The article I compiled on Baker Koço.
In the fire insurance policy issued on behalf of Koço Dimidis on June 3, 1969, the address of Koço's bakery in the Burgaz Island Bazaar can be seen as Çarşı Street No. 26 and Köy Kahyası Street No 3/1. The same place is mentioned in the detailed drawings of Akillas Millas as Vasil's furnace (Greek: φουρνος Βασιλη). In the book of Orhan Türker from Antigoni to Burgaz, the baker's name is referred to as Koço Vasilyadis in the section of the shopkeepers of Antigoni. The baker, probably known as Koço Vasilyadis, may have been registered on the paper as Koço Dimidis. A second possibility is that Koça Vasilyadis's furnace may have been bought by Koço Dimidis. I don't know that for now. I hope we will learn soon with the support of the Burgaz Islanders. (Edit: Thanks for the old school Burgaz Islanders, I learned that the real owner of the oven was Mr. Koço Vasilyadis. Mr. Koço Dimidis bought it from him. There was asol Mihal before the baker Vasil.)
Orhan Türker, From Antigoni to Burgaz p.30
Next to Lambo's restaurant was Koço Vasilyadis's oven. The pastry would be in front of the people for their opening and cookies. Especially on Sundays, he used to cook large burrito and meat trays sent from houses for a small fee, on a wood fire. Fırıncı Koço went to Greece by joining the migration wave of Greeks in the late 1970s.
Bercuhi Berberyan (Tatiana), Burgaz Island My Darling, p.129-130
Baker Koço is one of the unforgettable types of old Burgas. Nothing like him was on any island. It didn't look like any more. Everything from his oven would have a different taste.
Cookies, sweet savory biscuits, cakes, small sandwiches, pastries, croissant and baton shakes, rose or strawberry jam in the middle, powdered puffs, croissants, fatty rings and much more ... also puff pastry. Unforgettable puff pastry.
He would have done specially beforehand. He should have gone to the time he gave. It had to be eaten fresh. If he stayed the next day, he would not sell or throw it. I have never eaten a puff pastry like hers until now.
The kitchens of the island houses were not as comfortable as now. Nobody in the kitchen had an oven. Tubes and electric hobs came out later. In the past, everyone had gas burners with or without a pump in their home.
For the dishes that he had to bake, there were uniforms on the stove that made it possible to cook, or huge, round, clumped, funny drum ovens. Though my mother used to make cakes, donuts, pastries, and even cakes with those strange tools, but they were counted on a small scale.
When the guests came, a tray was always taken to Koço. Koço wrote his name on a small piece of paper and put it in the middle of the dish. When the time came, he would find everyone's tray with paper that was roasted and darkened with that meal.
It would not even need to read the article that was deleted most of the time. Because he knew everyone and remembered the tray he brought. Neither thighs, paper kebabs, fish, nor donuts have passed. From the oven of Koço ...
What I have never forgotten and cannot find anywhere else is the pain d'epice (pen depis read). It is a dark, hard colored cake flavored with honey, which contains all kinds of spices but not necessarily ginger. It has such a special and unusual taste that an advanced taste is required to be addicted ... Well mine is very developed.
The taste and flavor of Pain d'epice has a strange, mysterious atmosphere that evokes the old. Although the recipe came from France, it was made as a festive cake in St.Nicola, but its history goes back to the 10th century, to Egypt, to Rome, and even to China before. In terms of gingerbread ... In the same way in England it is called gingerbread.
When people wonder what they are learning ... I was able to research and learn them with the pleasure of the very special taste that Koço loved me. Now I would share it with you in a snap, but I have been in the "if I eat it" mode for hours and its smell keeps smoking in my nose ...
In Koço's oven, everything was cooked with wood fire and Koço's wood was stacked in Taso's garden. Since it is adjacent to the wall of the cinema, the firewood that allows us to climb into the cinema by climbing on it!
Antigoni Mou Blog, (http://antigonimou.blogspot.com/)
A line from Amir Soryano's Burgaz poem:
The baker, Koço, became a past,
Both the taste and smell of that grape ponice on my nose.
From Rozi Boyman's Burgazada: My childhood paradise garden article:
The indispensable of our afternoon breakfasts is the smell of bakery Koço's grape puffs, sesame and oily bagels ...
Invoices
How wonderful it would be to eat various flavors from the Baker Koço's oven. However, the documents are also so delicious and plentiful.
1) Atlas Ticaret Zohrap Parseğyan, 16 July 1975: 10 sacks of flour
2) Koço Sofianopulos, 4 October 1965: 25 kg fresh yeast, 5kg black seed, 3kg sesame
3) Koço Sofianopulos, 22 April 1965: 25kg fresh yeast, 10kg black seed, 10kg sesame 4) Aleksandros Alaterzioğlu, 27 September 1975, 2000 eggs
