Tasty Slovenian heritage

19.11.2018: Slovenian Grandma's Kitchen is the winner for Slovenia in the Gourmand World Awards in the categorys:

• Eastern Europe
• Food Heritage
• Peace.

Do you still remember the recipes used by your grandmothers or other ancestors? Are you familiar with the tastes of your childhood and do you know why some dishes were made only on holidays, while others were a result of rationalising during the working days or post-holiday phase? Can you prepare a tasty meal by using only locally produced seasonal ingredients, harvested near your home? All this was done and is still being made by children from Slovenian Primary Schools through the project of researching and popularisation of their culinary - cultural heritage.

Short overview - selection:

slovenian-grandma-s-kitchen.pdf

Representing the book on Gourmand World Summit in Paris, March 21 - 23, 2019. 

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards are presented by the licensee owner, Mr. Edouard Cointreau.

Considering the fact that cuisine is increasingly linked to the World Cultural Heritage, the event was held at UNESCO Headquarters.

It's not just a book...

…It's a story about country with just 20.273 square kilometers …but 24 gastronomic regions …a country with World Best Women Chef 2017..but still without Michelin Guide …a country that will be in 2021 the Gastronomic Region of Europe …the home country of Luka Dončić, Anže Kopitar, Goran Dragić, …the story about the culinary - cultural history and traditional dishes of Slovenia, revived and made by more than 5.000 Cooking Kids…

Therefore, this is the story about tasty Slovenian heritage, the story about the diversity of villages and towns and their culture of eating as it used to be, the story about poverty on the plates in time without refrigerators and consequently the story about the dishes from where they come from and where they still belong today.

The book is a collection of the best food representatives of individual Slovenian regions, mostly forgotten dishes.

Slovenia should not be measured by a square kilometres, but through geographical and consequently climatic diversity of its regions and their culinary uniqueness. A country with just a bit over 20,000 square kilometres boasts with 24 gastronomic regions each offering its specific culinary experience. The relationship between the young and older generation is also the field for culinary arts and can be a bond that revives the area. In addition, Slovenia can proudly stand right next to world’s most renowned cuisines, because of her geographical and climate diversity that offers exceptionally rich variety of distinct and tasty historical and today's dishes.

Local dishes which are being recognized as symbols of their regions due to use of locally sourced ingredients - some have the official certificate of authenticity – play an important role in promoting local culture and food production, healthy lifestyle, reviving local economy and especially tourism.

The book Slovenian Grandma’s Kitchen is based on the 9-years rising project of researching culinary - cultural heritage of Slovenia with Slovenian Primary School pupils. In order to avoid the fact that local or regional typical dishes are becoming just written or even only spoken memories which with the extinction of the older generations sink into oblivion, our wish is to turn the wheel and to encourage respect and awareness of food produced at home.

They stepped where ethnologists cannot - into the kitchens of their grandmothers. Pupils were entrusted with an extremely important task: with intergenerational communication to search for authentic information about forgotten recipes, ways and reasons for preparation with the cultural background and to place all that among us again. What they do is present eye-pleasing and tasty meals in front of experts at home and abroad.

By taking a few steps back into our past, with the project we try to recognize the source and the reasons why such locally specific dishes were used in a certain period. Here we encounter influences of religious and state holidays, jubilees, weddings, birth celebrations and funeral gatherings, rituals related to planting and harvesting, Sunday family gatherings or just poor daily meals.
The project has grown into a movement for: encouraging youth to become aware and to respect their own culinary - cultural history, to use seasonal local food, to upgrade knowledge about the production of food from surroundings, to promote the cultivation of autochthonous varieties. Children also learn about food preparation in historical methods, which they compare and adapt with today's body needs.

The idea for the book appeared in year 2017, when in cooperation with DC Public School, DC Central Kitchen and with help of Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Washington, the Slovenian meals were placed in all 113 Public Schools in Washington DC for 50.000 pupils. May 10, 2017 declared the Mayor of Washington as a Slovenian Food Day. For this purpose, on the initiative of the Government Communication Office of RS, we published our first English version of the book, with short collection of recipes. The book was a gift to all Public Schools in order to prepare Slovenian dishes also in the future. The book contains the message of the World Best Women Chef 2017, Ana Roš.

