we visited The Artisan restaurant with its own apiary and garden
You arrive at your workplace in the morning and head straight to the garden to water the flowers and pluck the flowers that you will use in the kitchen during the day. Then you check how your herb and sprout harvest is doing, go to the pantry for pickled cauliflower, rowanberries and elderflowers, and finally head to the roof to check on how the bee colony is doing. You will look around while admiring the view of Petřín, the nearby Municipal House and other Prague landmarks. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, you are in the center of the capital.
This is what the everyday working idyll looks like at The Artisan restaurant, which is located in the renovated Prague Marriott hotel. And even though this world-famous hotel chain has many restaurants around the world, the one in Prague stands out. Prague is one of the few cities in the world where the management of the chain has decided to let the local chef have a free hand when it comes to coming up with the restaurant concept.
Thanks to this, the ground floor of V Celnica is not an American steak house, as is the case with other Marriott hotels, but a place where chef David Rejhon, together with his deputy in culinary armor, Peter Mikuláš, can make the most of what he gives them in the culinary field. the only meaning in the world – local ingredients, the greatest possible self-sufficiency and procedures that are as much as possible in line with the sustainability of contemporary gastronomy.
David Rejhon headed the kitchen at the Marriott hotel already in Asia. And when a new concept was planned in Prague, the regional director responsible for gastronomy said that he would like to continue the cooperation with him in Prague as well. And since Rejhon was working together with Mikuláš at the White Circus catering company belonging to the Ambiente group at the time, they decided to continue their joint efforts, and they both joined the Marriott.
David Rejhon is given a sense of locality and traditional practices
“The management of the hotel was thinking about restoring the steak concept that was here originally, so they came to me with an offer. At that time, the regional director called me and said that they were planning to renovate the entire hotel, including the restaurant, and he began to describe the concept he had come up with. I had to let him down because I told him that unfortunately it doesn’t make sense for me to sell steaks from South America and lobsters from thousands of kilometers away.” says Rejhon when we meet in the premises of The Artisan restaurant.
So he declined the offer, but when the regional director had a trip to Prague, he took him to his former culinary laboratory in White Circus and showed him what he was doing there: fermentation, pickling, making homemade oils, vinegars and other magic. “I told him that this is my vision, that this is what makes sense for me to do. And after a short time he called again and told me that they decided to completely redo the concept of the restaurant and introduced me to The Artisan.”
Rejhon was working together with Mikuláš at the time, and thanks to the possibility of shaping the concept according to their own, they both decided to continue their joint efforts at Marriott. They agree that it was a truly unique opportunity and that a similar local concept in the context of an international rarity.
Exotic procedures in the Czech environment
From his work in Asia, specifically in the Marriott restaurant in Vietnam, David Rejhon brought to the Czech Republic what also fits into the domestic culinary soil. That is, fermentation and other methods of preserving raw materials so that he can use them in the kitchen all year round. “In Asia, the variety of raw materials is much larger than in the Czech Republic, and due to the fact that they do not have such equipment, they are forced to think like our grandmothers in order to preserve everything,” explains the chef.
Canning, salting, drying, fermentation – all of these are procedures that inspired Rejhon and which, after returning to the Czech Republic, began to be used extensively in the businesses where he cooked. Follow the same principles and follow Artisan. “We dry everything here, pickle it, make our own spices, our own oils and vinegars or miso, which are processes that set us apart.”
Both chefs try to get the most out of the ingredients
The work of Rejhon and Mikuláš also extends to collecting. When they have time, they go out into nature and collect what is in season. Recently, it was spruce tips or linden flower balls, which they pickle and turn into linden capers, they also process undeveloped flowers without and dandelions in a similar way. “Dandelion capers taste fantastic with, for example, smoked fish,” Rejhon says as he walks me through the pantry’s current layout.
It also contains a lot of syrups, vinegars, which are made from, for example, cuttings of strawberries and apples, dandelion honey, vegetables that are currently undergoing fermentation, or herbal oils. “We use a lot of herbs in the kitchen: tarragon, basil, parsley, mint… We heat the stems and cuttings, which we would otherwise throw away, with oil, then mix it all up, let it stand so that the herb pulp separates from the oil, and the result is a great thing full of flavor ” narrates.
This approach makes them somewhat self-sufficient at The Artisan. In addition, they are able to grow a lot of edible flowers and other herbs in the garden in the courtyard. At the same time, Rejhon and Mikuláš point out that they always compose the menu based on what ingredients their suppliers currently have available. “Farmers call us what they have, we order based on that and then we can cook from ingredients that are in the best condition.” Mikuláš explains.
A traditional pantry and a super modern cultivator
In addition to the larder, the two chefs boast a herb and key cultivator, which was not originally part of the project, but Rejhon insisted on it. Now The Artisan is probably the only restaurant in the Czech Republic that has this invention in its kitchen. Rejhon opens it and gives me a taste of the mustard seed sprouts, which have a very strong but pleasant taste. Thanks to the cultivator, they can refresh Czech cuisine, perceived by many as monotonous, heavy and unnutritious.
