Culinary delights from Transylvania: Mircea Groza’s “Zămuri” volume gets double nominations at Gurmand Awards 2023

The Volume “Zămuri – Soups, Stews, and Delicacies; Transylvanian Recipes from the Elderly” by Mircea Groza (Romanian language only), published this summer by GastroArt Publishing, has been nominated to two categories at the Gourmand Awards 2023 – The Best in the World.

The book of gastronomic tales and recipes is nominated in the categories of “Food Heritage Book” and “Eastern Europe Book,” and the winners will be announced at the end of November during a ten-day event. The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards were established in 1995 by Edouard Cointreau and they reward the best gastronomy books, both printed and digital, as well as culinary television shows.

The “Zămuri” volume contains 182 recipes for soups and stews, richly illustrated, and collected over more than 40 years by Mircea Groza from the elderly people in Salaj county’s villages. The recipes are written in a regional language, using phonetic transliteration, through which the author aims to preserve both the culinary heritage and the specific characteristics of the region. The volume also includes a glossary with hundreds of explained terms.

Mircea Groza is one of the most renowned collectors of old recipes in Romania, a culinary archaeologist, and a mentor for many chefs. His work has been recognized by local and national authorities, as well as national and international chef associations and NGOs, receiving numerous excellence awards for his activities.

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The book can be purchased from Cărturești bookstores network across the country.  A reprint is expected to arrive in bookstores in a few days, considering that the first print of 1500 copies is nearly sold out.

The book’s preface is written by the journalist Cătălin Ștefănescu, followed by a letter from Romanian singer Grigore Leșe. The postface is by the journalist Cosmin Dragomir, and on the fourth cover page, chefs Oana Coantă, Adi Hădean, and Radu Dumitrescu recommend this volume. The photographs and cover concept are credited to Răzvan A. Voiculescu.

“Through these writings, I attempt to capture the specifics of local cuisine, or more precisely, popular food. What’s representative in this regard is the fortunate blend of recipes from at least four ethnicities – Romanians, Hungarians, Slovaks, Jews – and the habit of using certain ingredients, specific to some, but adopted by all. There are many examples, like the potatoes mostly used by Slovaks, onions from the Crasna Valley, especially in the neighboring villages of Pericei commune, forest mushrooms, vast orchards and vineyards whose fruits are increasingly used in cooking. For a few years now, I’ve been publishing old recipes from my region in various forms. I gladly offer them to those interested; I’m contacted quite often for details and to share that many of my recipes are tried and become part of families’ menus. There are restaurants in the country that use my recipes, in fact, the old recipes of the socăcița [a type of wooden trough for kneading bread]. It seems there’s a genuine trend of returning to culinary traditions. More and more often, a parallel is drawn between healthy food and traditional recipes. I’m delighted to see that in many culinary competitions and festivals, even in some TV shows, references to traditional cuisine are becoming more frequent. I strongly believe that Romania has a traditional cuisine,” says Mircea Groza in the preface.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

For the last edition of The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, over 100.000 screened books and publications from some 230 countries and regions were submitted, according to the organizers. After the selection, they have prepared posters for the winners by countries that have been selected to compete for the Best in the World in 2023. All the posters have the front cover of the book, and a presentation text in English, namely 1250 posters in total, 1067 posters for Food Culture books, and 183 for Drinks Culture books, with books from 142 countries.