I. National Goulash Day - August 28, 2010

In my travels, I've found that when "goulash" is offered on a menu as a main course, it's invariably served as a stew over noodles. It's offered as a soup only if it's an appetizer. This can be disconcerting to Hungarians, but what is behind it is the reality that cultures have very differing levels of passion for soup. The notion of making soup a main meal, violates custom and tradition in the restaurant business throughout the west. Also many would freak out at the idea of eating a huge Hungarian sized portion; many people are not used to eating a big portion of soup.

Also disappointing to Hungarians abroad are the strange stripped down variants some chefs come up with under the name. In Germany "goulash" is often a brown soup, sans paprika or caraway seed. In some places they add sugar to the paprika "sauce".

As a world traveled Hungarian, I can easily see how the narrative was lost. The foreigners took over the name, changed the spelling, altered the dish in many ways, all because Hungarians wern't sufficiently represented in the food and restauraunt industries to remind everyone of what the real thing should be like. There are few Hungarian restaurants abroad, and we've not yet made a big mark globally in the food processing and fast food industries. I don't know of any Hungarian comapany that would think to can the stuff and agressively market it abroad. Canned soup is a megabillion euro global industry.

I like the idea of celebrating this wonderful dish

@FL:

You can get "Gulasch" in Germany canned, as a soup or more like pörkölt, even with káposta in it - and often it says "Hungarian style" - but it's not the same, obviously ...

I think one of the main problems of exporting real Hungarian food is the price you have to pay for quality ...

Look for example for the price of real Hungarian salami, Pick or Gyulai - it compares with the price of Serrano or Parma ham - not too many people are willing to pay that amount.

Yes, you can get that stuff in german supermarkets, also paprika (fresh) from Hungary - we always look for that when we're in Gewrmany, but I don't know how many others are willing to pay for that quality ...

Especially in Germany for most people food just has to be cheap - they spend more money on electronics, phones, computers and games ...

Hi wolfi!

Hungary could use the equivalent of the Campbell's Soup Co.! There is a fantastic tradition of soup-making in Hungary, and I feel that it can be the basis for a global launch.

The problem with mass marketing of processed food (as in cans), is that one has to accept that it can never be like home cooking. The Americans can easily accept that trade-off, which accounts for why they can succeed globally in the fast food and processing business. They lack the deep culinary traditions that Europeans, and are innovative in many ways. They view the marketing of food as a business and not a culinary fetish. And what a good business it could be!

Sure we can stuff in Hungary. One sees little evidence of it on grocery shelves abroad though. Deep down we don't really enthuse over such stuff, which helps account for why we don't make a big impact in this industry worldwide.

Hi again Wolfi,

The amount of quality (production expense) that a sausage producer for eample would put into his product, has to be a carefully made business decision. It's a function of cost and prospective market niche. You have to have several product lines to appeal to different consumers. Make a high end product for the upmarket; make a moderate priced one for the mass market.

A sausage maker who exports internationally, can't just know sausages; he better have some good marketing and sales people as well. Post 1989 Hungarian capitalism is evolving, and these are still things that we need to work on in the future.

@FL:

Very good observation of yours about the different quality/price levels.

But the cheaper levels are already occupied by a few international giants like Nestle, General food and Unilever ...

I remember that years ago I was astonished to find out that many of the "old brands" that my mother and grandmother were proud of using, belonged to just three or four giants.

I think that nowadays it's even worse ...

Have you followed the situation in the beer market - most brands now belong to either Inbev, Heineken, Anheuser-Bush or SAB-Miller - it's fantastic in a way:

Whether it's Hungarian Dreher or Pilsner Urquell from Prague or almost all the beers from Munich - they're all made by those "Multis" ...

So maybe starting with a small selection of high quality/high price products is the way - but the market share is limited ...

BTW: Of course we have the old Hungarian names like Pick or Zwack over in Germany- but don't ask me about their market share, it's probably measured in ppm = "parts per million" ...