site.btaBulgarian-Serbian Project Presents Culinary Secrets

The Taste of Stara Planina Project has an objective to strengthen local gastronomy as an integral part of the sustainable tourism offer in border communities through joint actions, the project’s website says.

Serbia and Bulgaria are participating in the project. A common tradition and rich cultural heritage is the basis for cross-border cooperation, which is realized through the implementation of joint activities and the promotion of tradition through cross-border events, the project summary reads. Traditional food, as a product of the environment, natural resources, culture and lifestyle, plays an important role in the tradition of each nation, which will be promoted through joint activities within the project.

The Taste of Stara Planina is primarily characterized by the use of a small number of ingredients to create a delicious dish that awakens all the senses, noted the creators of the culinary collection on the website of the cross-border project, implemented under the cross-border cooperation programme INTERREG Bulgaria-Serbia with the support of the EU.

The Manifesto association from Knjazevac, Serbia, and the Regional Partnerships for Sustainable Development - Vidin are working together on the project. The objectives are to promote the cuisine of the two border areas, to promote local gastronomy as a leading product in the development of sustainable tourism in the border areas and to promote the common culinary tradition through cross-border events.

The budget for the implementation of the project of the leading partner Manifesto was EUR 74,497, and that of Regional Partnerships for Sustainable Development – Vidin was EUR 70,388, the Joint Secretariat responsible for INTERREG Bulgaria-Serbia to the Bulgarian Ministry of Regional Development told BTA.

Twenty-five Serbian and the same number of Bulgarian recipes included in the project were chosen after voting on social media.

They were compiled in a cookbook, titled The Taste of Stara Planina, as well as an eponymous series of video stories of the culinary guide with subtitles in Serbian, Bulgarian and English, respectively. A printed culinary book  was also published in a total of 2,000 copies, 1,000 in Serbian and 1,000 in Bulgarian, which are intended for food and beverage suppliers, project participants, tourist centres and cultural institutions, in order to promote the cuisine of the Balkan mountain (Stara Planina).

Four two-day workshops were organized within the framework of the project- two in each country. They included 30 participants from business, civic and public sectors with an interest in traditional cuisine.

The grand finale of the project, carried out in the 2019-2020 period, were culinary shows held in Serbia and Bulgaria.

These events celebrated the region's culinary heritage with workshops, culinary demonstrations and the signing of a memorandum of cooperation, noted the Joint Secretariat leading the INTERREG Bulgaria-Serbia programme.