Two young chefs have opened a terrace restaurant almost at the end of the main street of Budaörs. GastroGarden is the „place” where the grill and BBQ dishes are prepared in front of the guests. Although COVID was still in full swing when they opened, they boasted a full house almost immediately. In fact, when the sun is shining on a nice weekend, it's a good idea to book a table in advance for some real BBQ and barbecue.
Recipe for a successful restaurant opening
Ingredients: two young chefs, passionate commitment to barbecue and BBQ, garden space, professional experience from purchasing to managing the kitchen and service. Lots of cheer, a dash of luck and a dish that will make you stand out from the crowd.
And now for the story:
A GastroGarden idea from a friend, Ölveczky Sebastian popped out of his head. But not only did he dream the place up, he and his companions created this courtyard. After that, Tamás and I were invited here as the Hungarian youth of BBQ to create a professional kitchen based on fire and smoke," he says. Chef and owner Gábor Orsó.
„The idea of a gastrotour was immediately appealing. It gave us the opportunity to create a restaurant that evokes the atmosphere of childhood barbecues, bacon barbecues, and smokehouse meals.”
Who was passionate about barbecue and barbecue?
Both of us - he replies Tamás Klementz.
I have always been interested in long-cooked meats. But the charcoal and the fire add such an extra something that it was impossible not to fall in love with this genre.
People come here to eat beef cheeks
We wanted GastroGarden to be a place with a special offer. Our speciality was beef cheeks," says Tamás.
We ourselves were amazed at how special BBQ dishes can be made from beef cheeks, which are not at all classic BBQ ingredients. But still, they managed to turn this dry, stodgy meat into a succulent, extremely flavoursome, smoky dish.
What is the secret recipe?
Smoke the whole beef cheeks, add them to a burgundy sauce and continue to cook them together in the smoker. The end result is a succulent, juicy, smoky and very special dish, which is smoked for more than 6 hours. I'm sure there are few people who will take the plunge and make it at home.
Where did the idea come from?
"We wanted to capture the classic stew and pasta combo Hungarikum", Gábor takes over.
The cheek meat is cooked in the gravy like a stew using BBQ technique. Serve this on top of the pasta. Mainly Hungarian, but also a bit like American mac and cheese. And our guests love it! They say that meat, gravy and pasta..., wow, how good!
The piquant thing about GARDEN's flagship beef cheek is that before the restaurant opened, Gábor almost pulled it off the menu and off their menu, saying the name sounded wrong.
„I thought that writing the face on a menu would scare people away. Because they'll say, ”Oh my God, what's a cheek? And they won't think well of it. But what happened was beyond our imagination! People come here to - to put it mildly - eat face."
Of course, they also make basic barbecue and BBQ dishes: burgers, chicken wings, ribs, steaks, which are also very popular.
The raw material is key
The only way to make really good food is with excellent ingredients, say the two young chefs. That's why they prefer to use fresh meat, but it's important that the right type of product is always available and that delivery is available on Saturdays. Among other things, this is why they order a lot from From Matusz-Vad - adds Tamás.
This is the challenge of the BBQ genre
We don't give our guests luxury goods,„ says Gábor. ”They come here because the food is good and always the same quality. We have to maintain that standard. Although in barbecue it's terribly difficult because there are so many variables. The wind blows, the wind is bad, the wood is different, the air pressure is different. Or I've woken up badly and I can't cook like that, but if I have to deal with the fact that the meat is not good either, it's a total disaster."
How many people does a restaurant employ during COVID?
Gábor Orsó and Tamás Klementz are not only the owners, they are there every day, by the grill and smoker, building the fire and preparing the food themselves. Two cooks, a barman and a gardener-keeper work with them. But they don't just eat in, they also deliver out.
However, the uncertainty caused by the epidemic, despite their successes, has also created doubts.
The number of employees is a very difficult issue. Sometimes we are short on guests, sometimes we are long. You have to play a good game of chess, how many employees, how many cooks, how many servers... But the pot is always stacked against the house," says Gábor.
What was it like to get a taste of hospitality as an entrepreneur?
As a restaurant owner, it's not easy on the wallet. If I leave the meat on the grill for a little while and it burns, the expensive ingredients are lost, there's nothing to put on the guest's plate, and we go home with empty pockets. And it's also important that those who work for us see that we're here with them, we're up to our necks in age, and we work hard.
You cannot board up the sky
Although GastroGarden is a patio restaurant, they plan to winterize it and keep it open all year round, unless COVID intervenes. Although they don't see that as too bleak either.
„When we opened the restaurant, we wanted to make a move. We thought we could ride COVID because it wasn't going to last us a lifetime. That life would come back, so we went for it. And it was worth it. We feel like it's good what we're doing, even though we're not really doing anything extra, we're just trying to give something good.”
Tamás Klementz grew up in Gyönk, a small village near Szekszárd, and moved to Pest at the age of 21. Since childhood, he was preparing to be a cook. He worked for five years in one place in Pest, then opened a restaurant in Germany with his father, but it was not successful. So she came back to Hungary and started to work with barbecue in the same restaurant where Gábor worked.
For Gábor Orsó He enrolled in culinary school in 2005 at his father's suggestion. At the time, it was a very successful and promising profession. It was not the food that first attracted him to catering, but the team. He started working with BBQ seven years ago. It was then that he realised that this was his world, where he had to light the fire, get it up to his elbows in soot and cook the meat. It was the era of the domestic BBQ revolution. Gábor is proud of the fact that he was able to learn a lot from the pros at that time.
