The cuisine is one of the components of national identity, reflecting not only the taste and preferences of a nation but also its history and culture.
Report has interviewed Tahir Amiraslanov, the president of the National Culinary Association of Azerbaijan, established by him, head of the World Islamic Culinary Association, initiator and creator of the Center of National Culinary of Azerbaijan, famous chef, candidate of history, honored cultural figure and member of the Azerbaijan Writers' Union.
- Together with Stalik Khankishiyev, you have recently visited Ganja. What was the purpose of your trip there? Do you have plans regarding some joint projects?
- We plan to collect the cuisine of all of our districts in one book. In such a small country as Azerbaijan, we counted more than 4,000 kinds of dishes and their variations. In South Azerbaijan, there are more than 40,000 such variations; add the regions where Azerbaijanis live compactly, for example, Derbent, Kars, and others, and the palette will be even richer.
It has been long years that we, with Stalik Khankishiyev, have been working together to promote Azerbaijani cuisine. And now, together with AzTV and RenTV, we are preparing for an amazing project. During our recent trip to Ganja, we gathered interesting material, which we plan to use in our book in the future.
- How does Ganja cuisine differ from the cuisines of other regions of our country?
- Every district of Azerbaijan has its unique cuisine. Ganja's dovga, shila, pakhlava, rishta, pakhlava, khan pilaf, and especially the dessert "zilviya" of Ganja either do not exist or are cooked and baked differently in other districts.
Chickpeas were never used in the Ganja dovga. Traditional Ganja pakhlava is baked on charcoal, and rishta (irishta), unlike Shaki or Guba, is cooked using not rice flour but flour obtained from sprouted wheat grains - samani.
Since potato growing is developed in this zone, in Ganja, in contrast to Shaki, potatoes are added to piti. There was also such a type of this dish - "family piti," but this tradition had already died after the 1950s.
The Sangah bread, which was crumbled in piti, is now not baked in its original form in Ganja and other regions, but we found those who know how to bake it and revived the production of this delicious bread. "Khan pilaf" is a dish that was cooked by the order of Javad Khan's father. And you won't find the dessert "zilviya" anywhere except Ganja.
- Do you have a classification of Azerbaijani cuisine?
- Our cuisine consists of 5 directions. First, this is the palace cuisine, dishes that are difficult to prepare, and which only rich rulers and overlords could afford. Over time, these recipes migrated to ordinary people, and local products gradually began to be added to the composition of such dishes over time. But the structure and technology of cooking were preserved and passed down from generation to generation.
The second direction is army cuisine, which is logical, as each palace had its own army. Obviously, the dishes were simpler and more modest.
The third direction is our spiritual, Sufi cuisine. Each dish has its sacred meaning. Ritual cuisine can also be added to this list - for example, dishes that were prepared for Novruz Bayram, etc.
The fourth direction is what is being made for sale, for example, the same sangah that was sold in caravanserais, dukhans.
And the last direction is folk cuisine - dishes that are prepared from what is at hand. The recipes, of course, were not recorded and were interpreted over time.
- You once said that you associate food with music. Is there a certain melody, for example, for pilaf, kebab, or dolma?
Kebab, dolma, and other meat dishes are associated with the performance of saz with balaban, pilaf, and sweets - pakhlava, shakarbura, nazik, sherbet are mugham. Ganja cuisine is "made" mainly of saz music, but at the same time, it is palace cuisine.
- Now, Armenia is trying to prove that pakhlava is an Armenian sweet and put it on the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List. What are you or the Center for National Culinary of Azerbaijan created by you doing to prevent this?
- The Armenians have prepared a list of 200 dishes that they are now trying to submit to UNESCO for inclusion in the lists of the intangible heritage of Armenian culture. When the question about pakhlava arose, I kept silent because the Center for National Culinary of Azerbaijan already has new leadership, and they needed time to get on track. However, when, at the suggestion of the Azerbaijani side, erroneous information about the dishes of seven regions of Azerbaijan was presented to National Geographic, the Armenians received a tool to manipulate us. I objected- I collected my cookbooks and simulated their burning. With this, I wanted to express my disagreement with the inaction of the structures responsible for the preservation of our intangible heritage - our cuisine. I also wanted to attract attention so that people would start reading and studying their history and cuisine.
For example, information was provided that the name of the "piti", inherent in the Shaki region, came from the name of the dishes in which it is prepared. In the Azerbaijani language, there are no dishes with such a name, we have "kupa," "dopu". And our unfortunate neighbors seized on this and are trying to seize piti, declaring that they have dishes called "putuk."
Another example: they claim that tomatoes and potatoes are added to Sheki piti, thus reducing the "age" of this dish to 150-200 years.
Instead of "khan pilaf," "shah pilaf" was introduced as a dish from the Ganja cuisine, the history of which dates back to 1993 and has nothing to do with Ganja cuisine.
The Nakhchivan "govurma" is allegedly made from lamb, which must first be dried for three days, and the well-known dish of the Gakh region "sulhullu" is allegedly made from fresh meat.
Our organizations responsible for national cuisine - the Tourism Agency, which controls the Center for National Culinary of Azerbaijan, and especially the Bureau of Tourism, have treated this issue negligently. After my protest, they changed something there, but so far, there has not been an official substantiated answer, a refutation from the Center.
In 2005, with the assistance of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Terry Davis, the book "Culinary Culture of Europe" was published, which contained articles about Azerbaijani and Armenian cuisines. Articles about Armenian cuisine were misleading about ours. For a year and eight months, together with the Ministry of Culture, we wrote appeals to the Council of Europe and achieved our goal. The articles have been corrected, and Terry Davis personally apologized to us.
Our National Culinary Association of Azerbaijan is a non-governmental organization not funded by the budget. It is not easy to do something without government or sponsor support. Meanwhile, national cooking is one of the forms of people's diplomacy; any nation's culture is based, among other things, on cuisine.
The Azerbaijan National Culinary Center was established in 1991 specifically to study and preserve national cuisine as a cultural heritage. There is no such center in any country in the world, there was none before us, and there is none now. This Center is like a sharp sword that must not be blunted.
I think that just now when the structure of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan is changing, it is high time to create a research institute of national culinary under it, which will deal with the issues of comprehensive study and implementation of the country's national cuisine.
- You were awarded the title of Honored Cultural Figure, and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev awarded you the Order of Shohrat (Fame - ed.) ...
- I believe I have not done anything yet to wear these orders on my chest. There is no end to the work in this area, and there is still a lot to be done.
Gulnara Nizami