Stefan Detchev: Transnational culinary entanglements in South-East Europe in the XVIII- XIX centuries

The complex and entangled character of the contemporary Balkan cuisines has been emphasized usually to stress their richness, based on borrowings taken from the “Orient”, Mediterranean basin or Central Europe. However, the history of the occurrence of all these entanglements is not that clear. There are many unanswered question concerning borrowing and adaptations in different social and cultural contexts in South-East Europe. That is why in this presentation I am going to reveal the complex culinary interactions within the borders of the Ottoman Empire as well as within the neighboring Danubian principalities Wallachia and Moldova, Serbia and the Habsburg monarchy, later Austro-Hungary (especially in the regions of Vojvodina, Transylvania, Banat and Hungary). The entanglements with the German dominated cuisine in Central Europe as well as the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East will not be forgotten either. Moreover, it also would be discern how one could not ignore in the nineteenth century the international domination and “the legislation” of the French cuisine among the elite in the whole region.