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What's cooking?

A new culinary institute heralds a tasty trend in Prague

By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
January 23rd, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Eager students are already picking up pointers in the Pražský kulinářsý institut kitchen from chefs such as Dalibor Navrátil.
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COURTESY PHOTO
Chef Jiří Štift
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CLASSES FOR COOKS

Pražský kulinářský institut
Suchdolská 14
Prague 6–Suchdol
Tel.: 220 511 352, 603 584 588
Web: www.prakul.cz

Čerstvá škola vaření/Perfect Restaurant
Soukenická 4
Prague 1–New Town
Tel.: 724 354 065
Web: www.cerstvaskolavareni.cz

Culinaria
Skořepka 9
Prague 1–Old Town
Tel.: 224 231 017 / 774 906 827
Web: www.culinaria.cz

Radisson/Alcron
Štěpánská 40
Prague 1–New Town
Tel.: 222 820 038
Web: www.prague.radissonsas.com

Suddenly, cooking is the city’s “in” thing.
A place once known for pork fat and fried potatoes now hosts a popular TV program revealing the how-to kitchen antics of youngsters Filip Sajler and Ondřej Slanina. When veteran chefs like Jiří Štift of Alcron schedule cooking classes, they sell out quickly.
“Gastronomy is getting to be popular here,” reports Roman Vaněk, an importer of Brazilian wines and instructor in South American cuisine. “It’s cool to be able to talk about it.”
Two weeks ago Vaněk opened the Prague Culinary Institute (Pražský kulinářský institut), in many ways a unique school.
Several top chefs have signed on as instructors, including Štift, Jean-Paul Manzac of Brasserie M and Radek Šubrt from Le Palais. The facility is housed in, well, a suburban house — one with an extensively remodeled ground floor that’s been converted into a professional-style kitchen. And Vaněk has turned the backyard into an herb and vegetable garden.
More significantly, he’s scheduled courses for both professionals and aspiring amateurs.
“I think it’s necessary to have something like this,” says Zdeněk Pohlreich, chef at Café Imperial and one of Vaněk’s pool of instructors. “It’s better when you have people coming from different environments.”
Only a smattering of programs in Prague set amateur cooks shoulder-to-shoulder with working chefs. Sajler and the appropriately named Slanina (Bacon), for example, operate both the restaurant Perfect and a series of classes under the Čerstvá škola vaření label. Other chefs, such as Milan Pešek of Vltava, host occasional demonstrations for the public.
For the most part, however, people must settle for sporadic, wildly popular how-to events hosted by different restaurants.
Vaněk envisions a more purposeful institution, dedicated to teaching culinary basics rather than sharing recipes. Many of his courses emphasize knowledge of different ingredients. “You know Czech people,” he says. “We go to the country and grill, but we don’t know how to grill properly. Where is the taste of the meat? Where is the fresh product? That’s why we decided to do this.”
Despite burgeoning interest in cooking, many people here still cover dishes in salt or cook meat until it’s done, then run it over the heat again for good measure. That’s perhaps why Pavel Maurer, organizer of the Prague Food Festival and publisher of the Grand Restaurant guide, expects “a run of long distance” before the Institute and the serious cooking trend really take off.
“A lot of Czechs think they know food, which they don’t,” Pohlreich agrees. “You need to teach the flavors.”
The Prague Culinary Institute opened Jan. 10 with a schedule of 24 different courses, including a series demystifying wine. Vaněk hopes to expand to 40 courses later in the year, bringing in chefs from around the world and offering a few “start to finish” demonstrations of, for example, gutting a pig to serving fresh sausage.
It’s an ambitious program. Still, Pohlreich expects interest in the culinary arts to continue to grow, and praises amateurs who flock to the various classes around the city.
“I’ll tell you what,” he says. “They remember more than my cooks do.”
    

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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