BREAD IS THE STAFF OF LIFE

The first-ever Bread Festival was held in Baku under the International Cooking Day, or the Chefs Day. You could even smell the magnificent aroma of fresh bakery products. Well, it is not surprising anyway. This day is also called the Chefs Day as a token of respect to those, who not only prepare delicious foods, but also create masterpieces of culinary art. This day has been celebrated since 2004 in 115 countries and was set up at the initiative of the World Association of Chefs' Societies at the World Culinary Congress in Dublin (Ireland).

In total, 24 Azerbaijani regions and cities attended the festival. The chefs from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan traveled to Baku to show masterpieces of national cuisine.

A large variety of bread products from cakes, buns, loaves of various shapes to rolled thin pita bread, which in some areas is also called yukha or fatir, was presented at the event. The visitors were presented over five hundred varieties of traditional bread and tandir, bakery and pastry from Azerbaijan. Here you could be acquainted not only with the process of the bread production and other bakery products, but also taste the delicious products. The tables of guests were also very colorful.

Azerbaijan

Nadir Huseynli is the head of Sumgayit Bread Factory. He has been in the profession for forty years. Nadir believes that the main guarantor of good bakery is a team of professionals and experts. He pays particular attention to the quality of the baked bread. “Traditionally, the bread, which is loved and respected by our parents and children, is served at least three times a day. So, it has a considerable impact on our health. Bread does not tolerate careless attitude towards itself,” says Mr. Huseynli. He told us about his love for his work and the specifics of bread making in terms of its difference with other culinary arts: “Bread is like a child. Making it requires the same attitude as a mother shows to her child: What is the outside temperature? How well was it fed? How long did it have rest? The same is true for the bread. Some careless bakers use different additives to make a dough brew faster. This is unacceptable, as it is necessary to bake the bread using the old, conventional methods with the highest quality flour, water and yeast only.”

Bread from the southern region of Astara has drawn particular attention of both the visitors and the guests. It is worth mentioning bəxt çörəyi (bread of happiness), which used to be baked for a bride, when she relocated to the house of her husband. The husband would eat the half of it while the wife would eat the other half. It was to secure peace and prosperity in the family. You could also taste other types of bread such as zəryəyin with walnuts, loku, külçə.

Also noteworthy are şəkərçörək from Goychai, baba çörəyi from Aghdash, a pumpkin bread, a huge variety of pancakes, including fəsəli, the popular qutab, çudu meat pies and many other.

The Khachmaz table was one of the most diverse. As one of the team-members, Yagut Masimova, told us, there are 22 nationalities in Khachmaz region, including Azerbaijanis, Russians, Lezgins, Tats, Jews, Georgians, and Germans. Each of them has contributed to region's bakery tradition. So, you could see gözləməç, kürə, qatlama filled with cottage cheese puff, and the Lezgi bread.

The Zangilan table was also attractive. It was decorated with a cake in the form of a green leaf. As we were told, the recipe of this cake includes the leaves of a plane tree. Before the occupation of Zengilan, the plane tree forests occupied 117 hectares of region’s territory.

Kyrgyzstan

The table of the Kyrgyz delegation had a deep dish full of borsoks (diamond-shaped pieces of fried dough), various types of flat bread, and samsas (pancakes stuffed with meat).

According to a representative of the Kyrgyz delegation, borsoks are made of fancy pastry on milk and fried in deep fat. They use them primarily as bread for the first course, and therefore do not add sugar. It is usually scattered on the table so that everyone could take as much as he or she wants.

Pancakes are also prepared with the addition of butter. Most often, the nomads used the pancakes – the butter would not let the pancakes spoil. In addition to bakery products, the Kyrgyz exposition presented various balms extracted from 44 different herbs growing in the mountainous regions of Kyrgyzstan. Today, such balms are produced industrially. They include the extracts of pomegranate, sea buckthorn, blackberry but also quality alcohol and cognac. They can also be used for medical purposes such as rinsing.

The Kyrgyz Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mr. Ayjigit Buranov expressed his gratitude to the National Culinary Association of Azerbaijan for organizing such a great event. “We got to know great examples of bakery products in Azerbaijan better. Bread has its own energy, and if cooked creatively, it becomes a joyful experience. Bread, as water, means life.” The Ambassador also noted that the Embassy of Kyrgyzstan is actively cooperating with the national Association of Chefs of Azerbaijan and has repeatedly participated in various activities held in the regions nationwide.

Uzbekistan

The Uzbek bread, like everywhere, varies with the region. Each type has its own cooking secrets. The recipes and additives are different ranging from milk to butter. There was sweet little kushdili (bird tongues), resembling sweet sticks, tens of different samsa usually prepared in a tandoor, or in the oven. The filling ranges from meat to pumpkin, potatoes, and greens. Of course, there were many similar dishes: for example, chuchvara similar to our düşbərə but chuchvaras are bigger and are fried. There was also the famous chakchak, small fried pieces of dough filled with honey.

Uzbeks, as well as Kyrgyz, are no strangers to such events. They annually participate in Novruz festivities in the Old City, at the universities, the Tea Festival, etc. For this particular event, they have prepared thoroughly: sweet pastry was made by the wives of embassy personnel, while the bread was flown to Baku directly from Tashkent in the early morning.

There were a lot of guests, as well as those, who came with children. The kids were often offered to taste the bakery products. At the end of the event, the bakery products were subject to evaluation in terms of the aesthetics and taste of compositions. The best bakers and the individuals with special merits in the development of the culinary business in Azerbaijan were awarded with prizes.