Curiosities from Haštalská street, where Czech cuisine has regained its confidence
A Michelin-starred restaurant in the centre of Prague
The tasting menu presents a seasonal ingredients from select farmers, gatherers and hunters. We place a lot of energy into finding them, and cook to emphasise the individuality of each ingredient.
Our dishes are rooted in traditional cuisine, finding inspiration in the cycles of nature, and the relationships between the ingredients we select. When we prepare game, careful attention is payed to the environment in which the animal lives, what it eats, and how the seasons influence its flavour.
Our sommeliers contemplate and experiment with wine and non-alcoholic food pairings, mixing fruit, vegetables, herbs and nuts into their drinks.
1. Leadership
For the first time in history, the Haštalská street restaurant was alone on our gastronomic scene in offering only a tasting menu, and is said to have prompted a national revival of Czech cuisine. La Degustation helped develop a then still immature Czech fine dining scene and eventually received a Michelin star - the first star award for local cuisine in this country, but also within the former Eastern Bloc. This added another dot on the map of post-communist Europe, which drew attention to Prague, to our country and its culinary culture.
2. Bohéme
The name of the restaurant tells guests that it is tasting and Czech food at a high level. Cuisine bourgeoise refers to the bourgeois cuisine, and the cuisine at Haštalská is manor cuisine - knowing that we live in the middle of Europeinfluenced by the history of Austria-Hungary, and yet we have our own identity. Just like La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise.
3. Prague ham or foie gras d'oie?
The chefs served both at first! Guests could choose from three or two menus and decide whether to try the lobster and roast Iberian pork, or the rabbit in garlic and creamed beef. After a couple of years, the restuarant gained enough confidence to declare that potato pancakes are also worthy of glory, and Czech sauces are much higher than the French ones, and finally offered a single menu. It defends the character of Czech cuisine to this day.
4. Burtguláš
Chef Oldřich Sahajdák created the national menu for the German railways, Deutsche Bahn, in 2008, and specials such as potato pancakes, burtguláš and pork dumplings were cooked for a month on trains travelling across Europe. Eleven other chefs joined in, including one from Noma in Denmark, which was slowly beginning to astonish the world's gastronomy. By the way, the Hastalská burtguláš won the prize for the best-selling dish of the year.
5. White sauce
La Degustation has been cooking this from the very beginning, inspired by Maria B. Svobodová and her cookbook from the late 19th century. White sauce is the base for the legendary dill sauce à la Bohême Bourgeoise and all sorts of other sauces, becoming one of their authentic condiments, just like grand bouillon, Prague ham or pork fat.
6. Confidential
On 18 October 2009, Chef Anthony Bourdain dines at the restaurant whilst in Prague filming the American series No Reservations. He tasted the Prague ham aspic, wild poultry soup and beef shoulder with the aforementioned dill sauce, but also beef tongue with pea porridge or roast pork belly with cabbage, apple sauce and chive stuffing. The chefs all went home from their shift with a signed copy of bestseller Kitchen Confidential, determined to make tomorrow's menu even better.
7. Thigh bone
Anyone who takes the handle of the front door or the cloakroom door will touch one of the glass bones, modelled on broth bones by Czech company Bomma. The designers then assembled them into two chandeliers - artefacts that, like other elements in the interior, draw the guests' attention to Czech tradition, craftsmanship and (non)material heritage.
8. Three pans
This was the original symbol of the restaurant. For several years, the handles actually hung over the counter, as if to keep an eye on the the integrity of the broths and sauces, pure intention and the honing of the craft.
9. Prague cuisine
Later on, the sign of La Degustation became hexagons on the walls, in the shutters, on the floor or in the menu graphics. They can be seen as cells, but they are meant to resemble the stones of the Cyclops masonry along the Embankment. They represent the connection between Prague and Prague cuisine.
10. Shopping
Cooking Czech dishes means cutting Czech onions. La Degustation emphasised the real value of local ingredients and said that if you want to cook well, you have to shop well. So in 2007, chef Libor Beranjoined the team, who, as as a buyer, built relationships with farmers and producers and went to them for goods. Some of the suppliers are still associated with Haštalská to this day, such as Josef Buchal or Hana Malečková, but the list has since included more and more names of farmers, winemakers and producers with whom the restaurant has cultivated close relationships.
11. Komando
Long used in the open kitchen area. It's the black board, nicknamed after the French commande (order), on which tickets are pinned with magnets with information about the guests and the course of their visit. It is a tried and tested method, to ensure seamless service and satisfaction of the people at the table and in the team.
12. School
In 2009, the basement cubicles beneath the restaurant were renovated and converted into training facilities and a training kitchen for Ambiente Academy. Thanks to a grant and invited experts, the Academy trained professionals from various companies. The project closed after a few years, but Haštalská continues to be a "school" open to all who want to learn. The company itself has trained many waiters and cooks, and if it had its own family tree, it would be possible to see where they, many of which are now among the best experts in this craft in the Czech Republic, have gone.
13. 17:40
the time at which the cooks retire to the dressing room to take their suppers, brush their teeth and change their aprons. They represent the profession that symbolises the colour white - synonymous with cleanliness and precision. Cooking can be noble!
14. A piece of home
Czech classics are worth their weight in gold. That is why La Degustation serves Znojemská, rajská, horseradish and paprika. The manifesto that Oldřich Sahajdák once wrote for his team states that the menu reflects the seasonality of the Czech landscape, and the Michelin-starred pub follows the rule that "there must be something typically Czech on the plate, and that is what we know from home".
15. Distant memory
Almost every dish at Haštalská follows a prefigurement, which is made up of experiences, memories of childhood and cultural practices, recipes from grandmothers and grandfathers and the wisdom of nature. Fish with mushrooms is inspired by a short story by Ota Pavel, the title beef, onions, mustard, gherkin represents the classic dish Spanish bird, and yoghurt ice cream with chocolate is supposed to taste (and does) like a polar bear cake. At La Degustation, we cook what we are.
16. Mignons
The multi-course tasting is introduced and concluded with mignons, first savoury, then sweet. They are eaten with the hands, stirring the emotions. They can be potato pancakes, roasties, tvarůžky... but also bábovka, esíčka biscuits, spa wafers, pancakes. To welcome you, the kitchen sends tartare - the recipe hasn't changed in 19 years, just as the essence of La Degustation hasn't changed. It is a pub that is both beautiful and human, a place where people bring together discipline and fun.
17. The story on paper
The amount of enthusiasm, diligence and routine required for a restaurant to succeed and persevere led to the book on La Degustation. Ambiente's second publication - the first being Ambiente: the Art of Dining - is a documentary film on paper, and gives the testimony in the form of texts, photographs and recipes of a pub that has become an institution.
A book on La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise
18. Generations
Time marches on and generations inevitably pass the baton. Oldřich Sahajdák has accepted the role of chef patron, and supports the team led by chef Marc Christov, looking after the facilities and ensures that La Degustation continues its journey with confidence. For the same reason, Marek Tříska has moved up to the position of general manager, mentored by his predecessor, Tomas Brosche.
19. New Czech
Now we have come full circle. The restaurant sows the seed for the future Czech cuisine, which is now reaching the point where it must be presented to the world, its pillars strengthened and gradually and proudly passed on to the younger generation. That is why the New Czech organisation has come to be, chaired by no other than Oldřich Sahajdák. There is strength in continuity and community!
