Lipstick+ Bread was invited to do a series of specially curated cooking workshops in the magic city Matera, in south Italy as part of the festival Il Terra del Panne– The Land of Bread. The workshops were part of the Food Democracy book sessions, so we chose to cook from the book while discussing its content and curated a special cooking class on the topic. Our choice was to make Burek the Great, after the recipe by Nikola Janović Kolenc and to discuss his great text titled A Shortage of Democracy, Not of Food and Water. Trends Shaping Today’s Food Industry.
Burek the Great is a Bosnian version of the king of Balkan street foods and it is utterly delicious. It strikes right through the society, cultures and politics of the Balkans and is therefore the perfect dish for discussing food democracy. We also made the now already famous Lipstick+Bread Sardine Mojo, a delicate, magic sardine spread, a true pirate dish perfect to eat with Matera bread.
The stunning Sassi, the old part of Matera, is home to the more than 400 years old community bread oven and Matera is famous for its special bread. The bread is made out of yeast from fermented figs and wine grapes and uses a special type of local wheat, which we used also to make the dough for our Burek. The Matera bread also has this crazy, special and very distinctive shape, something we never seen before! Everyone loved the dishes we prepared, and it was for the first time the lovely people in Matera tasted Burek and something like our sardine Mojo.
The first workshop was done with an international group of artists from Italy, Slovenia, Romania and Poland who were exhibiting at the festival on the festival grounds in the Sassi, the old part of Matera. The two other workshops were done with locals and we were warmly invited to do it at their homes where we were greeted with amazing Focaccia, olives, peppers, red wine, olive oil, oranges, mandarines, cheese, jazz music and hugs.
We were stunned by the food culture in Matera, the hospitality of the people, the beauty of the city and the fun and conversations we have had at this amazing festival. We completely fell in love with the people, the culture the land and of course the food. We all learned a lot about food, cooking, cultures, society, hospitality and of course pleasure in the Lipstick+Bread sessions..
Many thanks for inviting us and to all our old and new friends who took part in these sessions, especially Antonio Rollo, Enzo Santochirico, Martin Petrič, Anna Calia, Marko Podjavoršek and the wonderful people who invited us into their homes.
