⭐ 21: A Cookery Book by Master Chef Ivan Ivačič

A Slovenian Culinary Bestseller

Circa 1965, when Ivan Ivačič's Cookery Book (original Slovenian title: Kuharska knjiga) was published, life was different than it is today. The sort of refrigerators and other household appliances that are used today were not common in households, nor were TV sets. Not long after, however, TVs slowly started becoming part of day-to-day life in Slovenian homes. Older inhabitants of the village of Zdole remember watching the weekly TV Slovenia cooking shows hosted by their fellow-villager, master chef Ivan Ivačič. They used to watch Ivačič's cooking show together in front of a single TV, making sure to carefully write down the recipes. Ivačič's Cookery Book was a reflection of those time, it was, however, also very modern – it shared new culinary skills, adapted to suit the Slovenian palate, with a wider audience. There are several reasons the book was so successful. The cooking show was certainly one of them – master chef Ivačič used it to his advantage, wowing the Slovenian viewers with his charm and culinary skills.

For heritage enthusiasts:

Chef Ivan Ivačič was born in 1921 in Zdole and remained attached to his home village all his life. He paid homage to it in his cookbook, mainly with the recipes for the Zdole-style mushroom soup and the potica cake with tarragon filling, the kind that his mother used to bake. The older generation remembers him first and foremost for his TV Ljubljana cooking shows, which were aired between 1960 and 1975, and for his Cookery Book, which was found in many a household and had a strong influence on the way Slovenians used to cook and still do. Paired with the cooking show on TV, which was still a young medium at the time, it became a real bestseller.

A recipe for the Zdole-Style Mushroom Soup, Ivan Ivačič, Cookery Book (Kuharska knjiga), Celje, published by Mohorjeva družba, 1965, p. 30.

Ivačič gained experience that helped him write his first book for the general public while he had been working on the 1960 textbook Cooking Basics (Osnove kuharstva), which he co-authored. Ivačič's first independent work, also titled Cooking Basics, was published in 1962 by the Ljubljana Gastronomy School Centre and reprinted in 1963.
In the introduction to the Cookery Book, Ivačič pointed out that the book was suitable for anyone and that he wanted people to take pleasure in cooking. The first pages were dedicated to advice on foods suitable as remedies for various diseases, a vitamin chart and information on how long it takes for certain foods to get digested. The final part of the introduction included the caloric values of individual foods and advice on how often to buy certain foods. There was also information for people in ill health and their diet, a store of food for the winter and the advice on which plants to forage while on a trip.
The first edition of the book is divided into 22 chapters containing 753 recipes. The largest part of the book are meat recipes (47.5%), while desserts amount to 8.2%. According to Ivan Ivačič's son Peter Ivačič, fish, shellfish, crabs and venison were his father's favourite things to cook. On the other hand, he was not a particularly big fan of desserts, which is quite clear from the amount of dessert recipes in the book. A comparison of Ivačič's cookbook with Slovenia's greatest culinary bestseller of all time, The Slovenian Cookbook (Slovenska kuharica), which was first published by Magdalena Pleiweis in 1868 and has been reprinted 30 times, reveals that the inter-war editions contained approximately 30% recipes for meat dishes and no fewer than 40% of recipes for desserts. The recipes in Ivačič's Cookery Book are modern, written down in a simple way and adapted to the Slovenian palate, which was strongly influenced by Ivačič's work and culinary skills.
The book is rounded off with the chapter titled When You're Invited for a Meal, where Ivačič gives a brief and playful presentation of the rules of etiquette.

Ivan Ivačič while filming the ‘Cooking Tips’ cooking show, live on RTV Ljubljana. Before the actual filming, he had two rehearsals. He could not afford any mistakes during the live broadcast, so he often improvised and was very resourceful whenever there were any problems. He presented simple dishes and also some more complex cooking methods. He prepared cuisine from other Yugoslav countries and elsewhere. The original photo is kept by Peter Ivačič; a copy is kept by the Posavje Museum Brežice.

Ivan Ivačič cooking crabs in the smoke kitchen of a holiday home in Vrsar. The original photo is kept by Peter Ivačič; a copy is kept by the Posavje Museum Brežice.

For more information see:

• Ivačič Ivan: Kuharska Knjiga, Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 1965.
• Brenčič Polona, Špiler Boštjan: Zdole skozi stoletja, Krško: Neviodunum, 2012, str. 409 – 416.
• Mikolavčič Nataša, Volčanjk Katja (mentorici), Mmm, kako je dišalo iz Ivačičeve kuhinje: 17. festival Turizmu pomaga lastna glava: raziskovalna naloga, Osnovna šola Jurija Dalmatina, Krško, 2003.

Prepared by: Mihaela Kovačič
 
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