Fermentation, sustainability and biofuel for baked goods. What has Eska given to Ambiente and the Czech gastro scene in its first decade?
A bakery and kitchen full of life
A vibrant restaurant with contemporary Czech cuisine. The business, which opened in 2015, was created in the industrial space of the former ČKD and combined a bakery, bistro and restaurant with eighty seats. One review said that you either love this restaurant or you hate it, but you won't care - Eska became synonymous with Prague hipsterism at the time of its inception.
Then-chef Martin Štangl revived the methods and techniques of our ancestors and combined them with the approach he learned at La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise. Dishes and ingredients that until then could only be tasted by guests of finedining restaurants could be ordered à la carte at Eska. This innovative approach has made its way not only into dinners, but also into breakfasts and lunches. Also new at Ambiente was an emphasis on ecology, the involvement of its own buyer, which until then only La Degustation had, and the offering of a quality selection of coffee.
In 2017, Eska was acquired as one of only seven restaurants in the Czech Republic to be awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand. The concept of a bakery and restaurant was changed to a bakery with a café, bistro and colonial in the summer of 2023, and a tasting restaurant Štangl was created on the upper floor. In January 2025, a branch of Eska opened in Prague's Letná district.
What did Eska give Ambiente?
Sustainability and a Nordic approach to cooking
Eska's chefs were inspired by the Nordic approach to cooking. Based on it, they developed the Manifesto of Modern Czech Cuisine, which espoused the the use of local ingredients, sustainability and the constant search for new ways to work with Czech products - so that the kitchen could be self-sufficient and cook with minimal waste.
From the beginning, Eska has been committed to sustainability (returnable coffee packaging, local flowers from Plevel, and cleaning with eco-friendly products) and, above all, to cooking without waste. The chefs here have learned to process the whole raw material, including components that the average consumer would leave out.
They cooked such cauliflower in its own juice, specifically in a broth made from its leaves, intensifying the resulting flavour. They began to ferment the fruit's trimmings, peelings, stems and grains into vinegars and infused oils. The solid part left after grinding the nuts or seeds into milk or oil could be used to make nut flour, and the peelings of the peppers could be used to make a flavour-intensive powder. In a well-equipped kitchen, you can conjure up chips from fish skins, and a barista can extract oil from used coffee grounds - properly sterilised. You can fertilise your flower beds with them too.
Traditional techniques
From the beginning, fermentation and experimentation have been abundant in Eska: cabbage, cucumbers and beetroot are pickled, butter is churned by hand, oatmeal and red wheat are fermented, non-alcoholic lemonades are fermented and sourdough bread is baked in a wood-fired oven.
The chef at the time, Martin Štangl, built on the experience he had gained during his almost nine years as sous chef at La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise and developed traditional rural practices - fermentation, pickling, drying and fire baking.
"Everyone used to have a cellar with fermenters, preserves and sauerkraut. Unfortunately, these techniques are no longer used in gastronomy today. When I tell someone that I pickle beetroot in whey, they say that their grandmother used to do it, but they can no longer do it themselves. So it's a return to tradition, nothing new," he explains. He also used modern techniques, for example, working with plant and fungal extracts.
The products on offer at the time were, for example roasted celery with sourdough crust, bread ice cream or stuffed peppers with chilli. Eska is also the home of the legendary potatoes in asheswhich were the joint idea of Martin Štangl and the then creative chef Honza Všetečka, today's head of the kitchen at Kalends. They have remained on the menu to this day, as well as fermented wheat.
Fermentation
Everything from red wheat to mushrooms to garlic and kale is fermented in the Eska kitchen. The process, which involves bacteria and produces lactic or acetic acid, not only preserves the ingredients but also makes them more digestible and richer in live cultures.
"We use milk kefir. Nowadays, a lot of people have a problem digesting lactose. And kefir converts it into lactobacilli, which even people with allergies can absorb. We also make kombucha, which has a lot of antioxidants. They say it's a mushroom, but it's actually bacteria that feed on sugar and tea," Martin Štangl said a decade ago, describing something that wasn't known much in the Czech Republic. In Eska, they also make lemonade from fermented liquids.
Access to raw materials, wild herbs and woods
At the very beginning, Eska had a buyer who kept an eye on what was happening on the market and was also able to recognise the potential of the raw materials and use them in the brewing process. Martin Štangl, the head chef at the time, helped build relationships with farmers.
He also discovered wild herbs for Eska. "I learned from Olda Sahajdák at La Degustation. In the Czech Republic, not many people know about them, so they are not used much. Nature has a clever way of doing it - what you can't eat doesn't taste good. But of course I studied poisonous plants first. I also try to see how the taste of herbs changes," says Martin.
In the kitchen, the chefs also began pickling and fermenting crops like pine cones and pine needles, which they also fermented into their own lemonade.
