“In Our Hands: Nothing but the Handle of the Frying Pan”: The Entanglement of Food in Nationalism and Communist Nostalgia Rhetoric in Contemporary Bulgaria

This study explores the intersection of food and national identity in contemporary Bulgaria, focusing on the interplay between nationalist ideologies and nostalgia for the communist past. It argues that food is being activated as a potent symbolic and operative category for constructing identity, reflecting and amplifying broader political and economic dynamics. It demonstrates how nationalist and nostalgic discourses, which utilize food as a topic, share significant thematic overlap. They both romanticize the socialist era based on myths and reject liberal values, and they share anti-European rhetoric and pro-Putinist and anti-Ukrainian sentiments. The study highlights the mechanisms through which political and economic actors leverage food narratives to promote divisive ideologies.