Virtuial Maritza - Merich Cuisine

The project aims to increase the tourist attractiveness of the region through initiatives for cross-border cooperation between the districs of Haskovo and Meric for development of sustainable tourism based on traditional cuisine.

A field research on local cuisine of the two border region focussed on collecting authentic recipes and inspection of the specific products and flavors determined by the geographical proximity and common historical heritage will be conducted. The information from the study will be presented in the form of a "Map of traditional cuisine" visualizing distinctive for the cross border region dishes and ingredients that shape its cultural identity. The collected recipes will be presented in ten long and ten short videos. By the means of modern technology and internet, the culinary traditions of both regions will be presented in an artistic and impressive way in order to arouse interest in culinary tourism. To this end, the development of a web platform "Virtual chef" with an online forum and a smart application for presenting and promoting the cuisine of the two border areas is envisaged. Organizing a festival "Haskovo and Meric cook" in Turkey for networking between representatives of the tourism industry in the region is planned.

The project implementation will contribute to the sustainable development of tourism and presentation of the common cultural heritage through cross-border initiatives for promoting the traditional cuisine of the region.

Project status: Finished

The project partners have implemented the activities according to the schedule.

The idea of “Virtual Maritza - Merich Cuisine” was designed in 2016 when RMA Maritza and Rice Paddy Commission of Meric District shared their willingness to explore the culinary traditions and advantages of the regions of Haskovo and Merich. The established partnership combined traditional food, cultural difference and similarity with elements of arts, performance, innovations and technologies and turned their intention into a formal project which in the beginning of 2017 was approved for funding by the Interreg-IPA CBC Bulgaria–Turkey Programme 2014-2020 under Priority axis 2 Tourism.

Enthusiastic from the very beginning we the project team at both sides of the border started the action with the coordination of the necessary procedures for the correct implementation of the planned activities. And this was the boring part of the project. Yes, we admit it! Challenged by the rules yet we managed to organize all the paper work and to ensure quality contractors or as we call them performers.

And then the virtual culinary performance of Maritza - Merich actually started! We collected 48 traditional recipes from Haskovo region in Bulgaria and 67 traditional recipes from Merich, Turkey. We identified local places with traditional cuisine in Haskovo and in Merich in result of studying traditional regional culinary culture and traditional cuisine of both regions and presented them in a common map. We created our contemporary space in the global network where we wanted to present you Haskovo and Merich traditions in culinary. We called that place Virtual Chef and in March 2018 www.virtual-chef.eu was ready to show you step by step video cooking of 10 recipes from Haskovo and 10 recipes from Merich in Bulgarian, English and Turkish. We wanted to be modern, so we created a mobile application "Haskovo & Merich cooking" available in GooglePlay. There you can enjoy traditional recipes of Haskovo and Merich prepared in 2-minute videos each and to learn about some traditions and rituals related to them. And since books do not grow old, only their pages turn yellow to remind us to preserve the traditions, we issued a Recipe book "The culinary delights of the border region Haskovo-Merich" in Bulgarian and in Turkish. At the finish line we gathered in Merich at the Festival “Haskovo & Merich Cooking” to present our achievements, to demonstrate traditional recipes of the border region and to strengthen our future efforts for sustainable development of tourism in Haskovo and Merich in a memorandum. Last but not least “Virtual Maritza - Merich Cuisine” is presented in more than 40 media publications in Bulgaria and Turkey. We supported project promotion and developed our space in Facebook and in YouTube with lots of videos and photos and started an online forum where we believe we will continue to share our culinary traditions and future initiatives. Food connects people even if they are not speaking the same language. It creates bridges between our communities and we create friendships.

Project website:

https://virtual-chef.eu/

Facebook page of the project:

www.facebook.com/VirtualMaritzaMerichCuisine

The YouTube channel of the project you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBzwGfEYpk9vWfxnROmlWMA.

Project products:

The information brochure is available HERE.

The Field survey "Traditional recipes of Haskovo region" is available HERE.

The Field survey "Local places with traditional cuisine in Haskovo region" is available HERE.

The Field survey "Traditional recipes of Meric region" is available is available HERE.

The Field survey "Local Food Establishments for Traditional Cuisine in Merich Region" is available HERE.

The Map "Local places with traditional cuisine in Haskovo region" in Bulgarian language is available at the following link: https://virtual-chef.eu/traditional-cuisine-in-haskovo/map.

The Map "Local places with traditional cuisine in Haskovo region" in English language is available at the following link: https://virtual-chef.eu/en/traditional-cuisine-in-haskovo/map.

The Map "Local places with traditional cuisine in Haskovo region" in Turkish language is available at the following link: https://virtual-chef.eu/tr/traditional-cuisine-in-haskovo/map.

The Map "Local places with traditional cuisine in Haskovo region" in electronic version: the Bulgarian version is available at the following link: https://virtual-chef.eu/haskovo-map.html, the English version is available at the following link: https://virtual-chef.eu/en-map.html and the Turkish version is available at the following link: https://virtual-chef.eu/tr-map.html.    

The Map "Local food establishments for traditional cuisine in Merich region" in electronic format: in Bulgarian version: https://virtual-chef.eu/traditional-cuisine-in-merich/map; English version: https://virtual-chef.eu/en/traditional-cuisine-in-merich/map, Turkish version: https://virtual-chef.eu/tr/traditional-cuisine-in-merich/map.

The Traditional Cuisine recipe book "Culinary delights of Haskovo - Merich border region" in Bulgarian and Turkish language is available HERE. 

The Web platform "Virtual Chef" is available at the following link: https://virtual-chef.eu/. 

The online forum for sharing the culinary traditions is available at the following link: https://virtual-chef.eu/forum/.  

The mobile application "Haskovo and Merich cooking" in GooglePlay  can be downloaded from the following address: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yourcompany.haskovoandmerichcooking3.

The Long videos for 10 traditional recipes of Haskovo and 10 traditional recipes of Merich and the short videos for 10 traditional recipes of Haskovo and 10 traditional recipes of Merich are available in YouTube at the following links:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlXb9E2nwmsvbE0mKLU4CZX_AxvUDtkPU;  

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwe1R4BMZjDsodEAMWnG6_lawYFnf4qtw.