Playing with her food

Experimenting with food was always natural for Lenka Požárová. But creating a series of award-winning cookbooks was not an idea that immediately came to mind.

"Actually, in the beginning I didn't realize I was creative in the kitchen, because for me it was normal that I always ran away from recipes," Požárová says, laughing.

Writing cookbooks grew out of her desire to find more satisfying work. In 2004, after nine years as a tax adviser, Požárová no longer felt like that was the right path for her. After mulling for over a year about what to do next, Požárová had a series of defining moments that led to Což takhle dát si…, which translates as "How about…"

First, there was the night that Požárová's husband and a friend had a brainstorming session. Sitting at the table during their discussion, Požárová got what she calls a waterfall of ideas. "My husband told me, 'Here is paper, here is a pen; write everything that you have in your head,' " she recalls. "On that day, I realized that I really love the food area, and I like to experiment when I'm cooking."

That was followed by a visit to a bookstore in Vienna where she admired the shop's large selection of beautiful cookbooks. "At that time, in the Czech Republic it was hard to find really nice cookbooks," Požárová says. "They were with meat or without meat. They were without photos or with ugly photos. I am a perfectionist, so I came to the idea that I will do the perfect cookbook that I missed here."

Finally, there was a trip to the Frankfurt book fair, which solidified her idea to create the series.

The first four volumes came out in 2005, and since then, the collection has grown to a total of 14 cookbooks, each bound by a vibrant color cover with a photo of the one ingredient that serves as the basis for 50 recipes inside. The series is characterized by its simplicity and strength of design, playful text and modern, inventive recipes that are accessible to everyone - and aimed at modernizing Czechs' perceptions of their country's cuisine.

Among the recipes are "Teenage Peppers with Cranberry Pimples" (bell peppers stuffed with tvaroh, soft sheep cheese, fresh spinach and dried cranberries) and "Hopsy Plumballs" (prunes coated in flour, dark beer, pumpkin seeds and grated parmesan, then deep-fried in oil).

"Czech cuisine is not only heavy sauces and dumplings," Požárová says. "[The cookbooks] help people to learn how they can cook with domestic ingredients, but in a different way."

Although vegetables serve as the main ingredient for the majority of the books, not all of her recipes are vegetarian. Požárová says she recognizes that not many Czechs share her taste for vegetables. "For people here, vegetables are something that are considered very healthy, but don't taste good," she admits.

Showing her fellow countrymen that they can taste good was one of Požárová's goals. In fact, it was something she wanted to do even before writing cookbooks.

"The first cookbook was pumpkin, and pumpkin here is something like: Uh, you're kidding? We can eat it?" Požárová says. "So I invited lots of friends over to try to see if I'm not the only one who likes it."

When asked what their reactions were, Požárová laughs.

"They asked me, 'Do you have some seeds, so we can grow it?' " she says. "They told me they never imagined that pumpkin would be so good."

Beyond her friends, Požárová has also received positive reactions from her readers, some of whom are featured on the books' back covers. Perhaps her most rewarding feedback came in April 2008, when she won the "Best Cookbook Series in the World" award in the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Award competition. It was the first time in the competition's 14-year history that a Czech cookbook won the award.

Požárová intends to have her cookbooks translated into English as soon as she finds a distributor. Along with being the author of the books and photo editor, Požárová has also been the distributor, promoter and publisher, leaving her less time than she would like to focus on the creative side of the project.

"Fourteen cookbooks for me is like having 14 children," she says. "I feel very exhausted from the publishing part of the job. I want to invent more recipes. I want to take pictures of food. I would like to have more time for the creative part."  

In other words, Požárová wants more of what she offers to her readers: the freedom to play.

Joann Plocková can be reached at
features@praguepost.com