The “bougatsa” (cream filled pastry) dominated the Greek area after the Asia Minor disaster from the Northern Greece to Ipirus and from the Peloponisso to Crete.

     It was specially naturalized as Serea and Thessalonikia, as in the Northern Greece there was accommodated a great number of refugees from the Asia Minor.

     Etymological, bougatsa or bogatsa is another word for the othomanic word “pogatsa” which means “pie filled with cream poured over with sugar” or  “pie filled
with cheese”. According to othomanic dictionaries the word “pogatsa” comes from the italic word “foccacia” that means the “sweet pie”.

     Well known people from Istanbul that knew how to make bougatsa, transferred this ‘art’ to the Greek ground.These people were; in Serres, Diamantis Fegariotis from the Karakii of Galatas, who established the homonymous store in Serres, Stavros
Stavridis who was an expert in “shista” or else “peinirli”, Konstantinos Kariofilis, who started producing and distributing bogatses as a wandering salesman in 1919. In 1947 he opened the store “Anoteron”. 

     In the procedure of making “bougatsa”, an important factor is the perfect pastry sheet for which high quality of flour and oil is required.

     The pastry sheet of bougatsa is hand made and requires great craftmanship and taste. After the making of the pastry, it is divided in small rounds, that are spread with oil and left to grow double. From a small round of pastry, the craftsman creates the perfect pastry sheet thanks to his capability. First he unfolds the pastry sheet to the size of the pie, and starts to throw it up in the air 3-7 times until it becomes thin and with the desired dimensions.