About our company
About the magazine:
Chef Inspiration is a web-based magazine supporting the art of cooking, launched in 2019 by Matusz-Vad Zrt. of the previous Chalkboard blog and the successor to Panorama magazine, which ran for 12 years.
The aim is to bring together those involved in the culinary arts, to inspire them and to tell them about their successes, which can motivate them.
The profession of chef reached a new dimension on 11 October 2011 when the Hungarian Bocuse d'Or Ve event took place. This gave a huge inspiration to agile chefs who saw their work as a vocation, while at the same time tourists began to flock to Budapest in growing numbers on “economy class flights”. The resulting stable income or stable pay created a firm foundation for a creative and motivated chef society. One by one, the better and better restaurants opened and our chefs entered a new dimension. Star chefs started to compete in their profession and the bar was raised higher and higher by the participants. A true gastronomic revolution took place, which ended the COVID in one fell swoop. Tourism has disappeared from the country and in Budapest people have tightened their belts. During the summer of 2020, TOP gastronomy tried to find solutions for the remaining 30% of Hungarian customers, but this was not really successful. The star chefs left the city or even went abroad, only a few survived in Budapest. Even the 2021 relaunch brought only half a success. Unfortunately, TOP-Gastro is still only a shadow of its former self. In such an environment, our magazine tries to address and help the players of the cooking profession.
The professional leader of the blog is the founding owner of Matusz-Vad Zrt, Mr Balázs Matusz Master Chef, who is a dedicated patriot of the culinary arts.
Members of the editorial team:
- Ms Edit Beregi-Nagy - Editor-in-Chief
- Ms Zsófia Szarka - Gastro blogger
- Mr David Horseshoe - Creative Chef
- Mrs Henriett Smicz - Gastroblogger
- Ms Anna Szekeres - Gastroblogger
- Mr Ferenc Kiss - Food Photographer
More than 25 years of experience
Interview with Mr Balázs Matusz - from start to 20 billion turnover
Since childhood he wanted to be a chef and for at least as long he wanted to own his own restaurant. Nothing shows his determination better than his perseverance and determination and the fact that at the age of 21 he became Hungary's youngest landlord. The owner of Matusz-Vad Zrt, which celebrates its quarter-century anniversary this year, has an interesting journey behind him.
I took my objective very seriously
- Mr Balázs Matusz, President and CEO of Zrt., recalled the early days. „I borrowed seventy thousand forints from my parents in 1992 - at the time - it was a lot of money - I created the rest to rent a neglected restaurant in Győr, which I turned into a very popular French restaurant at the time. It was unique in the city that guests would queue in front of Pierot in the evening to get a table. I soon realized that I was limited to the thirty-five tables that were in the restaurant. Then I realized that no matter how hard I tried to do my best, I couldn't get more than that. My parents had a wholesaler friend who became my role model when I was a kid, he traveled the world to work, shared a lot of his experiences with us, and in the meantime, I liked the opportunity, what wholesaling gave me.”
From restaurants to game processing
I started my new company in 1994, also in Győr. I decided to start it because I had noticed in the past, as a chef in the catering trade and of course as a restaurant owner, that the supply of game meat was very poor. At that time there was only one game processing company on the market and only the cheapest products were available from them. There was no really good and properly processed game meat available for the catering trade in Győr. However, there was another reason for starting the company. The currency crisis had just arrived, and in 1994 the exchange rate of the Swiss franc had multiplied, and I had to pay the rent for my restaurant. So I made a decision and founded Matusz-Vad Zrt.
Wholesale and cold stores
The growth was incredible, we multiplied our turnover year on year, and then when the numbers got more serious, the growth slowed down accordingly, but it certainly remained intense. The company was constantly being reorganised, developed, then started wholesaling and new products were added. Meanwhile, manufacturing was completely driven out of the company. The first cold store was a serious milestone, from then on the partners started to take me more seriously, and then we turned around the then 3 billion worth company with an external company and started to work on a big group structure. Different departments were put together and serious directors were involved in the organisation. The successes did not stop either: in 2011 I received a Bold Innovation Award from Ernst and Young for having built up an industry in Hungary, and was also honoured with many other important awards: Prestige Award, Entrepreneur of the Year, Businessman of the Year. Setting up the company in Austria eight years ago and entering the market in Slovakia six years ago was a serious step, and finally five years ago we bought our 26,000 square metre cold store in Budapest, which is now the engine of the business.
25 years - 20 billion annual turnover
The company is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year at a deservedly prestigious venue at the Gourmet Festival, Millenaris. Our turnover is expected to exceed HUF 20 billion this year and I employ more than 260 colleagues in the parent company! All this is accompanied by growing problems. Our biggest challenge at the moment is to retain and develop our workforce, my staff are highly valued, but nowadays we are competing not only for the best people, but also for the constant supply of our available products.
In addition to Balázs Matusz, President and CEO, his son Patrik Matusz has also been working at Matusz-Vad Zrt. since 2017.
New technologies - Premium food
We are also always trying to come up with new ideas. Our target groups are mid-range and high-end restaurants as well as high-end catering. For them and for catering to people with labour shortages, we have developed our family of „convenience products“, which help our partners to work much more efficiently. These are highly prepared meat products that can be used quickly and consistently in good quality, such as „Souse Vide“ - when the leg of goose is vacuum packed at low temperature, the meat is tenderised, all you have to do is fry it and it's ready to serve on the plate! This kind of finishing can even be entrusted to an unskilled worker. We are planning further developments in the import of high-end steaks, and we already import and distribute Special Steaks from all over the world - from Argentina to New Zealand. Our latest speciality is that for the last two weeks we have been offering zebra, camel, llama and bison meat, which can be used to prepare very tasty dishes. We offer camel burgers made from camel meat, and from the other specialities you can prepare an unexpected but very tasty surprise for your guests using a very traditional cooking technique. For chefs we offer Chef - Inspiration.