Gastronomy, cooking, is more fashionable than ever, and there have never been so many aspirational, sophisticated restaurants in the country. Yet, in reality, this does not seem to be the case: most Hungarian buffets, restaurants and cafés still focus on quantity rather than quality. Obviously to meet the needs of Hungarian guests.
It's like we live in two different worlds. In one of them, national stars Marcsi Borbás, Ákos Sárközi, Jenő Rácz and Szabolcs Szabadfi (Szabi the baker) show the public ingredients, dishes and kitchen technologies that make cuisine and nutrition more diverse and modern. Even if it happens to be in the context of a gastroshow, they spread the word about contemporary Hungarian cuisine and cooking through their shows.
Unlike the Michelin-starred chefs mentioned above, Marcsi Borbás does not promote progressive cuisine, but her work is very modern. There is no more important guideline in Hungarian (and international) gastronomy than naturalness, closeness to nature and the use of „real”, organic ingredients. Marcsi Borbás' work is therefore very much in tune with the important messages of our time.
The other Hungary we see seems to be stuck in the previous regime, the late Kádár era. It was not in vain that Zsigmond Gábor Papp became a favourite of the public retro video, with iconic phrases:
„Look, sir, what a man eats is his own, it's his own. In this uncertain world, who knows what tomorrow will bring. What I eat is mine. It's here, nobody's going to take it away from me,” the gentleman on the train points to his belly as he munches on his sandwich.
Audience needs and reality
Just two examples of the above. Marcsi Borbás's videos exploring traditional flavours and recipes have hundreds of thousands of clicks. In 2016 Transylvania in winter I. was seen by 913,000 people, the recipe for bejgli and sourdough bread by 500-500,000, and so on.
Another very popular gastronomy star, Szabolcs Szabadfi's sourdough bread baking videos have produced huge numbers, with his single sourdough bread recipe 1,3 million viewers judge.
So it seems that there is a need, curiosity and interest in sophisticated cooking, baking, buying ingredients and nutrition, but in practice this is not the case.
Nowadays, quality street food places, bistros and gourmet restaurants are opening up all the time, where the aim is not to serve huge portions, but to offer quality cuisine, including Hungarian cuisine. There is a proliferation of cafes and eateries offering healthy food all over the city, and it is now expected that there will be options for healthy food.
Hungarians improving from league leaders
Looking at the statistics, however, we can see that the above examples are only an option for a thin stratum and are typical of their eating habits. This is a particularly important issue given that the Hungarian population is no less than 64%-a overweight or obese, so it is also a public health issue.
Here are the Eurostat statistics. As we all know, there is not much diversity, creative cuisine and healthy eating vegetables and without eating fruit. Well, this is how the Hungarian population stood in the European Union survey in 2017:
As you can see, we finished last among all countries. Only 30% of the Hungarian population consumed at least once a day (!) vegetables. But let's face it, once a day is not enough vegetables consume.
2022 are the latest figures, which examined the European nations' performance in a variety of vegetables and fruit consumption. A FruitVeB, the Hungarian Fruits and Vegetables Interprofessional Organisation, reported that „we are below the EU average: while on average in EU countries, about one third of the population (32.9%) does not eat enough fruit and vegetables every day to meet their daily nutritional needs. fruit and vegetables consumption, in Hungary it is 36.3%, so there is plenty of work to be done in the area of health-conscious eating.”
Dietary recommendations are in vain, but Hungarians still eat fish legendarily low, here is a shocking statistics about this too.
So what does a Hungarian eat? It is worth looking at the Ringier 2022 What does the country eat? the results of his gastronomic research.