Tomáš Reisinger was also collecting wild herbs for Eska, and the chefs started working with Standa Hecht from Sluneční farma Vykáň and gradually expanded their circle of suppliers. Today in Eska you can taste:
- flour from Probio,
- vegetables from Třebovle,
- fish from Chabrybarna,
- eggs from the Kubát family,
- kefir, milk, yoghurt and cottage cheese from Struhy,
- quail eggs from Lhota,
- juices from Goodlok,
- cocoa and chocolate from Herůfek,
- honey from Poděbrady,
- syrups from Vysočina,
- tea blends from Mr. Lesny,
- meat from Amaso
- and much more...
Bread and flour
In 2015, Eska introduced guests to an unusually dark bread made from three-phase rye sourdough and had to explain at length that it is not burnt, but baked from fire and wood. The bakers themselves were taught to estimate the degree of toasting of the crust, as it should not taste bitter. Two types of bread are baked here: 33 and 66, the number indicating the percentage of rye flour.
But the path to it was not easy. The bakers brought in experts and used trial and error to define 52 key factors that change the fate of bread dough.
They also paid attention to the sourdough starter. Feeding it three times a day was introduced by the then head baker Aleš Karpíšek in the belief that it was a classic three-stage management. The sourdough is fed three times only for the first two days, after which it is sufficient to feed it once a day. However, the relatively short intervals and precise doses were beneficial to the yeast.
Potatoes in bread
Nevertheless, the bakers continued to be plagued by unstable production. In defining the key factors affecting the quality of the bread, chef Jana Jelič recorded and compared the slightest adjustments in the recipe and suggested incorporating potatoes cooked in their skins into the dough, as they lend suppleness and plumpness to the crumb. This brought their reknowned loaf, Bread 33, up to the desired standard.
In the meantime, baker Sláva Grigorik went on a traineeship to the Mirabelle bakery in Copenhagen, where he brought back the recipe for bread 00 made from wheat flour and highly hydrated dough, but above all the Nordic approach to baking and valuable operating experience. For more than a year, Eska fine-tuned the procedures and proportions of the different types of flour and leaven, which reacted sensitively to fluctuations in temperature and pressure and trained the baker in humility and patience. After all the possible escapades, the production finally settled down.
Organic quality from Probio
And why do Eska bake with organic flour? While in some large conventional mills the inferior quality of the grain is made up for with enzymes and chemicals, there are no improving agents in bio flour. But flour from organically grown grain is less stable and requires a perceptive and knowledgeable baker.
This is not the only reason why at Eska we consult with millers from Probio, who offer so-called traceability and share the exact origin, grain variety and other necessary information from the field and the mill. Communication and mutual trust brings about joint progress. For example, wheat bread flour for the Karlin bakery has been milled for several years from wheat (Royal variety) grown on the Probio Ecofarm in Velke Hostěrádky in South Moravia.
Bread flour
For bread, we have bread flour milled, which is distinguished by its darker colour, carries the aroma of a particular grain and is milled just right so that the ideal dough can be formed in the bowl. Bread flour is made from rye, wheat or spelt and its hallmark is its higher type number, T850 to T1000. Flours with a high type number contain more fibre, minerals and vitamins and less gluten.
Selected coffees
The most difficult thing was to teach people about filter coffee, as many found it sour compared to what they had known. It was about getting them used to a different taste, and understanding that even coffee has an origin and a history. The success at Eska opened the door for speciality coffee at other Ambiente restaurants and convinced their general managers that it was not a short-term trend, but the drink of the future.
The hardest part was to teach them about filter coffee, as many found it sour compared to what they had known. It was about getting people used to a different taste and to understand that even coffee has an origin and a history. The success at Eska opened the door for selective coffee to other Ambiente restaurants and convinced their general managers that it was not a short-term trend, but the drink of the future.
Already in the early days of Eska we established cooperation with Nordbeans roastery in Liberec. We have our coffee beans conditioned to work in perfect balance with our sweet and savoury baked goods. The result is our Eska range of filter, espresso and automatic coffee, which you can only find here.
Simple meals made with quality ingredients
Eska later pioneered the serving of simple meals made from simple ingredients in the highest possible quality - from bread with butter and salt as an amuse bouche to breakfast sausages with mustard and pickled vegetables to simple lunchtime soups.
Even today, you can have a minimalist breakfast at Eska Letná, inspired by Denmark and consisting of fresh bread, boiled eggs, sliced cheese, Prague ham, pickled vegetables, whipped butter and jam.
Talent
Talented chefs and cooks have passed through the Karlín Eska over the past ten years and have contributed greatly to its uniqueness. In addition to Martin Štangl and his deputy in Štangl, Omar Sakiqi, mentioned several times, these were:
- the head chef of Eska in Karlin and Letna Jarda Kozdělka,
- the general manager of Biskup Jirka Horák,
- owner and chef of Slice Slice Baby pizza bistro Katka Jakusová,
- Aleš Karpíšek from Akonzerva,
- chef of the restaurant Skô Tomáš Valkovič
- or Erik Cehlár, who returned to the Eska kitchen after a short stint at Goodlook.
In addition, namely Jiří Matějka who you may know from the pastry pop-up Furiant, Honza Malý, David Dorotík or Ambiente's head barista Ondřej Štökl. However, there have been many more talented people who have contributed to the popularity of Eska over the years.
