Pomorie starts Living Culinary Tradition national youth program
The Black Sea town of Burgas that is now covered with snow hosts an event from the Living Culinary Tradition National Youth Program. It was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Arts and Crafts 7 /AAAC 7/. The Youth in Action Programme of the EC, administrated in this country by the European Youth Programs and Initiatives supports financially the event. Six towns are included in the culinary program and young people are to prepare prepare unique Bulgarian meals within its frameworks. The first of them is the town of Pomorie. Both a jury and the guests of the event assess today the creativity and professionalism of those young boys and girls. Chef Penio Ivanov, co-founder of the association gives us details on what is happening in the first town, included in these culinary trips.
“We aim at the formation of several youth initiative groups in a few Bulgarian cities and towns that will gather 50 regional recipes each. This is the first part of the project, while in its second part 10 out of these 50 will be selected and presented as meals at demonstrations. The initiative was successful in Pomorie, in terms of organization and preparation of the event. The young cooks have selected quite tasty meals – pastry with nettles, St. George’s Day salad, special liver meal with dock and manna croup, bean meatballs etc. Stuffed turkey was one of the recipes. Despite being a traditional New Year’s meal, people here like it and prepare it all over the winter. The event is full with emotions for us, the organizers. I myself was surprised to find the so-called lyutika among the dishes, offered by those young people. As an expert in culinary I had thought that was a meal, typical for the area of North Bulgaria, while now I was taken aback by the fact that the same dish can be found along the seaside – liytika, made of dry peppers and potatoes.”
Live Culinary Tradition will continue in the towns of Sopot, Vidin, Vratsa, Sliven and Gotse Delchev that are situated in different geographic regions, responding to the organizers’ idea. The young people have gathered a total of 300 traditional Bulgarian recipes in those 6 towns. “Our goal is to encourage them to survey and get acquainted with this country’s cultural heritage. We want to contribute to the development of their sense, talent and imagination, so that we can be more successful in our future professional development, preserving at the same time traditional Bulgarian taste,” Chef Penio Ivanov says in conclusion.
Text and photo: bnr.bg
(02.02.2012)