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report: January 2009 |
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interdisciplinary | Bratislava | by Sebastian Fasthuber | 2008-07
“Halušky are a bit like ravioli”The young Marcel Ihnačák is at present the hottest chef in Slovakia. He saw “his first seafood” in a Prague restaurant. Later he went to London to do an apprenticeship with British star cook Jamie Oliver. At the restaurant Liviano in Bratislava he spoils his guests not with local fare, but with Tuscan cuisine, something that still seems somewhat exotic for the Slovaks.Sebastian Fasthuber: What are your culinary memories from when you were a child? What was served up at table, chez Ihnačák?I remember many fantastic desserts, above all cakes and pancakes. The first thing I ever cooked myself was a pancake. I must have been about eight years old. Basically, the food that was served up was very simple. When I was a child we didn’t have much money and my family had to economise. My mother usually cooked a big pot of soup or a roast to go with it. We would then eat from that for three or four days. She knew how to conjure up good dishes from just a few ingredients. Are the Tuscan and Slovak cuisines similar in any way? Yes, totally. Tuscan cuisine works like traditional Slovak cuisine, using very few ingredients. Of course Tuscany – like Slovakia – was for a long time a poor and predominantly rural area. Tuscan bread for example is made without salt, because salt was once upon a time unaffordable. How did you start cooking? I became a cook by chance. When I went to the hotel and catering school, I was playing ice-hockey as well, and was on my way to becoming a professional player. That was a family tradition; both my uncles played in the NHL and are really famous in Slovakia. But when I was 18 I broke my leg. Then I looked for a job in a restaurant. How did a young Slovak cook from Bratislava come to study with Jamie Oliver in London? As a cook I developed slowly and step and by step. From Bratislava I went to Prague, where I worked for six years. In Prague I saw my first seafood. When the chance arose, I took it and moved to London. That was another revelation, because they use many more vegetables in their cooking, and a lot more is available there than in the Czech Republic or in Slovakia. I became familiar with ingredients that were completely new for me. In London I worked first of all in a French restaurant. A good schooling, but very strenuous in the long run. In French cuisine everything always has to be ready exactly on time. You always have to keep checking the pots and be very careful to stick to the times. Italian cuisine is more easy-going, simpler. It just has to taste good. And what was Jamie like? It is often said that he is better at marketing than behind the stove. Did you also learn something from him? Well, yes, that’s right, Jamie is of course not such a great cook, but he does love cooking. That’s his secret and that’s why he’s so successful. When you watch him, you see the love that he puts into it. And his dishes are also easy for ordinary people to cook. Your restaurant Liviano in Bratislava has been very well received by the Slovaks. Has that surprised you? It has somewhat. The Slovaks change their eating habits very slowly. Though they aren’t afraid, they nevertheless don’t trust new things so quickly. They need time to discover new tastes. Our success is probably based on the fact that we are different. There isn’t any other restaurant of this kind in Bratislava. We opened one-and-a-half years ago and since then things have been getting better all the time. Would it be possible to combine the Tuscan and Slovak cuisines? Would that interest you? Of course that interests me. I have already tried to put a couple of dishes like that on the menu. For example, ravioli can also be filled with Slovakian ewes-milk cheese. I don’t want to go too far in this direction, because that would tend to water down the concept of the restaurant. But basically it doesn’t harm Slovak cuisine to be pepped up with high-quality products such as prosciutto or Parmesan. What is your relationship to Slovak cuisine in general? Very good. It makes me happy to cook Slovak dishes. Of course it’s more complicated than Italian food. In principle, halušky are a bit like ravioli, just much more time-consuming to cook. But when I’m at home, I make them now and again. I cook almost exclusively Slovak dishes for my family. Liviano Restaurant, Biznisuite Technopol (Technopol Building), Kutlíkova 17, 852 50 Bratislava, Slovakia Open Mon.- Sun. 11.30 a.m.- 11.00 p.m Telephone: 00421 2 682 86 688 E-Mail liviano@technopol.sk Internet: www.liviano.sk/en Sebastian Fasthuber works as a freelance music and literature critic (now!, Falter, Der Standard, Spex). External links: www.liviano.sk/en
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