By Trend

The International Culinary Festival in Azerbaijan’s Shusha brought together guests from all over the world, famous Russian chef, TV presenter and video blogger, author of books devoted mainly to Uzbek and Azerbaijani cuisine, Stalik Khankishiyev told Trend, while visiting Shusha as part of the festival.

“All the foreign guests were struck by Baku at first, but when we arrived at the territories liberated from Armenian occupation [in the 2020 second Karabakh war], I had to explain them what happened here,” Khankishiyev said. “I spoke about the ancient history of Shusha city and its liberation, and we were met with applause from the guests.”

“I was born in Uzbekistan and once upon a time my great countryman Amir Timur built large buildings, and when his entourage asked why they need to construct such buildings that require huge funds, he answered - let people come from other countries and see what kind of people we are,” he said.

“Figuratively paraphrasing, I want to say - let people come from other countries, taste Azerbaijani dishes and find out what kind of people - talented and sympathetic, brave and kind live here," added.

The First Shusha International Culinary Festival was organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan.

The festival, which lasted from May 5 until May 8, brought together culinary specialists and international experts, representatives of the food industry, bloggers from Turkey, Germany, Russia, Austria, China, France, Georgia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Turkey, Japan, Belgium, Czech Republic, Canada, Republic of Korea, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries. Various economic regions of Azerbaijan were represented at the festival.

The International Culinary Festival featured not only dishes of various nations around the world, but also material and spiritual values ??of different countries.