Every year, on the first Saturday and Sunday of September, the village of Banya in Panagyurishte municipality hosts a festival of traditional foods, called Sharena Trapeza.

Sharena Trapeza (Шарена трапеза) means something like “a banquet table with many types of dishes”, and that’s exactly what visitors will encounter. The goal of the festivities is to show, support and grow Bulgarian culinary traditions and to present to guests traditional foods of all the country’s regions.

Cooks and bakers, professional and non, from all around have been submitting recipes to festival organisers as part of the Grandma’s Recipes contest, which aims to highlight historic recipes from the home. Two winning recipes will be named on September 7 at 2.30pm – one in the professional category, and another in the category of foreign recipes and foreign cooks.

The festival officially opens on September 6 at 10am in the central square of the village. This will be followed by cooking demonstrations and jury tastings of submitted dishes. On the 7th, the fun again starts at 10am, with tastings of recipes throughout the day, folk music and dance, a cooking demonstration by special guest José Comino from Spain and a children’s drawing contest.

Making Sharena Trapeza happen are Banya town hall, the mayor of Panagyurishte municipality Georgi Gerginekov, the Sofia restaurant Vratata, restaurant consultancy firm Ivital Consult and rural tourism organisation Romina 58, whose founder Roumyana Mihova is one of the main organisers of the event. Among the partners are the Professional Economics High School Atanas Bourov in Panagyurishte, Rumelia Wine Cellar, meats and catering company Bonita, Pirinsko beer and Assia Milanova poultry company.

On the website dedicated to the festival, a collection of traditional Bulgarian recipes can be found.