Abstract
The increased consumption of natural and organic products, which fits into the concept of healthy nutrition, can be seen in the growing interest of consumers in Bulgaria to hand-made bread offered in small bakeries. Owners of small bakery enterprises have discovered, adapted, and applied technologies and means of production known for the past and from the Bulgarian tradition, which they declare as “real” and “pure”: completely in line with the requirement of consumers for production and supply of healthy food products. In the article, I study how, with the help of cultural means of expression, the bakers construct an image of their goods, in which the qualities “home-made”, “author’s”, “craft” are skillfully combined with the characteristics “dietary”, “ecological”, “healthy”. I test the hypothesis that the “revival” and the symbolic valuation of the declared “authentic”, “real”, “ancient” specialized productions and technologies represent attempts for cultural legitimacy of labor and strategies for economic survival and stabilization of small entrepreneurs in the conditions of the uncertain and unfavorable economic environment in Bulgaria.
Keywords: hand-made bread, small bread producers, cultural approaches, symbolic valuation, healthy nutrition
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