So here we are, past Easter, at what seems to be the tail end of yet another wave of Covid, but things strangely look a bit more optimistic this time around (perhaps because it can’t be that bad anymore, can it?). The Czech Republic has been either shut or locked down since October 2020 (with the exception of two weeks in early December), and the state of emergency is set to end in less than a week, and some restrictions will be lifted, with hopefully more to follow.
So it’s time to look into the future, and write about things to look forward to. And one of the things we look forward to is to see young Czech chefs, often with extensive and high-profile experience from abroad, coming back to the Czech Republic and using that experience to feed us. And after a year of closed restaurants, boy do we need feeding!
So this is just a small overview of some of the young chefs we look forward to get fed by. It is by no means exhaustive, and the definition of „young“ is a bit wobbly and based on our personal assumptions, but you get the drift, right?
Follow these chefs to know what’s up. That’s what we’re trying to say here.
Lukáš Hlaváček
We won’t lie: we’re super excited about Lukáš Hlaváček: the new executive chef of Hotel Alcron’s restaurants is young, but with long stints at London’s The Ledbury and Napa Valley’s Meadowood, he is the person to push Czech cuisine forward. Way forward. When we heard him on Clubhouse, we immediately knew we needed to record a podcast with him, and it only confirmed what we thought: Lukáš has a vision and the discipline to fulfil that vision.
Watch out for him when he reopens Alcron’s La Rotonde in (hopefully) the summer… and Be Bop Bar and - oooh, fingers crossed - Alcron restaurant at some later point.
BTW, Lukáš will be serving our very last Eating Alone Together dinner this Saturday, and it looks amazing. Just sayin’.
Katka Jakusová
Not many chefs in Prague can say they went on a stage to Copenhagen’s iconic Noma and stayed there for full three months, and were moved to a more responsible and visible position in the process. But Katka can. You can listen about her Noma experience in our podcast here (in Czech only though). The really talented yet down-to-earth and almost shy Katka was later promoted to the position of a sous-chef at Karlín’s Eska, but quit just weeks ago and will now move to head the kitchen at the soon-to-open deli by Vinohrady’s Kus koláče, founded by two Eska alumni, Nika Vavrová and her long-time collaborator Jarda.
We can’t wait to say „20 deka vlašáku“ to Katka in her new place. We know that she will respect the genre yet bring her expertise to the game… and that’s what makes this exciting.
Jirka Horák
Ever the quiet one, it may take a longer time to notice Jirka than other chefs. But you should know that behind the quiet demeanour is a chef who is a La Degustation Boheme Bourgeise alumni with experience from the UK, namely the Essex-based The Hurstwood restaurant, or stages at Kadeau, Maaemo and D.O.M., who has come back and has been gathering experience and a following doing various pop-ups, mostly with Tomáš Valchovič, Eska’s executive chef, and with his partner Anna, an Eska alumni, too.
Right now he is the de-facto executive chef at Eska, but he is moving up ranks within Ambiente, and ready to become a member of Ambiente’s Creative Chefs team that helps the restaurant group’s individual venues whenever they are back in business.
Pic taken from Tomáš Valkovič’s FB profile.
Projekt Ze mě
To say that Projekt Ze mě, which cooked one of the best Eating Alone Together dinners during the pandemic, is a project of Petr Židek (currently of Kro Kitchen) and Vojta Nemrava (ex-Výčep, currently Etapa and Osada), would be a huge understatement. It is actually more of a movement of young chefs that also include Tomáš Urban, one of the original bakers at Kro Bakery who also used to work at Výčep, and maybe Eliška Hromková (see below). The keywords to the philosophy is foraging, wilderness, the forest, and real fire. The flavours are strong and the dishes are inventive.
So far, Projekt Ze mě has been doings pop ups in friendly places around town, but right now they are looking for their own place, ideally a post-industrial place with outdoor space for an… you guessed it… open fire. Anybody know about something like that? Give them a call.
Pic by Ze mě projekt.
Bára Šimůnková
Bára has always had the goal to do „things as best as you can“ (as she professed in our podcast), and the only way to learn that is to work at places where they do exactly that. That is why she worked at Alain Ducasse’s Rivea, NYC’s Jungsik and then Le Bernardin, Per Sé, with a short stint at Eleven Madison Park. And she did not stage there, no no, she worked there as a chef. Not many Czech chefs can say they actually cooked in three 3-Michelin star restaurants during their lifetime.
When she came back, she learnt to bake at Pekárna Praktika, one of our favorite bakeries in Prague, and she’s still doing a bit of that at Kro Bakery right now. Since her project, Sacra, opened just weeks before the coronavirus pandemic hit, she hasn’t yet had the chance to show her real potential in a kitchen she would head. But when she does, watch out!
Eliška Hromková
You may have noticed Eliška in the kitchen of Výčep and taking part of various pop ups and dinners by Ze mě projekt. She has Michelin-star experience from Copenhagen, having worked at Kiin Kiin. In Výčep, she was the go-to chef for just about anything, but she has recently left Výčep to pursue other projects. Watch out for her, too: we’ve known her to be a great, talented and hard-working chef with a bright future if you ask us.
Tomáš Cibulka
“I’d like to spend my work time upstairs, and my free time downstairs.” That was our favorite quote when we visited La Degustation Boheme Bourgeoise with our tour, and Tomáš happened to be our guide that day. That was his answer to the question whether he likes the restaurant kitchen upstairs, or the food lab downstairs.
But Tomáš does not work at La Degustation anymore: he left a year ago to build Nhà hai hành, an inspiring Vietnamese bistro with his wife Tinni. The bistro cooks like no other, and it is fun to see Vietnamese home cooking prepared by a former Michelin-star chef. And we have the feeling Tomáš and Tinnier are just getting started. Yay.