Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network – end of project

Starting from April 2012 Tourist Association of Ivano-Frankivsk Region has started the implementation of the Action “Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network”. The project was co-financed by the European Union within the framework of the Hungary-Slovakia-Romania-Ukraine ENPI Cross-border Cooperation Programme 2007-2013. Project duration was 22 months and it finished in January 2014.

The project has covered the territory of Ivano-Frankivsk Region in Ukraine, Maramures and Satu Mare Counties in Romania, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County in Hungary and Kosice Region in Slovakia.

The main project implementing partner was the Tourist Association of Ivano-Frankivsk region (Ukraine). The associate partners: Ivano-Frankivsk City Council, Association “EcoLogic” and Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Satu Mare County from Romania, Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry from Slovakia and Szamos-bazár Association from Hungary, Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration and European Culinary Heritage Network with its main office in Sweden, as well as specialists in the field of tourism, restaurant business and food production, representatives of educational institutions from the target cross-border regions of the project.

Traditional food and gastronomy sector in the Action target regions embraces dozens of rural communities and small scale food related businesses involved in supporting traditional agriculture, catering, and tourism. These businesses are mostly reflecting local traditional methods of food production. This private sector together with culinary colleges and schools at present are the main custodians of the culinary heritage secrets and act as instructors to pass this traditional knowledge on to future generations.

Three main aims have been implemented within the project: establishment of the Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network, carrying out activities to promote the Carpathian culinary heritage, development and promotion of Carpathian Culinary Heritage Trails.

Under the first project aim, more than 34 entries, sent by 10 designers from four countries, took part in the Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network logo competition. The winning designer became Mr. Sergiy Rymar from Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine who has introduced the stylized image of the cooking pot/crock as the network’s logo. As the result, more than 350 companies and organizations that preserving and multiplying the Carpathian gastronomic heritage have joined the unique brand – a symbol of the Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network. All of they are included in the database of companies that producing traditional food and providing travel services in target regions.

Research of small scale traditional food and tourism related businesses and organizations was conducted during the project implementation period and gathered 806 responses in the project target regions. The report according to the survey results was prepared and widely distributed among all project partners and stakeholders.

The Action developed five culinary tours as network regions under the one title “Carpathian Culinary Heritage Trails”: “Ukraine. Hutsul Adventure: in quest of culinary treasures”, “Romania. Discover the taste of Maramures and Ancestral traditions in history and traditional dishes of Satu Mare”, “Slovakia. Harmony of food and wine”, “Hungary eats”. 40 companies and entrepreneurs providing tours services received targeted assistance for promotion their business and Network brand.

55 entities that work towards to preservation of the traditional gastronomy and local cuisine traditions were certified under the Network certification programme and were awarded by membership certificates and special outer sign displaying the logo of Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network.

Electronic Carpathian Culinary Heritage Cookbook has been developed within the project and includes more than 200 original recipes, which has been written from the oral retellings of the common peoples or skilled chefs, culinary heritage carriers of four target regions. E-collection of recipes from the Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network is available on the web-site www.culinaryheritage.org.

The mayor international events implemented within the project were the International Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network Festival that took place in Ivano-Frankivsk and brought together around 12 thousand of participants, Culinary Competition among students of culinary schools from Carpathian countries and regional festivals in Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

The familiarization visit through destinations of the Carpathian Culinary Tour was organized for travel writers and tour operators. Due to the results of those visit famous authors of magazines prepared 10 articles about culinary heritage of target regions, which have been published and distributed with a total circulation of over 583,000 copies.

Promotional publications of the project such as Carpathian Culinary Heritage leaflets, brochure, posters and maps in different languages, brand souvenirs items like pens, bags, folders and promotional video of the Network were created to promote the Network brand and to support Carpathian Culinary Tours and other products of the project.

Chairperson of the Tourist Association of Ivano-Frankivsk region, author of the project Mrs. Oksana Fedorovych, stated that the biggest achievement of this project is the Carpathian Culinary Heritage Network itself, the partnership and the atmosphere created by the project. Thanks to this, we managed to implement all, what has been planned at the initial stage of the project preparation and loudly declared on its start.

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