Since the Gundel Restaurant and Caf\u00e9 in V\u00e1rosliget reopened seven months ago, the stated aim that \u201eGundel belongs to everyone\u201d appears to be coming to fruition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of Hungarian guests has also grown, and the 127-year-old restaurant has found its own path. The concept following the reopening does not lean towards fine dining; rather, the aim is to present the traditional Hungarian dishes that were once characteristic of Gundel, in some cases adapted to the modern day. This is the view of Andr\u00e1s Wolf, corporate chef at S\u00e9f Asztala, the New York Caf\u00e9 and Gundel Restaurant; we spoke to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How do you see Gundel\u2019s position on the Hungarian gastronomic scene at the moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gundel Restaurant and Caf\u00e9 is an institution, our heritage, in which we believe. What we now call Hungarian gastronomy owes a great deal to Gundel. We are following our own path, and fortunately the feedback so far has been positive. Our path is not that of fine dining, but rather that of Hungarian cuisine \u2013 not overly sophisticated, but authentic. Whilst we would like to restore it to its former glory, Gundel belongs to everyone. Our team works very well, but our primary aim is not to secure a Michelin star. We work for our guests; it is up to them to decide whether to choose us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it opened, the aim was to make Gundel popular again amongst as wide an audience as possible in Hungary. Was this objective achieved?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Eighty per cent of our guests are Hungarian. Gundel has not been able to say this about itself very often in recent times. It was our stated aim to achieve this. Of course, we count on our international guests just as much; we\u2019d love for them to visit, but this requires other elements as well. Hospitality isn\u2019t necessarily just about the food; it\u2019s not just a matter of working on the standard of the kitchen and the quality of the dishes, but also about providing an experience. This includes the music, the interior and the location, which is already a given. The service itself must also be an experience, which depends on the personality of the waiting staff. You have to love the guests and the hospitality business; you can only put your heart into it if you feel comfortable doing so, and the guest senses this too. There are no templates that work 100 per cent of the time. Of course, there are rules for service, but personality is just as important.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n To what extent do rising costs make themselves felt in everyday life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone is working, each at their own level, to overcome these difficulties. We\u2019ve also made a major investment in energy efficiency, and we\u2019re careful about which ingredients we order. Unfortunately, some ingredients have become so expensive that it\u2019s no longer possible to sell dishes made from them at a reasonable price, so we simply can\u2019t include such dishes on the menu. Goose leg is a very topical and, in any case, popular ingredient at the moment, currently costing 7,000 forints per kilo. This means that if I were to give a guest even just half a kilo of goose leg \u2013 raw \u2013 to take home and roast, I\u2019d still have to charge 3,500 forints for it, and if I were to serve it on a plate, I\u2019d have to charge 10,000\u201312,000 forints, which is completely unrealistic. So, this dish is definitely missing from our St Martin\u2019s Day menu. Unfortunately, it\u2019s not just us but a great many restaurants that are struggling with this problem. Of course, there are also restaurants that operate at a price point where they can afford to charge considerably more for a dish, but it\u2019s more likely that there will be more who cannot do so. Not to mention that there will also be more guests who are unwilling or unable to pay that price.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n How can they optimise their costs?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Operating a business cost-effectively has become a far more demanding task than ever before. There are many factors in a restaurant that influence costs, ranging from the modernity of the heating system and insulation to the restaurant\u2019s other features. This has become a primary consideration not only in the hospitality industry but also at home. I think people are now much more mindful of ensuring their lifestyle is as waste-free as possible. For the time being, we have temporarily stopped serving breakfast at Gundel; by doing so, we have shortened our opening hours and are able to keep costs down. \u2018The Chef\u2019s Table\u2019 is closed on Sundays and Mondays, so we don\u2019t have to switch on the two energy-intensive ovens, which take two hours just to heat up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone must find their own ways of getting through this very difficult period; at the same time, they must offer services at prices that people can afford, that meet their needs, and that they are willing to pay for. This is a complex task and involves a great deal of work. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n How would you describe the sort of dishes that feature on the Gundel menu?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t like the term \u2018reimagined\u2019. We prefer to think through what we\u2019re doing, why we\u2019re doing it and how we\u2019re doing it whilst we\u2019re working. It\u2019s not about finding the absolute best ingredients available on the market, but rather the ingredient that works best for that particular dish. For example, finding the best chicken for chicken paprikash \u2013 but that same chicken won\u2019t be suitable for grilled chicken. There\u2019s no such thing as \u2018the best\u2019: there\u2019s just what\u2019s best for that particular dish. Nor do you necessarily need to use the flour with the highest protein content for dumplings, but if you\u2019re baking bread, you\u2019ll need to use a different type of flour again. This search also requires a great deal of attention and hard work. When I say we think these dishes through, it also means finding the best ingredients and the best techniques for each particular dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is there a dish on the current menu that\u2019s particularly close to your heart?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Braised beef was my favourite dish as a child. My mum used to make it this way, and I\u2019ve carried on serving it the same way from home. My mum used to serve compote with the braised beef, and that\u2019s how we serve it at Gundel too.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n What makes a dish really good?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When we cook the dishes for the tasting menu, we taste everything. We eat with a spoon: we\u2019re chefs, so we eat everything with a spoon \u2013 even toffee floss. When we were cooking the dishes for the current menu, we ate everything we\u2019d prepared. We realised that a dish is ready when we start eating it with a spoon and can\u2019t stop. Until that moment arrives, we still have to work on it, because it isn\u2019t perfect. We have to keep working on it until we reach the point where we don\u2019t want to stop; then the guests will feel it too, and all the hard work will pay off on the plate.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since the Gundel Restaurant and Caf\u00e9 in V\u00e1rosliget reopened seven months ago, the stated aim that \u201eGundel belongs to everyone\u201d appears to be coming to fruition.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":13505,"template":"","publikacio":[137],"class_list":["post-13369","sajto","type-sajto","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","publikacio-dining-guide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gundel.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sajto\/13369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gundel.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sajto"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gundel.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sajto"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gundel.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sajto\/13369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gundel.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gundel.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"publikacio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gundel.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publikacio?post=13369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n