the industries of other countries. Today it is ready for proper and objective assessment, criticism even, which many people in this country now welcome and accept. Now, mature advertisers no longer take spaces in media where they will be offered free plugs and unstinting praise – they advertise in a stimulating and independent environment where readers, viewers or listeners are of the education and experience to be interested in their messages.

The Cyprus Gourmet starts life in the Financial Mirror as a weekly forum for news, reviews and opinions. It will be devoted to quality; and those who provide it – in catering, hotel and related services, and in the production, importation or distribution of wine – will be able to advertise in the publication. The Cyprus Gourmet will reach more than 10,000 readers – all of whom have excellent disposable income and are interested in the good things of life.

This weekly feature is just a start. In Spring 2008, The Cyprus Gourmet  will appear as a quarterly glossy Supplement, which will be inserted in The Financial Mirror.  But there is a lot more. During the next 12 months we shall expand into a high quality Internet Website. We shall launch a Club with Membership for the public with a Monthly Email Newsletter, and at the year’s end we shall make Annual Awards for Excellence to catering establishments, wine producers/distributors, and service and goods providers.

As many readers will know, in the past fourteen years I have written more about food and wine in Cyprus than anybody else. My desire has always been to write about, and indeed promote, all those who provide good things, for the domestic market, and for the quality tourists who visit our shores. But now I am not alone; I shall be supported by a team of reviewers and highly qualified specialist contributors.

No publication can exist without advertising, and The Cyprus Gourmet has been designed to be an attractive advertising medium for providers of goods and services to announce what they do to a receptive audience.

The publishers of Financial Mirror, I as editor, and my contributors, have many plans for the future which will be to the benefit of the quality industry in Cyprus. Whilst we should depend upon the goodwill of our advertisers, our editorial policy is entirely independent.  However, again, as those who know me well will appreciate, where I feel criticism is required, of a menu, a wine list, of food, wine or a service, I make these criticisms privately and not in public. In a place as compact as Cyprus I feel this is a good policy, and it will be continued in this new publication. This policy, however, will not necessarily apply to officialdom.

We look forward to the future!

 

Patrick Skinner