Read the book: «12 Recipes of Adyghe Cuisine»

To my grandmother

Aklima Barieva

© Inga Kazancheva, 2025

ISBN 978-5-0067-6829-1

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Introduction

In the childhood memories of every good cook, there’s a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot, and a mom.

Barbara Costikyan

Thank you for choosing this book. You are invited on a culinary journey through the North Caucasus! On the pages of this book, you will find step-by-step instructions and information on how to prepare and serve the top-rated Adyghe dishes. The book also includes the lessons of the famous Adyghe chef Boris Kubatiev, my grandmother’s wise tips, Adyghe proverbs, and food stories of the Adyghe people. I hope the book 12 Recipes of Adyghe Cuisine will be interesting and useful to you.

Before I move on to the main content, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the North Caucasian groups – Circassians, Kabardians and Adygeans – refer to themselves as Adyghe. The surrounding peoples, however, call them Circassians. Therefore, Adyghe cuisine is often called Circassian.

The Success Formula

“You must know the work you do every day professionally,” said Ai Mo, the speaker from Canada, and paused. An audience of 300 people waited for his speech to continue. Suddenly, he asked, “How many of you cook every day?” For the participants in the seminar, this question was unexpected. Almost everyone raised their hands.

“And how many of you studied cooking?” Ai Mo himself raised his hand. Only one woman and I followed suit. The speaker looked around the audience. “Cooking is a science,” he said. “Everyone who cooks every day must have the appropriate knowledge and skills. The health of a family depends on the knowledge of the cook. Before becoming a chef in your own kitchen, you need to learn cooking.”

I remembered this success formula taught by the Canadian business coach Ai Mo. When I want to learn something new, I look for the best teachers. Often the first – and sometimes the only – teachers are books. And these books can lead to true masters of the craft. That’s exactly what happened to me. I wanted to know how diet affects health, so I read books about it. These books led me to study the traditional cuisine of my people, who are famous for their health, longevity, and beauty.

The Unique School

The first – and so far, the only – Adyghe Culinary School was founded in 1994 in Nalchik, the capital of the North Caucasian Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, by the Kabardian chef Boris Kubatiev. For several years, he traveled to the villages and cities of the North Caucasus, where the Adyghe people live, studying and collecting traditional recipes from Adyghe cuisine.

The Adyghe Culinary School worked for eight years and over the years the famous chef has taught only 52 students. Boris Kubatiev taught no more than four students at a time. “A larger number of students will negatively affect the quality of practical classes,” he said.

After Boris Kubatiev closed his school, he published two books containing more than 800 recipes of Adyghe (Circassian) cuisine.

I came to the Culinary School “Kubati” later than the other students. “You’ve come at the right time,” he said. “You haven’t missed the most important thing. Next week, we start practical classes. So far, the students have only written down the recipes, but that’s not enough to learn how to cook. The only thing that matters is what you learn to do with your own hands.”

The teacher asked us to call him just by his first name. In Russian, it is customary to address teachers by their first name and patronymic. But in the Kabardino-Circassian language, being called by first name alone is a polite way of addressing people, including teachers. The chef followed the rules of the Kabardino-Circassian language, and that made him different from other teachers.

The Distance between Dreams

and Reality is Called Discipline

Boris prioritized a clean and organized kitchen for food safety and quality control. He said that only a disciplined person can become a good cook. The teacher demanded that we have a starched chef’s hat, an ironed apron, and a change of shoes.

My daughter Ingret was four years old at that time. She wanted to attend classes with me, and the teacher did not mind. Boris called Ingret Babitsa. He found joy in feeding her: “Eat, eat, my little Babitsa!” My daughter liked this Adyghe name for little girls that “Grandpa Boris” gave her.

The Idea of Taking Notes

Before starting the practical classes, the teacher warned us: “If you don’t often cook the traditional dishes, you will forget the cooking methods over time.” At that moment, I decided to take notes to retain more detailed information. My goal was to capture my learning experience in my journal.

These detailed notes helped me later, at any time and step by step, to recreate the methods of cooking traditional Adyghe dishes and to improve my cooking skills over time. The starting point for this book was the idea my daughter Ingret had – that Adyghe recipes could inspire both chefs and home cooks.

I gave myself time to read over my learning notes and to think about how this information could help others discover more ideas for comfort cooking and learn more about the Adyghe people. I am very grateful to Ingret for motivating me to create my own cookbook in English.

I decided to write a book to share the culture of the Adyghe people with the help of their cuisine. It is an honor for me to introduce you to the centuries-old Adyghe cuisine, which is a rarity in the Western world. Enjoy the cuisine that you might otherwise never encounter.

From the Stories about Hodja:

What Can You Do without a Recipe?

Once a famous chef treated Hodja to fried liver. Hodja liked the dish so much that he asked the chef for the recipe and wrote it down on a piece of paper. Then he bought two pounds of fresh liver and went home.

Suddenly, a big bird snatched the meat out of Hodja’s hand and flew away. “You can have the liver, but I have the recipe! And what can you do without a recipe?” shouted Hodja.

A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.

Thomas Keller

Chapter 1. Adyghe Supper for the German Friends

Happiness comes with a guest.

Adyghe proverb

In 1985, as a university student, I visited the German Democratic Republic. The Kabardino-Balkarian State University sent me to Dresden as an interpreter for a student construction team from Nalchik. The best students from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Mozambique, the Soviet Union, and the German Democratic Republic gathered at the international camp “Raduga”.

At the holiday called “Day of Nations”, our team performed the aristocratic Adyghe dance “Kafa”. Everyone liked not only the traditional dance and clothing, but also the Adyghe etiquette – a code of values known as the “Adyghe Khabze”: respect for elders and women, honor, hospitality.

That evening we decided to surprise the camp leaders Frank and Ralph with Adyghe dishes as well. Our German friends accepted our invitation with enthusiasm.

Boiled chicken with sauce is a classic dish of Adyghe cuisine. We were sure that this hearty dish would make a pleasant impression on our new friends.

No sooner said than done! The table was set at 6 p.m., and our friends were also on time.

While Ralph, the main leader of the camp, tried to eat with a fork and knife, as formal dining etiquette requires, Frank, the cultural leader, showed more ingenuity.

“Can I eat it with my fingers?” he asked.

“Yes, of course! It’s a common practice in our culture. We eat boiled chicken with our hands,” I replied.

Frank put aside the cutlery and enjoyed his meal while Ralph spent the evening trying to separate meat from the bones with a fork and knife. But both Ralph and Frank could not resist the wonderful sauce, and they used the pasta to soak it up.