In 1939, the Gundel Restaurant became the official restaurant of the Hungarian Pavilion at the New York World's Fair.

The 1939 New York World's Fair was one of the largest and most important world's fairs, attracting more than 44 million visitors. Hungary had a special place at this event, as the official restaurant of the Hungarian pavilion was the famous restaurant run by Károly Gundel. The Gundel Restaurant was highly acclaimed, and in 1939 it was mentioned in the New York Times, which said: "The Gundel restaurant is a bigger, better advertisement for Budapest than a boatload of tourist brochures."

"There are still a few restaurants in Europe where you can get a good meal for good money, but the big gourmet establishments of yesteryear are now extinct, as is the European restaurateur who has taken his profession to an artistic level by creating new dishes and changing the old ones. One of the last representatives of this art is Károly Gundel, 65." - was later published in The New Yorker.

Károly Gundel paid special attention to the fact that the raw materials used for food should come from Hungary, so he sent seeds to New York a year before the World Expo, so that Hungarian vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers could be grown there. With this event, he made a significant contribution to the international promotion of Hungarian cuisine and further built the reputation of Gundel Restaurant.

Its participation in the World Expo was a major moment for Hungarian gastronomy and hospitality, putting the Gundel name on the international gastronomy map

The Gundel name has undoubtedly become legendary worldwide, but it was not about brand building on his part, but rather about passionately living a life of talent, humility and immense drive.

Károly Gundel worked from early in the morning until late at night, with his attention on everything, his vision and his control. In the morning he sorted out the fresh vegetables at the market. He was also conscious of where and what kind of meat was going into his restaurants: he had his own pig farms, but also gardens, mushroom vineyards and greenhouses. He rented a wine cellar in Budafok, where his own wines bore the Gundel label.

We owe him, if only indirectly, the Gundel pancake. (Sándor Márai's wife, Lola, was a specialist in the nutty, rum-flavoured, bitter chocolate sweet, but the name of the dish, initially called Márai pancakes, had to be changed after the writer's emigration.)

Károly Gundel was interested in all landscapes, all traditions. As he writes: "Take a kitchen whose great-grandfather is Caucasian, great-grandfather Italian, grandfather Turkish, brother-in-law Austrian, uncle French. Find a people with a good palate, a developed taste, and a flair for cooking."

Gundel consciously developed this practice of naming that erased boundaries and spanned historical times. His aim was to unify the existing but unsystematic Hungarian traditions not only on a scientific but also on an emotional basis. It is not enough for the food to be of impeccable quality, it must have a history, it must make the consumer feel that he is part of a great continuing tradition.
Its care and cultivation is still part of Gundel's evolving gastronomy.

The best way to stay true to the Gundel tradition is to bring it up to date.
He would do the same himself if he were here, because he did the same thing in his own time. It's not so much the Gundel recipes one by one, but the Gundel mentality that needs to be mastered and passed on. -Executive chef Viktor Moldován.

The Gundel must be put back in its rightful place, stripped of the nimbus of false luxury, of snobbish inaccessibility.
Gundel is for everyone. This is not an empty phrase, but the essence of Gundel.
As long as Károly Gundel was alive, this was true, because his cuisine abolished class distinctions without questioning the existing social hierarchy. - Jenő Magyary Executive Director

You have to feel it when you're at Gundel, no matter where you come from, how much money you have, what titles you have, the only thing that matters is that you have fun, you'll find the food that's right for you, to your taste, to your budget, without compromising on quality.

Because what is a famous restaurant about if not equality.
The coexistence of different tastes.