Historian Martin Franc on Czech and Central European cuisine
Is there a Czech cuisine?
What should we imagine when we talk about Central European cuisine?
There is no simple answer. At present, it is the concept of national and regional cuisines is very diffuse and that makes the Central European concept all the more complex. In the first third of the twentieth century, nation states emerged from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and pursued their own interests in gastronomy, trying to cultivate their own specialities. We even see a lot of troubled spots, with national cuisines fighting each other.
However, the concept of Central European cuisine continues to survive within the framework of national cuisines that have long operated within a common state and influenced each other. It is often said that the so-called South German-Austrian gastronomic circle, which, in addition to the territory of the former Habsburg monarchy, mainly includes Bavaria. What the average Czech imagines as Czech national cuisine contains many elements of Central European regional cuisine, whether it's Wiener schnitzel or goulash.
Is there any food that we can say with a clear conscience is Czech?
For example kolache, buns and vdolky are an original Czech contribution to the complexity of Central European cuisine.
Let us say, then, that Czech cuisine has absorbed many influences in the past. Did it work the other way around? Have some national cuisines taken ideas from us?
Probably the closest connection was with Austria and its cuisine. It is there that we can trace a distinct Czech note, especially in the flour-based dishes and also in plum dumplings, which spread from us. Also blackened carp deserves a mention.
I'll pause on carp. Can it be considered a typically Czech ingredient today?
It is also very popular in Austria and, further afield, in Chinese cuisine. But we can say that carp has historically developed the position of a typically Czech food. After all, we have a protected designation for carp from Moravia and South Bohemia: Pohořelický kapr and Třeboňský kapr).
Conceptually speaking, I don't really like the claim that something is only Czech and nobody else can do it. I think the national concept is more a game that doesn't fit the regional reality and only makes sense for tourism. Perhaps we can no longer say that pizza is purely Italian, because there are also American types and variations. This is how we Czechs can present fried cheese as Czech food, because it's extremely popular here and the locals often eat it.
Why is it that we Czechs (though certainly not only us) are so influenced by sushi, pizza, hamburgers, but in Japan or Italy you do not encounter Eastern European food and you meet mainly local cuisine?
Central Europe is a place where cultures have mixed. Japan is an island country, so it's logical that the cultures and therefore the gastronomy didn't intermingle as much. In Italy and France, there is a lot of pressure on national identity, we can even talk about a kind of gastronomic nationalism. But I certainly do not think that this is a model that we Czechs should follow. It would not enrich our culture in any way and nor would it be a way to preserve Czech identity. Our uniqueness is based on coexistence, albeit historical, with other cultures. After all, if you go to neighbouring Austria, you will see even more ethnic restaurants there than in our country.
How would you describe a typical Czech diner and his menu to a foreign tourist?
It's hard to generalise, because our diet is always changing and it's mainly a generational thing. Forty years ago, it would certainly have been a lover of meat, sauces and dumplings. But the younger generations are changing, we're seeing more people avoiding meat and generally heavier foods. Therefore, I am not sure whether it is possible to determine the profile of the typical Czech diner at the moment.
The evolution of meat consumption in the Czech diet
In your new book A History of Nutrition and Diet in the Czech Lands 1945-1970 you progress from the wartime and post-war rationing system to luxury foods in the 1960s. What was the difference between what a Czechoslovak family had for dinner in 1948 and twenty years later?
The basic difference was meat. Meat had the status of a food associated with wealth and functioned as a status symbol. It has to be said that the diet in this period was gradually unified, regional specificities were disappearing and a uniform model based on the dominance of meat, which was perceived as a healthy food symbolising a high standard of living, was being promoted.
By the 1960s, however, there was already a move away from fatty meats and more and more consumers were demanding lean meat. This is a shift that was not only visible in Czechoslovakia or the Soviet bloc countries, but was a Europe-wide trend and was linked to a change in lifestyle. There were fewer people doing heavy manual labour and more people demanding a lighter, less fatty diet.
Which types of meat were popular? And what kind of adaptations?
Compared to today, there were big differences in the structure of meat consumption. There was a great demand for pork, but there wasn't enough of it. The situation was relatively better for beef, but the quality of beef was lacking. Dairy breeds were mainly bred for dairy farming, not meat breeds. However, you could have a steak like that in a decent restaurant. But the meat was dominated by stews, braising and roasting. Over time, veal also disappeared until it became a very rare food. Farming did not pay off economically, and prices were set too low. A typical scarce commodity was calf's liver.
