How’s this for serendipity: We were just about to publish a little post singing the praises of our newest sponsor, the Essencia cooking school, when we received the following letter:
My name is Jaan Siitonen and I’m studying political science at Helsinki University and me and my fellow class mates (17 students) are doing a study trip to Budapest in 15-22th of May. We would like to taste and learn how to make Hungarian traditional food. Do you know some place where we could come and be instructed by someone how to make tasty Hungarian meal?
Do we ever!
If you haven’t yet checked out Essencia, it’s an impressive and inviting place, with both a classic instructional kitchen and a more laid-back demonstration kitchen (above). Likewise, the overall approach of the school seems to be a perfect mix of “let’s do this right” and “let’s have a blast.” Also note that traditional Hungarian cuisine is only one of many subjects on offer, owning to the wide-ranging culinary interests of the school’s multilingual staff. Who knows, after next month they may start teaching Hungarians how to cook tasty Finnish…
I once had a conversation with my wife’s uncle who
claimed that British food was completely bland.
He does have some knowledge as his daughter has
lived there for almost 20 years. I responded that
all Hungarian food is basically peasant food. He
took a long slurp of wine and didn’t say another
word for 10 minutes.
I do like Hungarian food, but it is hardly rocket
science: if you have onion, bacon (read lard),
tomato and paprika, you can make anything.
What do I think is the greatest contribution
Hungary makes to world cuisine? It must be the
humble lángos with garlic, cheese (even Trappista
will do) and sour cream.
However Hungary must be loudly applauded for
having the courage and passion for making goose
liver.
Technically goose liver is not much of an accomplishment since the goose does most of the work. I agree with the rest of your statement, tasty as it is, Hungarian food is not much of a culinary feat.
What I really meant to say is that Hungary, happily,
doesn’t think too much of the bleeding heart animal
rights brigade, and produces one of the most
delicious foods in the world. I think even the
French have cut down their foie gras production due
to pressure from these PETA types.