“When I cook, my ancestors are with me" – epic French taste journey at Fabrice’s Table

Although the origins of the apartment restaurant trend are still obscure, it can be said that its roots can be traced all the way back to Cuba in the 1960s. The private restaurant-apartment fashion, which started there as a partisan movement, quickly reached America, Europe, and finally Hungary, where it is still a popular genre today due to its immediacy, family atmosphere and focus on experience. The original concept is simple: buy an apartment, or rather the one where you currently live, and invite your friends over for dinner. Dream up a symbolic amount for the menu and enjoy yourself! Although today we can also pay for more extra apartment restaurant experiences, the experience is similar; to have dinner at someone's kitchen table, in a much higher quality than usual. Meanwhile, to talk, meet and connect. And you do not have to go far for exemplary initiatives! The Palkonyha in Palkonya sums up the romance of the rural lifestyle in one menu, in the Szarkaláb Bistro in Mád you can enjoy bistro menu items inspired by Tokaj wines, and in the Hosszú Tányér apartment restaurant in Hosszúhetény guests compete for only 5 tables - this says a lot.

Thanks to the looser regulations and minimal obligations, this alternative form of catering has become the field table of many rising chefs, culinary artists making their first attempts and men of the world staring in cooking in our country as well. One of them is Fabrice Gonet, who came to Pécs more than two decades ago thanks to the Alliance Francaise, the French Cultural Association of Pécs, not realizing then that he would not be able to let go of the city, and the city would not be able to let go of him. Two decades later and with a huge European circle behind him, he found his way back to the county seat of Baranya County[RF1]  to bring his best family (and international) recipes.

Fabrice who was born in Toulon, was only 18 years old when he started cooking more seriously. He became an au pair with a family living near Heidelberg, who loved his French dishes. After that, he lived in Hungary, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Belgium[RF1] , among others, from where his heart drew him back to Pécs. He cooked all his life and he tried to dazzle whoever was next to him with his cooking skills.

– says Fabrice, who also has Italian roots. “My two grandmothers are from two different Italian regions. My grandmother, who emigrated from Piedmont, prepared poor, peasant dishes, but for my grandmother from Naples, the kitchen was a theatre; with her dramatic flambés, ecstasies and large family dinners, eating together was an experience," says the Frenchman from Pécs, adding that he learnt a lot from his ancestors, including that you do not need complicated techniques, just good ingredients to cook well!

Therefore, when he moved back to Hungary, he bought a Swabian farmhouse with 6,400 m2 of land to be renovated in Pécsdevecser, in order to grow his own vegetables for his meals there. He cultivates his garden using the "no-dig, no-till" method, which means that he feeds the soil life with organic material, i.e., mulching. He does not disturb soil by digging, because then the microorganisms would come to the soil surface, receive light and oxygen and they would die.

Fabrice is not secretly proud of his garden and the continuous development there. Soon, as he says, the apartment restaurant will also move here, but until then there is still a lot of work to be done on the lot. The repertoire is already extremely colourful: there are Sicilian marrow, Vietnamese mint, Thai basil, Lebanese zaatar, horse-beans and chicory in special colours, which are served on the plate in a varied, international style. In his apartment restaurant in Tettye, he prepares a multi-course dinner for a maximum of 10-12 people, the main characters of which are the vegetables grown in his garden for most of the year - but we do not miss out in the winter months, either, with green salad and fresh eggs from the farm. As regards the flavours, we can travel from the South of France to the Far East, while learning exciting techniques and dishes from the host. The unusual menu includes ZUZMO from Pécs and natural wines from the biodynamic winery of Pécsdevecser, Wassmann. Of course, the overall picture will not (only) be rounded because of the sublime flavours: the conversations, anecdotes, connection, getting to know each other, these are the things that are not difficult to get elsewhere, but not so as at dinner parties in apartment restaurants.