Goulash is a dish that forms the foundation of Hungarian cuisine and is known in many countries. It owes its international reputation to one of the flagships of Hungarian gastronomy, the Gundel restaurant. It is no surprise that goulash soup with homemade csipetke is still included in Gundel’s National 11 selection today. If you’re curious about the original, come and try it here!

The method for making goulash soup – inspired by goulash (stew, paprika stew) – is quite different from the original shepherds’ goulash, which was cooked outdoors in a bogrács. The goulash stew with paprika was conceived as the basis for the Gundel family the restaurant version of goulash soup, which he subsequently popularised internationally. András Wolf and Viktor Moldován The chefs have not reimagined Gundel’s gastronomic heritage, but instead offer guests Hungarian flavours combined with modern techniques. At Gundel, we can still enjoy the taste of this soup, prepared according to the original recipe.

Goulash as a national dish

The emergence of goulash (stew, paprika stew) as a national dish was closely linked to Joseph II his reform efforts. The monarch’s policies seriously jeopardised Hungary’s legal autonomy, as they With Austria and the Czech Republic wished to incorporate it into a common, unified imperial administrative system. The nobility, fearful for their privileges, believed that, alongside the preservation of the Hungarian language and the revival of traditional Hungarian dress, a simple shepherd’s dish from the Great Plain was the food that would emphasise the unity and distinctive character of the Hungarian people.

Goulash was regarded as a quintessentially Hungarian dish, as it originated in a part of the Great Plain (Nagykunság, Hortobágy) that had been least affected by the „Germanisation” so characteristic of Transdanubia. Paprika did not have a long history of use in Hungarian cuisine either, but its success is indicated by the fact that Count Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg As early as 1794, a traveller from Saxony referred to the paprika dish as a Hungarian national dish: „ein ungarisches National-Gerichte von Fleisch mit türkischen Pfeffer” (a Hungarian national dish made of meat with Turkish pepper [paprika]). In the 1800s, the word ‘goulash’ found its way into dictionaries, followed by the recipe in cookbooks, and in the 1820s – thanks to the Gundel family – it appeared on restaurant menus.

István Széchenyi The count was born in 1830 Loan cIt can be inferred from the preface to his work that the use of paprika as a spice had already become established in the kitchens of the nobility: „…as many consider a true master chef to be one who seasons everything generously with paprika, and only a true Hungarian to be one who actually enjoys it.”