Culinary Art Therapy in Sofia: The Soul of Bulgarian Cooking

Culinary art therapy in Sofia: “The Soul of Bulgarian Cooking” invites you to experience cooking as a personal encounter with yourself. Food can stir a memory, your body can register it, and your inner world can respond. In this workshop, flavour opens a conversation about your roots, your feelings and the stories you carry.

Explore your roots through traditional cooking

The workshop is part of a joint project by “Prosto Fokus – Kitchen for the Soul” and Menu Culinary School. It combines preparing food with an opportunity to explore ancestral memory and your own inner world. The dishes you create offer more than flavour: they also hold symbolism and personal meaning.

Working in the kitchen becomes a kind of ritual, with each action offering a possible step towards a deeper understanding of yourself. As you prepare the food, you can notice the connections between familiar home-cooked flavours, your sense of belonging and your personal experiences.

Two facilitators with complementary perspectives

Chef Ivelina Ivanova will guide you through preparing some of the best-loved traditional recipes. The emphasis is on their authentic, home-cooked character and the flavours that make them feel familiar and meaningful.

Alongside the cooking, psychotherapist Verzhiniya Petkova will guide your attention towards the layers of experience, association and symbolism that food and your roots may bring to the surface. The practical work and the inner exploration unfold together, rather than as separate parts of the workshop.

Cook with your whole self

This is an invitation to experience food with more than your palate. You are encouraged to bring your whole self to the process and learn to listen to your inner voice as you chop, knead or season. Familiar movements can become opportunities to notice what you feel and what comes into your mind.

Rather than approaching cooking only as an everyday task, you will explore it as a conscious way of connecting with your body, emotions and thoughts. This perspective also makes room for archetypes: the inner images and patterns that can shape your experiences.

Who this experience is for

If food means more to you than calories and recipes, this workshop offers space to explore that deeper relationship. It is for you if you see food as a keeper of stories, a source of comfort and restoration, a reason for people to gather, and a way to reconnect with yourself.

Through traditional cooking, the experience invites you to engage with something authentic, genuine and beautiful. Its therapeutic focus describes the approach to food and personal exploration, rather than promising a particular healing outcome.

What your voucher includes

• A culinary art therapy workshop place for one person.
• All necessary ingredients and materials.

Practical details and reservations

• Location: Sofia.
• Duration: 3 hours.
• Minimum age: 18.
• The workshop takes place in a group with other participants you may not have met before.
• A minimum of 5 participants is required for the event to go ahead.
• Advance reservation is required for a scheduled date, at least 24 hours before the event.

The published schedule lists 10 October 2026, from 19:00 to 22:00. This listing does not confirm a future place; a current date needs to be agreed when you make your reservation.

Cancellation condition

The organiser allows free cancellation up to 48 hours before the reserved session. This event-specific condition is not a general Adventico voucher refund policy.

Choose an Adventico voucher for time spent exploring flavour, memory and connection, or give the experience to someone close to you. Your purchase is a voucher for the workshop, not an immediately confirmed booking: the date and participation are confirmed through a subsequent reservation.