Dishes in the Slovenian Grandma's Kitchen book were made from children at cooking competitions, that's why quality of pictures is different, since from the beginning we still did not know where the project would bring us.

8 years ago with Cooking Kids project; we were the beginners of the recuperation of the culinary cultural tradition in praxis, which now is seen on the plates of the best Chef's restaurants. Today the big general trend also in Slovenia is the use of domestic seasonal, also wild ingredients and preparation according to the latest culinary trends.

The Cooking Kids project include education and motivation, encourages children to self-initiative, strengthens the hand skills, competences, learns them about organization and cooperation, empathies and promotes better self-image of young people. Beside the historical – ethnological, it has a big social and educational significance. As promoters of Slovenian traditional food, we perform our heritage worldwide, including Slovenian embassies in foreign countries. The project connects the best Chefs, ethnologists, and local food producers as mentors of the groups of kids or as trainers of teachers.   The authenticity of flavors and spontaneity of children, but at the same time cooking at the highest level, is surprising all audiences, wherever they appear.

…in nastala je pripoved o okusni slovenski kulturni dediščini…

Zgodbe, ki so jih v osmih letih napisali slovenski osnovnošolci. Stopili so tja, kamor noge strokovnjakov običajno ne zaidejo: v kuhinje svojih babic! Med nas so ponovno postavili v večini pozabljene jedi, s katerimi se Slovenija lahko postavi ob bok vsem kulinaričnim velesilam.

Na podlagi sedmih knjižic v slovenskem jeziku, ki skupaj vsebujajo preko1500 okusnih tradicionalnih receptov z zgodbami o kulturnem ozadju, smo izbrali najboljše. Atraktivne jedi posameznih slovenskih regij, pripadajoče cerkvenim ali posvetnim praznikom, postnim ali po-prazničnim obdobjem, kmečkim opravilom ter ostalim kulturnim mejnikom ali pa so le-te le zaznamovale revščino in edini izhod za vsakodnevni obrok.

Slovenian Grandma's Kitchen je nova knjiga v angleškem jeziku, s 156 recepti, ki bi jih lahko poimenovali: predstavniki slovenskih regij ali pokrajin in tudi zaradi katerih Slovenija postaja ena najokusnejših destinacij v Evropi.

….in ni le knjiga…

Le-ta je posledica osemletnega dela projekta Kuhnapato ali raziskovanja otrok po lastni kulinarično – kulturni dediščini, kjer jedi naših prednikov spretno pretvarjajo v današnje potrebe telesa.

Dodatna spodbuda za nastalo knjigo je bila odmevna aktivnost v letu 2017 ob iniciativi Ambasade RS v Washingtonu, ko smo na 10. maja, ki ga je županja Washingtona razglasila za Slovenski dan hrane, organizirali slovenske obroke za vse javne šole omenjenega mesta ali 50.000 otrok. V ta namen smo ob spodbudi in s pomočjo Urada vlade RS za komuniciranje izdali kratko zbirko slovenskih jedi, ki smo jo podarili vsem tamkajšnjim šolam. 

Povezani s programom Evropsko leto kulturne dediščine, vključeni v predstavitveno dokumentacijo kandidature Slovenije za Gastronomsko regijo, s strani Evropske komisije razpoznani kot ena najbojših praks v EU pri spodbujanju zdravega in trajnostnega načina življenja, s sofinanciranjem Ministrstva za zdravje, delujemo pod okriljem Nacionalnega programa Dober tek Slovenija.

Kreacije jedi so z napotki prednikov, znanih slovenskih kuharjev, ki nas spremljajo ves čas delovanja, plod otroške domišljije ali rezultat njihovih ročnih spretnosti. Pripravljene so z ogromno mero intuziazma, ljubezni in postrežene z zgodbo!