Bosnian Pot in Čestereg | Tourist Calendar of Serbia

The World Championship in Cooking Bosnian Pot is a gastronomic event held every July in the village of Čestereg in the Banat region. The competition in preparing this dish is not only a culinary competition but also entertainment for both the cooks and the audience.

Čestereg is a place in the Banat municipality of Žitište, which was inhabited by Germans and Hungarians for centuries. After the end of World War II, the demographic picture changed completely. Due to the forced displacement of the population from Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than two thousand people from Ključ, Sanski Most, Bosanska Dubica, Prijedor, Banja Luka, Bosanski Novi, and Bosanska Gradiška found refuge here. In this way, along with the Bosnians, the Bosnian Pot arrived in Banat and over time became a tradition that now has its own event.

During the three-day celebration of the village's patron saint, there are performances by cultural and artistic societies, painting colonies, and various competitions, among which the most important one is the World Championship in Cooking Bosnian Pot. On this occasion, the residents of Čestereg and surrounding settlements gather in the park near the church in the center of Čestereg.

This traditional dish, as the name suggests, originates from Bosnia. Considering that it has traveled a long way from the homeland to Banat, it is cooked and prepared differently from place to place. In Čestereg, to prepare Bosnian Pot, the first step is to start a fire and find a suitable pot, preferably an earthen one according to many. Then you need to select the appropriate head of cabbage and other vegetables such as potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, but all of it needs to be measured carefully. Various types of meat are also important ingredients, as well as the secret spices of each cook or team, whose proportions may be crucial.

Patience is particularly important in the preparation of Bosnian Pot. The longer the dish simmers, the better it becomes. However, for the impatient ones, there are also grilled dishes. But if the team gets too relaxed with music and drinks, they might end up without the trophy, so someone always needs to keep an eye on the pot.

After spending hours together by the pot while the specialty cooks slowly on the fire, the teams present their dishes on a plate, which is then evaluated by a professional jury behind closed doors. The dishes are marked with numbers to ensure objectivity in selecting the best one. Some portions are immediately disqualified if they have too much of a certain ingredient, often due to excessive spiciness.

In the final round, the jury tastes each dish multiple times because the nuances determine the winner. Color, aroma, tenderness of meat and vegetables, all of these factors influence the ranking of Bosnian Pot, and the teams that have cooked the three best dishes receive a trophy.

The organizer of this event is the Local Community of Čestereg, and more information about this year's World Championship in Cooking Bosnian Pot can be found in local media.