This year at Zavod ID20 will be well spent in the sign of cuisine. In addition to the project GO! Pasta and the Idrija žlikrof Festival, in cooperation with the Jurija Vega Idrija Gymnasium, we are preparing an updated 100-year-old bourgeois cookbook from the mining house Giser, which will be accompanied by video recipes. These will be prepared by Idrija students, who learned about Idrija cuisine and acquired new digital and cooking skills during three workshops in the last month.
When we bought the real Idrija mining house Giser a few years ago at Zavod ID20, we also found an interesting cookbook in the legacy left by the last inhabitant, Fran Zupančič. Based on the dates we found in the booklet, we found that the recipes were written down as far back as 1921, that is, at least 100 years ago!
Young people revitalized the Giser mining house.
As part of the Together for More Knowledge project, we decided to update the cookbook and bring it closer to young people. This school year, we are working with students who are attending the interdisciplinary thematic section of Tourism, we are people at the Jurija Vega Idrij Gymnasium.
At the first workshop, which we prepared on Monday, March 25, in the pleasant atmosphere of the Giser mining house, students learned about Idrija's culinary heritage and evaluated the usefulness, difficulty, and suitability of 45 selected recipes from a 100-year-old cookbook.
We revived a 100-year-old dish
Of course, it is particularly important whether old recipes can still be attractive even after 100 years. So we decided to invite the students to become chefs themselves for a day. In Idrija's Covered Market, we prepared 3 dishes based on the cookbook.
At the stove, the students tried their hand at making potato dumplings in soup and prepared spoon donuts in 2 different ways. Both follow the recipes from the booklet but differ in the filling. This is how we prepared potato žlikrofi (today they would be called Idrija žlikrofi), and slightly more rather more unusual and unconventional are žlikrofi with dried fruit filling, which we prepared with a sauce made of cream, butter, and aged cheese. For dessert, the students tried their hand at baking an excellent rhubarb and strawberry fruit cake, which also mostly followed the recipe from the cookbook.
Digitization and heritage belong together
The students thus acquired many new cooking skills and got to know the traditional (bourgeois) Idrija cuisine from a century ago. At the same time, they also filmed their cooking. In the following months, we will publish special cooking video recipes that will be specially adapted for publication on Instagram or Tiktok.
In the framework of all three workshops, the students acquired many new knowledge and skills, especially in the field of cooking and digitalization. In addition to the basic cooking skills they developed while cooking, they learned about the cultural, gastronomic, and architectural heritage of Idrija. We also highlight the acquisition of digital skills, as in a special workshop they learned the basics of recording videos with their phone, and in the coming weeks they will also acquire knowledge in the field of video editing and editing. Thus, they found that cultural heritage can be effectively connected with modern trends, especially digitalization.
More than 40 recipes in an updated booklet
Even before the Idrija žlikrofov festival, which will take place on August 24 this year, we will also publish an updated cookbook from the mining house Giser. So you too will be able to try cooking more than 40 dishes from the 100-year-old booklet.
You will also be able to test for yourself what the students have learned in the workshops, as they will be preparing a selected dish from the booklet for visitors to the Idrija Žlikrof Festival on August 24. You will try some other dishes from the hands of the proven chef Nejco Lenič much earlier - they will also come to life as part of the gastronomic-theatrical experience, which will have its pre-premiere as early as next month!
All three culinary workshops took place within the framework of the operation Together for more knowledge, which was created on the basis of identified needs in the entire area of LAS with CIL. This particular focus is on improving the digital skills of the local population by improving access to digital technologies, training and support.