One hundred and eighty years ago, on 3 March 1844, J\u00e1nos Gundel, the founder of one of Hungary\u2019s most renowned hotel and restaurant dynasties, was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was born in Ansbach, Bavaria, as the son of a master baker named Johann Gundel. After his father\u2019s death, his mother could not afford the cost of his education, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he was thirteen, with 30 forints in his pocket, he was sent to Pest to work in the restaurant run by his stepfather\u2019s brother-in-law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He served pints of beer as a barman at the pub called \u2018To the Last Penny\u2019, and as he was skilful and hard-working \u2013 and could speak five languages \u2013 he quickly rose through the ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was first employed on the glass-enclosed veranda of the T\u00e9li S\u00f6rh\u00e1z, and later at the Arany Sas inn in the city centre. By the age of eighteen, he was already head waiter, and his position was further strengthened when, in 1869, he married the owner\u2019s niece, Anna Kommer. After his marriage, he set up on his own and opened his first restaurant on Kir\u00e1ly Street. The B\u00e9csi S\u00f6rh\u00e1z \u2013 the setting for Kr\u00fady\u2019s short story *In My Happy Youth* \u2013 enticed customers with Viennese beef (tafelspitz \u2013 tender braised beef served with vegetables, soup, potatoes and gravy), Viennese schnitzel, braised lung and Austrian beer served alongside them. Two years later, he took over and revitalised the Vir\u00e1gbokor restaurant on J\u00f3zsef N\u00e1dor Square, where traders from the nearby grain exchange sought relief from their nerves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several celebrities have visited here; the painter K\u00e1roly Lotz even gave him a painting, which has been hung in the private room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To the great surprise of the profession, Gundel retired at the age of barely thirty-five and threw himself into public life. As chairman of the Hoteliers\u2019 and Restaurateurs\u2019 Trade Association, and as a member of the Budapest City Council, he made significant efforts to organise vocational education; in 1885, he was awarded the Knight\u2019s Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having amassed a tidy fortune in the hospitality trade and as the father of five children, he returned when he took over the Archduke Istv\u00e1n Hotel on the corner of Akad\u00e9mia Street and Vigy\u00e1z\u00f3 Ferenc Street. He brought the new establishment to the attention of the public in the following manner in the 29 September 1889 issue of the *Vad\u00e1sz \u00e9s Versenylap*:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201eMy primary aim will be to ensure that, under my personal management, the strictest standards of cleanliness, the most attentive and helpful service, excellent cuisine and wine cellar, and the most reasonable prices, to make this hotel one of the most pleasant places to stay in our capital and to provide a welcoming home for the travelling public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He ran the hotel until 1904; in 2016, a commemorative plaque was unveiled on the fa\u00e7ade of the building on Akad\u00e9mia Street in his honour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hotel, which is justly famous for its cuisine, enjoyed its heyday under his management; it was here that members of the neighbouring Academy would meet, and it was here that the Kisfaludy Society held its banquets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
K\u00e1lm\u00e1n Tisza, M\u00f3r J\u00f3kai and Baron J\u00e1nos Kem\u00e9ny all dined at Gundel\u2019s; they were fond of this distinguished, quiet and cosy retreat. For one of her favourite guests, K\u00e1lm\u00e1n Miksz\u00e1th, she had a separate suite prepared, and she went out of her way to ensure the writer\u2019s every need was met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He even created a whole menu in his honour; Miksz\u00e1th\u2019s works inspired dishes such as Lohinai herb-crusted fish, the T\u00f3t brothers\u201e fish dumplings, Br\u00e9z\u00f3i goose \u00e0 la Miksz\u00e1th, \u201dPigeon in a Cage\u2019 and \u2018That Which Sweetens the Soul\u2019. When Miksz\u00e1th mentioned that he would like to eat a soup that encapsulated all the flavours of Hungarian cuisine, Gundel created the Pal\u00f3c soup \u2013 still popular today \u2013 in honour of the \u2018great Pal\u00f3c\u2019, using onions, paprika, minced meat, vegetables, potatoes, green beans and sour cream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the grand opening of the Miksz\u00e1th Room in 1894, \u201epal\u00f3czleves\u201d was already on the menu; it began its conquest of the culinary world in 1935 as a dish served by his son, K\u00e1roly Gundel, at a dinner competition organised for restaurateurs, began its conquest of the culinary world. The younger Gundel, who carried on the family tradition, had the hospitality trade running through his veins, but unlike his father, he never picked up a wooden spoon; instead, he composed the harmony of flavours in his mind. In 1910, he bought the Wampetics restaurant in City Park and renamed it Gundel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The elder Gundel retired once again in 1904, devoting his time and energy to promoting professional organisation and training. He held numerous positions, including that of member of the Permanent Committee of Wine Tasting Experts, honorary president of the National Restaurant Association, member of the Budapest Coffeehouse Trade Association, elder of the Lutheran Church, and a member of the Lip\u00f3tv\u00e1ros Savings Bank. He is credited with introducing professional qualifications for the catering trade and establishing international links. In 1886, he established a scholarship to support the waiter who produced the best menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His knowledge and precision were legendary in restaurateurs\u2019 circles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He personally checked the menu, the portion sizes and the composition of the dishes; not even the contents of the slop bucket escaped his attention. He created several dishes, and it was he who popularised the Viennese schnitzel in Budapest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was the first to refine Hungarian cuisine \u2013 previously regarded as barbaric and overly spicy \u2013 with the milder, more subtle flavours of international cuisine. He wrote numerous specialist articles in Hungarian and German. In his spare time, he turned wood on a lathe, crafted ivory objects and pottered about in his garden in Budafok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When his son K\u00e1roly went to the front during the First World War, she, aged seventy, took charge of the procurement on his behalf. He died a year later, on 28 December 1915, in Budapest. The new gastronomic culture he had established was carried on by his son, whose name had already become a household name during his lifetime. The Gundel legacy, which subsequent generations also managed skilfully, was designated a \u2018Hungaricum\u2019 in 2014.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One hundred and eighty years ago, on 3 March 1844, J\u00e1nos Gundel, the founder of one of Hungary\u2019s most renowned hotel and restaurant dynasties, was born.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":16668,"template":"","publikacio":[177],"class_list":["post-16669","sajto","type-sajto","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","publikacio-magyar-hirlap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gundel.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sajto\/16669","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\/16669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gundel.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gundel.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"publikacio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gundel.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publikacio?post=16669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}