A tiny hotel, great breakfast, market experiences and a Michelin star – interview with Ádám Barna

We feel it’s important to run a destination restaurant in a way that keeps the cuisine exciting, both for locals and for our growing number of foreign guests. Hungarian cuisine open to the world – that’s how we define it. We have regional dishes, we love traditions, and we don’t forget the influences that have shaped Hungarian cuisine over time. With Sándor (Sándor Varga, owner – editor’s note) we both come from Békés county, which is also reflected in the food, for example, one of the popular elements of our gourmet breakfast is the thick sausage from Csaba.  We update the menu every 2-3 months – I don’t mean to say we change it, because some items are slow to take over or are permanent, such as the amuse bouche bites with a crunchy combination of peppers, onions and sour cream, which is innovative and playful in appearance, succulent in flavour and perfect for the other flavours.

The thick sausage is accompanied by fresh sourdough bread with a crispy crust, but the starter of the nine courses is an energising green smoothie, followed by whipped homemade sour cream with vanilla, topped with candied dried cherries from the previous summer, then the sausage is served with tomatoes, butter and homemade liver paste. This is followed by a Japanese omelette, then the ‘Bundáskenyér’ (French Toast) Superior with mangalica ham, and some Tekeresvölgyi matusalem cheese with peaches and walnuts, topped with a hot yeast dumpling filled with plum jam cooked in a cauldron. It's a leisurely, relaxed breakfast, during which you can have a long chat about life. Those staying at Room42 can also choose to have breakfast at Piac42 instead of the degustation breakfast, which includes a delicious spicy lecsó (ratatouille) or Croque Monsieur.

By the way, the bundled services are not limited to the breakfast and accommodation combo. For example, we cooperate with the Világi winery – and we have a two-day package that includes a wine tasting in Slovakia.  We have found excellent wines along the Garam (Hron) River, and we also tend to “think regional” when it comes to other raw materials.  It is also important for us to have guests from the region called ‘Felvidék’ (former Upper Hungary, currently part of Slovakia). Many of the people staying in Room 42’s suites and designer apartments are also those who come to us via Alexander the Guest’s YouTube channel – gastro-tourists, but they are off to explore the city while they are here. In our neighbourhood, there is a Tourinform office, very handy to stop by after breakfast.  It has a lot to offer, with many tourist, urban and cultural events usually taking place in the city. This year, for example, Esztergom (together with Székesfehérvár) will be the featured rural city on the Night of Museums. If you prefer hiking, you can head to the Pilis, climb Dobogókő – or nearby, on the city border, is Búbánatvölgy, with a great fishing pond, a fully modern playground, a lovely scone bar and a fish fryer on the beach.

If not in the immediate vicinity, but from Fehérvárcsurgó, in addition to Tekeresvölgyi Farm, we receive wonderful, pure-tasting cheeses from the Csurgódombi Sziklevélfarm és Sajtkonyha, from the Bükk Cheese Manufactory, and from the Galagonya Farm in Esztergom. The fallow deer comes from Somogy, the lamb from Dömös. But what is absolutely local and something we are very proud of is our own kitchen garden: We cultivate it on 400 square metres, using a “no dig-no till” method, and grow everything from Mexican tarragon to onions, muskmelons and wild tomatoes. We have 10 kinds of basil! All of this right on the banks of the Danube. Gardening in a beautiful setting is like meditation. It’s not just for me, by the way, others in the team can also do it – and they really do it – I like a holistic approach to cooking anyway, and here with Piac42 they can try their hand at it on multiple platforms.

I’m a big fan of markets. I believe that the best thing a gastrotourist can do when travelling around the world is to go to the local market: you can taste good food and immediately develop an image of the culture. We wanted to create a very lively, community-forming, understandable, likeable place, with stalls, but also a tiny 18-seat restaurant on the corner (which can be expanded to 40 seats on the 4-season glass terrace). Every 2-3 weeks, we put a kettle on the fire and every day the fireplace is “smoking” and the restaurant serves delicious bistro food. We want locals to feel at home and to come back often for a chat and a good meal – while a meal at the Michelin-starred 42 Restaurant is more of a celebration, as it’s a well-planned programme that lasts for 3 hours. In addition to the tasting menu, there is also a great non-alcoholic drinks’ list, and 30 different vintage champagnes to choose from for those who want to toast. We offer something different in our Michelin-starred units and something different in our Michelin-recommended units; for different moods, life situations and preferences.

This is true. What we all have in common, I think, is the quest for perfection, and that we can surprise those who have been here before, without fear of change, and renewing ourselves again and again.