In the sixties, people went to restaurants for beer, and only rarely for dinner if they were celebrating something. In contrast, today we go out to eat quite regularly and don't see it as something extraordinary or luxurious. When did this change happen and why?
Visits to pubs in the fourth price bracket used to be quite frequent, but yes, it was mainly for beer. People drank as many as eight beers in an evening or afternoon because they could afford it, given the manual nature of their work. Nowadays, these regulars are dwindling.
The places we frequented were also folk canteens and vending machines such as the Koruna Automat. As for the more exclusive establishments, the offer was limited, but if we compare prices, it was not that much more expensive for a person then than it is for us today. The question was more about the quality of the food and the service he received then. Not that there wasn't also top-notch gastronomy but... it was more for to represent the state. Our top chefs went abroad, and often only Western tourists went to the places they worked and where better quality ingredients were available. Particularly in high season, such customers, bringing hard currency, had priority over the domestic.
What about the supply of raw materials, could the cook then choose from whom to buy meat and vegetables?
Absolutely not. Chefs in restaurants were usually relied on selected suppliers. And they often complained about the quality of the supplies or the processing of the meat - often it was completely unprocessed. And that, of course, made it difficult to work with.
If we talk about the communal enterprises of RaJ (Restaurants and Canteens), could the local chef have changed the recipe in his own image?
There was a possibility, but it involved quite a a lot of bureaucracy and a difficult calculation. The rules applied to the ingredients used and so portion sizes were constantly manipulated to take account of the overall economic situation. A major problem, often complained about by restaurant managers in the 1960s, was the the compulsory meatless day. It reduced the attractiveness of the cuisine and profits. The price of meatless meals was not commensurate with the work required to prepare the vegetables.
Why meatless days if they were not attractive and profitable?
In the period I primarily follow in the book, the 1950s and 1960s, a significant proportion of the population could afford to eat meat on a daily basis. But in the first half of the 1960s. of the 1960s, the Czechoslovakia was struggling a severe economic and supply crisis, which affected mainly animal foodstuffs. The causes were complex, with the collectivisation of agriculture playing a significant role, leading to a reduction in meat production and outbreaks of epidemics in livestock farms.
Another factor were escalating international tensions and then there were the bad years. The result was a deterioration in product quality from butter and milk to baked goods, which suddenly contained less fat, to chocolate, which increased the proportion of soya. And so, centrally. the supply of meat in public catering. The 1960s also saw the beginning of the chicken boom, which accelerated in the 1990s. Poultry meat was often not covered by meat-free day regulations.
We are moving from red meat to light meat. When did the Czechs get used to eating meat every day?
Fundamental changes took place in the 1990s. The consumption of beef declined as it became too expensive for a large group of consumers, and vice versa, the consumption of chicken increased, which became a cheaper option. This period also brought about certain changes in consumer preferences. This was linked to a shake-up by the official health authorities - the consumption of animal protein decreased and this provided the ground for alternative nutritional directions.
Later, although meat consumption has risen again, there is still a strong group of young people who prefer a meat-free or even vegan diet. Whether for ethical, environmental, or health reasons.
Whale meat vs. luxury in the diet
I was intrigued that in the book you also discuss whale meat, which was both eaten and sold freely under the previous regime. How did it get on the local menu?
It appeared on the menu a long time ago. There's a well-known story about how a whale carcass was transported from the Thimble House to the main building of the National Museum: in 1891.), where, at the opening ceremony, the gentlemen of the museum held a feast of whale meat right in the cetacean skeleton. I don't think it was pleasant, the whale blubber was still dripping profusely from the skeleton at the time.
In the larger one. whale meat was available in the post-war periodwhen meat shortages became one of the main weaknesses of the domestic diet. So any sources, even exotic ones, were very welcome. But it was an ambivalent affair, because in the early 1950s the propaganda was about how poorly off the Britishwho, after the war, were dependent on fish instead of beef, but at the same time the supply committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was dealing with the question of how to get whale meat from Scandinavia to Czech diners in factory canteens without the substitute causing outrage. It was certainly not perceived as a luxury, quite the opposite.
The starting point was the addition of whale meat to meatloaf. Then in the second half of the 1960s, a Frionor shop which offered frozen whale meat and fish products started a trend.
What is a luxury in gastronomy or ordinary home catering today?
I think it's fine dining and also perfect quality. It can be any kind of product, we can have luxury bread. Sometimes luxury is linked to authenticity, and farmhouse quality. For example, there are huge differences in the price and quality of ordinary chicken and poultry from farmers.
