Dimitar Shopov was born in the town of Panagyurishte (Central South Bulgaria). He worked until recently in the marketing and media field, but one day he decided to change his life and depart to Barcelona. He worked on probation for several months in a local restaurant and started to acquire professional skills in the kitchen. Dimitar told Radio Bulgaria details of how he came up with the idea to establish a culinary school in Sofia:

“The idea came to me several years ago. I was thinking it over for quite some time and in 2015 I received the chance to make this step. Cooking has been my hobby for many years. However, the sixteen hour-long shifts in the professional kitchen do not correspond to my creativity and view of life. That is why I decided that it was much more appropriate to open a culinary school. This activity is linked with the necessity to create constant new projects, connect people, find interesting lectors from Bulgaria and abroad, create appropriate recipes for our trainees”, the founder of Food Connection says enthusiastically.

The culinary school has been gaining momentum and gathers during the cold winter evenings many fans of culinary experiments. They cook, experiment and then dine together on a glass of wine. Dimitar tries to offer varied topics and cover various aspects of gastronomy, as well as various trends in world culinary.

“Our audience is very heterogeneous. These are mainly cosmopolitan people who love to travel and are open to new challenges. They have tasted different cuisines in the past and want to repeat their experience again in Sofia. The best of that project is that you can actually see how people do their best to achieve something. You are always filled with pleasure when you feel that things you do make sense”, Dimitar further told Radio Bulgaria.

However, such a project is full of risks, too. One has to invest money, efforts and time in search of the best-quality products. Dimitar says proudly that he keeps in his culinary collection his grand-grandmother's recipe book which dates back to 1904 and contains recipes from the town of Panagyurishte. The recipes contain products and spices which vanished from the country's food market during the socialist period, because they were described as food which belonged to the bourgeois.

Today things look different, but the deficit of high-quality products in Bulgaria is quite serious. Dimitar often has to order some exotic spices or food from abroad.

Dimitar Shopov says that he wants to see his project overleap the restrictions imposed by the format of the regular culinary school. I would like to see my school expand and develop. I would also like to see a culinary show with the same brand and create a socially-responsible concept, Dimitar says.

What is Dimitar's message for those who like good food?

“I named the culinary school Food Connection, because I want to connect people and food in the most real and warm connection which exist for millennia and I really hope that good food connects people”, Dimitar Shopov says in conclusion.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov