There are still restaurateurs and owners who believe in traditional methods and traditions and that is the secret of their success. Here is the story of the restaurant where, when you enter, you leave like family.
Tibor Prisztóka's name is known beyond the country's borders. He is a determined businessman who stubbornly sticks to his principles, quality and his family. Among other things, this is how he moved from the world of IT to hospitality, gastronomy and even winemaking. The raw material is the most important thing for him, so he either grows it himself in his garden, or he doesn't hesitate to travel to Italy or the Netherlands if the best spices, dairy products, flour, specialities that are not available here are to be found there.
How was the idea of Szél Fiai Inn & Cellar - Prisztóka Winery born?
They say that when a man turns 40, he wants something different. I felt the same way, which is why we bought a house, then just for the family, in Rabbit, which is close to the cellar rows and surrounded by beautiful countryside. Shortly afterwards, my wife Andrea Kormos and I decided to turn it into a restaurant and an inn. That's how it all started. We wanted to show others what we saw and felt there. My fascination with food comes from my grandmother, who lived in Tiszaszőlős, where I used to spend a lot of time with her and we used to cook. First I sat next to her, later she sat next to me and I cooked. We didn't souvidate, we didn't flancole, we cooked what was grown, tasty and delicious. Those are still my main priorities. My family and I have been living here in Nyúl ever since, although my son is studying abroad and we think he will take over the management of the property, and my daughter will soon be graduating in finance and will also help in the business. In the meantime, my wife and mother-in-law and I are doing the lion's share of the work.
There are 14 flames in the restaurant, no sous vide machines and all the food is freshly prepared. Is that possible?
Yes! Nowadays, cooks don't really know how to cook meat in a pan, but here they do. True, it often takes them 2 years to move around our kitchen on their own, but we only serve food we can be proud of. We produce most of the ingredients ourselves. My mother-in-law, born near Eger, Balaton, is over 80 years old, but the special tomatoes and peppers from our organic garden (the seeds come from all over Europe) and the flowers in Udvarna are a tribute to her handiwork. It's where, for example, the Italian tomatoes that make such a delicious soup and the Spanish peppers that are perfect for grilling come from. We work with fresh ingredients, we prepare everything fresh, even when a party of 60 people come to our place for Martinmas and ask for goose. I know, because I've learned the way it used to be done, because I'm a lover of culinary history and I stick to the old, tried and tested methods and procedures. Even if we can combine it with modern tools.
The menu features gourmet stories written in the old dialect. Sometimes gypsy music accompanies the meal, but you can also order a perfect Italian pasta dinner from the chef. What is the main thrust?
It is a mistake to think that Hungarian gastronomy is homogeneous. If you do a little research, if you read the history books, you will quickly realise that the influence of our neighbouring countries, the wars, the empires, all have had an impact on our society and our culture. Gastronomy is no exception to this, as Austrian, Balkan, Turkish, Swabian and many other recipes and the cultivation of raw materials have been left to us from these times, and this is how today's Hungarian gastronomy has been put together. When we look at the table of contents of a cookbook from the 17th and 18th centuries, we see dishes and exciting variations that we would only taste in fine dining kitchens today, or even not there. In the old days, nothing was more natural than pheasant and coriander on the market, and a whole range of sauces and gravies on the table. Not to mention the fact that when we had seas, crab, snails and fish were an integral part of the feast. Our diet was more varied on a weekday than it has ever been since. The common point, and the most important, was to prepare food as deliciously as possible, with the perfect texture, seasonally - be it a potato or a lamb. It was served in an oven, over an open flame and served in a beautiful and decorative way. Real cooks have developed their own buying circles. In the harbours and markets, they were there at dawn, bringing home only the best ingredients.
What is the primary consideration in running a restaurant?
I try to follow this pattern and, if necessary, produce it myself or travel hundreds of kilometres to get it. I am therefore also affected. My wife and I will often taste an exciting sauce or soup abroad, bring the recipe home and adapt it to our own tastes with a “dash” of new spices. Guests don't always know what makes the dish taste better, but they love that a tomato soup can be even better than what they're used to. I think that's our trajectory, to keep the tastes that the Hungarian people have developed and are used to, and take them to an even higher level. In fact, we like to play around with recipes, spices and ingredients within this framework.
Pristóka Winery wines are famous for both their names and their harmony. Wine making is instinctive or learnable?
You probably need both. I did the wine training, albeit by distance learning, but I had a lot of help with the practical side of it. You probably also need a flair and a great deal of interest and a love of the job. I have been awarded the title of the most beautiful vineyard several times, which is due to the fact that I have spent a lot of time on it. Today I have less time and energy for this, but I stick to my original ideas. Natural wines, traditional methods, no chemicals, just pure wine. We like to hold wine tastings and larger events in the cellars, and we try to prepare wine dinners to go with them. Wine is also one of our staple foods in the kitchen, we put it in everything we can.
What has the restaurant been through recently?
It is these big events that I miss perhaps the most. These are the opportunities that drive a larger object forward. We have tried to survive, although we have not had much support. That said, we have renovated the restaurant and built a few more rooms to accommodate our guests. We have kept our staff, because we are a team game and we needed and still need good professionals, which is rare today. But we are still grateful to our regulars for not forgetting us and now we can meet again. Since we opened, even if it's a hidden little corner of the country, most of the people who come here return, in fact 85 per cent of our guests are regulars.
I think we are on the right track, after all, in that we love our traditions, we preserve them and we don't let them go. So we can continue to serve home-made sausages, cook with real vegetables, and it is healthy to drink wine here because we offer people who come here what our own family drinks.