Next to the cultivator, a refrigerator is removed for aging whole pieces of meat. “They supply us with meat from Amasa. The quality of the input raw material is important to us, and we know that we carefully check our suppliers and how they approach animal feeding. Fifteen years ago, you wouldn’t have found meat for steak in the Czech Republic, and I’m very happy that today I can take a local rib eye and turn it into a great steak.” says Rejhon, pointing to pieces of meat that can be kept in the fridge for up to 60 days.
The waiter always presents the selection of old meat to the guests
From everything that Rejhon and Mikuláš present, it is clear that they think about every ingredient and that they try not to waste anything in the kitchen. The pair of culinary professionals claim that the Artisan concept is not 100% zero waste, but they are trying their best to do so. “We try to process everything we can somehow. In preparing the kitchen, you can see how much waste is actually produced in every restaurant, while it can often be used – you can make an absolutely fantastic vinegar from the offcuts of peppers and their seeds.” explains his thinking about a more sustainable operation of Rejhon.
Only fresh and local ingredients, meat and freshwater fish appear on the menu. The lunch menu changes every week, while the evening menu can only be tried on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The daily evening operation should start in September at the latest, but at the moment the Czech gastronomic scene is concerned with a lack of staff. And Rejhon insists that he needs to have everything perfectly ready before fully operating.
Tartare is served here with a grated egg yolk
However, during my visit to The Artisan restaurant, there are no shortcomings. The waiter Marek takes care of us at the table, who is completely professional and accompanies us throughout the experience in a very friendly spirit. First, he brings crackers to the table with a lighted tallow candle, which can be spread on sourdough bread. Right from the start, a relaxed atmosphere is established – despite the level environment, there is no room for stiffness here.
Among the appetizers, tartare is taken out, which is created right before our eyes from 21-day-aged tenderloin. In addition to the traditional ingredients, it is topped off with a grated dried egg yolk. Main courses can be combined – the host can choose either some of the dishes that are put together according to what the suppliers have on offer, or they can choose some of the old steaks with a side and sauce.
We choose trout from Chabrybárna with black root and sirloin steak with rum and pepper sauce. In addition, we can choose from the collection of handmade knives by Aleš Vencovský to accompany the steak. The fish is light and juicy, the black root espuma is complemented by asparagus – a simple, clean and perfectly balanced combination of ingredients. Steak against the taste buds at the first bite, the sauce would not even be necessary because it is very distinctive, juicy and tender in itself.
Bees that have the best view
But the tour of The Artisan restaurant does not end in the kitchen and tasting the local menu. Finally, Peter Mikuláš takes me to the roof of the Marriott Hotel, where he is fulfilling his long-time dream. Management to build an apiary here, in the center of Prague. From the point of view of safety measures and permits, which are necessary for the realization of an apiary directly in the hotel, it was no joke. Despite this, Mikuláš managed to lure the management to bees so much that they agreed and purchased three beehives.
In them, the bees now work diligently every day, fly around the wide area, return and produce honey. Mikuláš is known for his enthusiasm and great zeal. “I have known a beekeeper for a long time who has bee colonies in Hájek near Uhříněvsi. I visited it many years ago, and when I saw how wonderfully the bees work, I thought that one day I want to have bees too.” Santa Claus smiles.
In the spring, the chefs started their own bee colony on the roof of the Marriott Hotel
So when he joined Rejhon at The Artisan restaurant, one of the things he was striving for from the beginning of his career was his own bee colony – it would fit in beautifully with the whole concept. “Management agreed and this spring we finally got down to business with the supervision of my beekeeper friend. And now here we have these beautiful bees working diligently every day.” Santa blurts out, while we watch the three beehives from afar. And he adds with a laugh that no bees probably have such a nice view of Prague as these.
Now the bees on the roof of the Marriott Hotel can collect nectar and use it to make honey, thanks to which they will get stronger and survive the winter. Mikuláš explains that since there are about three divisions, i.e. only small colonies, each with its own queen, they must now focus on ensuring that the bees thrive and that each colony reaches at least a thousand worker bees.
But you can already see that the bees are doing well. Since spring, they have been able to deposit a large amount of nectar, so they will have enough supplies for the winter. “On the roof, despite the harsh sun, wind and other conditions that are far from ideal, the bees thrive well. After all, being located in such a place is nothing new, so we were not afraid that they would not like it here.” concludes the chef, who now has a big influence on beekeeping. The first bottling of honey should take place in the center of Prague within a few weeks.
In The Artisan restaurant, David Rejhon and Peter Mikuláš are creating their own little rural idyll in the middle of the city center. Above all, so that they can enjoy their work, which they can then transfer to their guests. And they do it really well.
The bees have been busy since spring and have collected a lot of honey