Recipe to Restrauant Jarmala Beef Kishaba Platter
F ood in the Czech republic has long been known for being unpretentious and stolid – "food for diggin' holes", as an American expat once put it to me over a large plate of doughy knedliky (dumplings) and boiled meat in a Prague brewery.
This traditional lumpen fare is what tourists still expect to eat on a trip to eastern Europe – and there are still many places where you can sample it. But the past few years have seen a slew of contemporary restaurants open in Prague, offering excellent modern cuisine.
My first encounter was with Andrea Accordi's sumptuous homemade ravioli at the Four Seasons' acclaimed Allegro restaurant (Veleslavínova 2a, fourseasons.com/prague) – which raised the bar for Prague dining and, in 2008, was the first to be awarded a Michelin star in a post-communist country. It was about as far from stodgy as you can get, and in the same class as the restaurant's romantic vistas across the river towards Prague castle.
Haute Czech food has long been available in Prague at establishments such as V Zatisi (Betlémské nám/Liliová 1, zatisigroup.cz/en/vzatisi), whose tasting menus, while pricey, are nothing short of a culinary revelation in terms of "updated" local cuisine. The kulajda soup is served with sour cream and a quail's egg, the pan-fried pike perch (or zander) is superb, and the apple strudel would be suitable for a Habsburg monarch.
Less formal, slightly cheaper and more focused on the Czech culinary traditions of duck and game is U Modré Kachnicky (Nebovidská 6, umodrekachnicky.cz), whose cosy interior is reminiscent of a grandmother's home, and the food accordingly comforting. The richness of dishes such as wild boar and glazed duck breasts (not to mention the excellent sauces) similarly hark back to an older and more refined era.
More and more restaurants in the city are busy upgrading familiar prosaic classics into lighter and ultimately more palatable fare. Pavel Maurer, the man behind the Prague-based Grand Restaurant guide and the annual Prague Food Festival (praguefoodfestival.com), is one of the key protagonists in a growing network of people who are changing the image of Czech cuisine, aiming for both higher standards and more affordable prices.
"Most of our good food habits were destroyed under socialism," says Maurer. "During this time, there were only three kinds of foreign restaurants in Prague: Russian, Indian and Chinese. You had to book a table two months ahead. Other restaurants cooked pretty much all the same food with very limited variants."
Things are very different now. Last year, around 50 new venues opened, many of them run by restaurateurs aware of an increasing, recession-led demand for simpler food that is good value for money and preferably local, yet without the stodge.
This year's Grand Restaurant guide, which draws on an anonymous group of chefs and critics as well as the general public, to rank hundreds of Czech restaurants, underlined a new shift away from upmarket international eateries (Allegro slipped down the list, despite holding onto its Michelin star) in favour of places such as Lokal (Dlouhá 33, ambi.cz), which offers simple, good Czech dishes.
At the top of the list was a restaurant many believe should have won a Michelin star years ago, La Dégustation Bohême Bourgeoise (Haštalská 18, ladegustation.cz). Run by Oldrich Sahajadak, a legendary figure in Prague's culinary circles and known for his quiet perfectionism, La Dégustation offers seven-course tasting menus. Some are French- and Italian-influenced, but the most popular presents traditional Czech food from the end of the 19th century.
Eating at La Dégustation is a memorable experience. Flawless dishes such as butter-poached Prague ham, freshly smoked beef tongue and fragrant soups are punctuated by weightless palate cleansers and fine wines. Don't even think about going unless you have four hours to spare.
"It's true that the reputation of Czech cuisine is not so good," sighs La Dégustation co-owner and manager Filip Trka, "but we are doing our best to change it. All the ingredients for our Czech tasting menu are from Czech organic farms and small producers. The choice of local products is getting better and better."
Indeed, it has. Back in January, Martin Hoffmeister, head chef at the Ada restaurant (Hotel Hoffmeister, Pod Bruskou 7, hoffmeister.cz), was sourcing as many ingredients as possible from local producers, farmers and hunters but bemoaning the fact that "unfortunately, in the Czech Republic we still don't have those amazing markets where one could buy produce directly from farmers".
His words would prove auspicious: just two months later, the Czech Republic's first ever farmers' market took place, in the Dejvice district. "In 1997, when we were preparing the first release of our first book, The Choice of Prague Restaurants, 90 out of 250 restaurants were proud to present themselves as cooking Czech cuisine," says Pavel Stastny. "But many chefs were using foreign ingredients. Today the produce from Czech farmers is so good, they are able to satisfy the exacting requirements of most chefs."
The local council anticipated about 2,000 visitors to the farmers' market, but 15,000 showed up, creating a slightly surreal scenario with shoppers denuding stalls in under two hours and sending bemused – and presumably delighted – farmers repeatedly back to their farms to collect more produce.
Many of the restaurants mentioned above take part in the annual Prague Food Festival in May, as well in Pavel Maurer's new project, the Grand Restaurant Festival (grand-restaurant.cz/festival) when, for a month between January and February, "ordinary people" (tourists included) can dine at reduced prices at exclusive Prague restaurants.
"Our grandmothers cooked very simply at home," says Maurer, "and the food was great. Now even expensive restaurants are seeing that local people often prefer local food. They've started to understand that not everything from other parts of our world suits our stomachs."
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2010/nov/13/prague-restaurants-fine-czech-cuisine
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