Besides its meaning for food, the word kitchen also describes the place where food is prepared. In many societies the kitchen room is the most important place in a house- it’s the place where a family gathers together to eat, talk or simply spend some time together. The kitchen could be described as the most authentic part of a home. Its outlook, its form and design depends on one’s educational, social and economical level. These components also refer to people’s personal preferences and taste. In this context the kitchen can be seen as a reflection of someone’s identity and self perception.
The kitchen room is not only the soul and spirit of the Balkan home it is also the exact mirror image of the Balkan society. The kitchen impeccably depicts the crossroad position of the, so-called, Balkan countries and conveys the highly perceptible sense of lost identity in the region – an inevitable legacy of the 500 years of Ottoman yoke and another almost 50 years of isolation and captivity behind the iron curtain
There is neither time nor money (but it also lacks on spirit) for “creative” decoration in most of the Balkan homes (actually we, the Balkan people, would rather spend our money in cafés than on decoration or enrichment.) Most young families are either forced to live in rented properties (where the rental fee is often higher than an average monthly salary) or live packed like sardines in their parents' flats usually located in hopelessly ugly, non-renovated concrete buildings – an omnipresent heritage from the communist era. In many of those flats time seems to stay still.
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