If competition can only make you stronger, then Bulgarian restaurants should be – and are – improving with each passing year. The awards ceremony for Restaurant of the Year 2007 Bacchus-Chivas Regal, which was held on January 16 2008 in a special tent set up in Zaimov Park (until recently Oborishte Park) in Sofia, goes to show this.

According to Lyubomir Boyadjiev, restaurants editor for Bacchus magazine, “[2007] was the first year that there were nominations in each category”.

The award was created seven years ago by Bacchus, the only wine, spirits and gourmet culture magazine in Bulgaria, as a means of observing, recognising and grading restaurants and restaurant culture in the country. Since 2001, when the first prizes were handed out, the field has grown both in size and in quality, he said to The Sofia Echo, with new establishments appearing constantly, which are often – hopefully – accompanied by improved quality and creativity.

Explaining the nominations, he said that the organisers decided to nominate in each category because the “simple act of nominating is, if not a prize in itself, then at least a means of highly regarded recognition, through which we hope to stimulate additional restaurateurs, chefs and sommeliers in their ambitions of attaining true high class”. The jury is comprised of a team from Bacchus along with field specialists who offer “very valuable” advice and opinions.

They compile the list of nominees, the 20 best restaurants and chefs in the past year, starting about four months before the event – so somewhere around mid-September, and from there, they continue to observe and take down notes of every little detail; from these observations also come the nominees for the grand prize.
While the quality of food and the artistic approach towards it are the most important criteria, wine and beverage selection, service, atmosphere, price-quality ratio and the people who are behind a given establishment also play a decisive role in the analysis.

This all leads to the conferring of the awards at a January ceremony. This year, it also coincided with the publication of the 100th issue of Bacchus, and was thus all the more glamorous. The white tent that held the event presented a pleasant contrast to the dark, dirty, cold evening, both because of the notable bodies crowding it and from the patio-type heaters that warmed guests starting from the red carpet leading up to the entrance. Another item of note: inside the tent was smoke-free, meaning that one did not say leka nosht smelling like an old cigarette. Nice. (And given the wines and alcohols available, it would have been a shame to mask their aromas and tastes with anything. We drank: Chivas Regal 12 Year Old, Campo Viejo Cava, Jacob’s Creek Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2005, a white from Banfi, another white whose label I did not get to see before it had been drunk up, Montana Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon East Coast 2004, San Pellegrino and also some swanky brand of still mineral water, otherwise known as Acqua Panna.)

It was Boyadjiev and Yuliya Kostadinova, Bacchus wine editor, who acted as the masters of ceremony for the show that occupied the next hour-and-a-half. This year, four innovative Bulgarian chefs gave live cooking demonstrations for the guests, with examples of the foods they cooked up being passed around the crowd. Toni Ivanov from Uniqato in Stara Zagora made beef in vacuum with pine nut cream, arugola emulsion, vegetables, droplets of olive oil and olive salt. He likes to cook with flowers, and the little cups containing the titbits that the guests ate did have petals (notably dianthus) for consumption. Plamen Petrov from La Famiglia in Varna shared his gnocchi-making skills, and the audience was treated to gnocchi filled with, according to the “menu” handed out at the entrance to the tent, spinach and dried figs, though it tasted more like beef with shredded smoked cheese sprinkled on top.

Later, after a few more awards, Joon Yoshida, the chef at Brasserie in Sofia, prepared a variation on ceviche, and finally, Borislav Paounov from Red Devil Catering showed how to make cellophane out of melted sugar. He said that it was a bit tricky to try at home, but it looked cool.

With the increase of creativity in the kitchen, as Boyadjiev said, it followed that there were five nominees for original cuisine this year. Each had a video clip of them shown on the projection screens around the tent-facility. Dimo Dimov from Gourmet Club Classic was described as “the master of fois gras”, as a chef who used new combinations while honouring French traditions. Yoshida was about fresh and fusion, incorporating Asian and South American influences into French technique. Plamen Stamov of Silver Gourmet in Zlatni Pyasutsi (Golden Sands) won the 2006 award for original cuisine; he was described as being part of “the most designer restaurant in Bulgaria”, while focusing on “new Bulgarian” cuisine and maintaining classic standards. Stamov also won the 2007 award for the same category. Toni Ivanov said that what is most important in quality cooking is the quality of the product, with the technique used coming in right behind. Finally, Plamen Petrov was introduced as a whiz at pasta and a lover of confectionery arts.

Special awards this year went to Orlin Popov, owner of Chef’s Group, for encouraging development in the restaurant sector in Bulgaria, and to The House with the Clock for its website www.clockhousebg.com.

Since the awards for Restaurant of the Year Bacchus-Chivas Regal were first conferred in 2001, the winners for Restaurant of the Year have been Beyond the Alley, Behind the Cupboard in Sofia (2001), Vishnite in Sofia (2002, 2004), Hebros in Plovdiv (2003), Talisman in Sofia (2005) and Musala Palace in Varna (2006).

Restaurant of the Year Bacchus-Chivas Regal 2007
Chef’s (Pasarel – on the Sofia-Borovets road)
Gourmet Club Classic (Sofia)*
Musala Palace (Varna)

Original Cuisine
Dimo Dimov – Gourmet Club Classic
Joon Yoshida – Brasserie (Sofia)
Plamen Petrov – La Famiglia (Varna)
Plamen Stamov – Silver Gourmet (Zlatni Pyasutsi/Golden Sands)*
Toni Ivanov – Uniqato (Stara Zagora)

Best Selection of Drinks
Gourmet Club Classic
Musala Palace*
Stara Sofia (Sofia)

Bar & Dinner
Brasserie*
Opera (Sofia)
Up Stairs (Sofia)

Debut
Chef’s Restaurant Elea
La Maison du Gourmet (Sofia)*
Nicola’s Streetfood Bar (Sofia)

Readers’ Choice Award
Bourgas: La Perle Noire
Haskovo: Alafrangite
Plovdiv: Hebros, Hemingway
Sofia: Checkpoint Charlie, Chef’s*, Chef’s Restaurant Elea, Gourmet Club Classic, La Capannina, La Maison du Gourmet, Nicola’s Streetfood Bar, Enoteka Uno, Vishnite, The House with the Clock, Beyond the Alley Behind the Cupboard
Varna: La Famiglia, Silver Gourmet, Kapitol, Musala Palace