Franko Lukež

Franko Lukež (Pula, March 28, 1952 – Zagreb, September 2, 2022) was an economist and sommelier, authoring books on enology and gastronomy. He began his career in gastronomy as early as the 1980s. Working on promoting and advancing Istrian cuisine, he co-authored a collection of recipes with Branko Lovrić, titled “Istrian Cuisine: A Gastronomic Tourist Guide” (Pula, 1982). Besides the recipes, the book also includes a chapter on Istrian wines titled “I zaliti treba znati”. He also compiled the books “Dalmatinska kuhinja” (Dalmatian Cuisine) and “Slavonska kuhinja” (Slavonian Cuisine). Since 1996, he edited the annual gastronomic and enological guide „Istra gourmet“, the most respected Croatia’s printed gastronomic guide published by the Istrian Tourist Board. He wrote for “Glas Istre”, “Jutarnji list, “Dobra hrana”, “Iće & piće”, and “Akademija”, and from 2005 t0 2010 he wrote a restaurant review  column for “Globus”. He wrote the foreword for the Croatian edition of “Priručnik za sommeliere”(Pula, 2015) and edited the Croatian edition of “Hrana i vino”(Pula, 2018). The Istrian Tourist Board awarded him with "Zlatna koza – Capra d'oro" in 2011 for his outstanding contribution to the promotion of tourism in Istria, and posthumously (2022) for the lifetime achievement. He is buried in Pula.