Anna Grosmanová aka Foodpioneer knows what the Czechia tastes like
I have quite an overview of the blogging scene and food bloggers are my passion. I love beautiful photos of food and cooking videos are therapy for me. But I have reached (I don’t like to say that I have grown old) a stage in my life where I also want to know: how to eat healthier and better, how to take care of food and where it comes from. And that’s why our discoveries this year are Karolína Four and Anna Grosmanová from the Foodpioneer blog. And it makes a lot of sense to me that their blogs are tied for first place in the Food blog of the year poll.
Anna Grosmanová studied production quality at the university, she is behind Silák broth and Divoženka lemonade, behind the project Zahony do skłka, which helps to establish flower beds, teaches children to care for them and to observe what is happening around them. He writes professional articles and research, and sometimes accompanies foreigners around Prague to see what it tastes like here. And her enthusiasm is contagious.
I discovered you thanks to your win in the food blogger poll. Your blog is different from classic recipe sites. Will you introduce him?
I don’t have 20k followers, I have 6.5k. And how do I create content? As part of my work activities, I create interesting content that has found a very specific audience. And you’re right, you won’t find recipes for vanilla rolls on my blog. That’s something I wanted to avoid outright because I’m not good at it. And I wanted to be different. My “foodblogging” or “foodpioneering” comes from an inner need to know and understand food as such. My passion is primary production and the origin of food. This includes knowledge of agriculture and processors. That’s why I studied this field.
You state that you want to show where the food comes from. What led you to this journey?
My grandparents, my grandfather, influenced me the most. He was a farmer, i.e. a shareholder in the former JZD, he took care of the land, drove a tractor, raised pigs and cows… along with twenty other people. I spent a lot of time with them and for a long time I thought that this is how all children grew up. That everyone was plowing, jumping in the hay in the fall… And then when I was choosing a garden, I wanted to choose something meaningful. Natural sciences suited me, so I chose food science. That is, the possibility to spend time outside, to be one foot in the field and the other in the laboratory. That’s why I chose to study quality and it completely absorbed me.
Choosing a university, this study fulfills you, is not a given.
I personally consider it one of my life’s achievements. It helped me that I studied for a year in America in the third grade at the gymnasium, where they devote a lot of time to preparing for future education. They have assigned advisors, decide whether they are humanities or science types, and so on. And that also forced me to focus more on this decision-making process and not underestimate it.
You are a food expert. So what can you do?
If I were purebred what I studied, I would work at the state agricultural inspection or I would be a classic quality inspector. For example, I did my internship with František Kšány at the Naše maso butcher shop, and I could easily have stayed there and eventually become a quality controller.
But my mom is a journalist and I already wrote a blog and columns for food magazines during my studies. And I was interested in the possibility of being a professional journalist who understands food and agriculture. My development went from quality expert to product knowledge and finally to journalism. I also found myself in photography, I enjoy telling a story through pictures, I can write absolutely everything with one photo and I don’t have to sit at the computer for half a day. In addition, everyone can form their own opinion about the photo – and I can kind of keep mine to myself.
You are the intermediary between the field and the consumer. Your added value is that you show where the food really comes from. What do producers and growers struggle with and what annoys or saddens you personally?
People are intolerant of farmers, typically in the summer: I go to take pictures, the guys are harvesting grain and the master from the house by the field comes to scold them, you know? And they say to me: “We harvest grain, how else are we supposed to do it?” People would like us to return to animal production, but I don’t want to have pig farms in the village so that it stinks. The consumer does not know what food production needs. I recently wrote a gloss about carp, about ponds. They were created for fish, not for swimming. That’s why you can’t swim in the summer.
For example, I personally regret the case regarding “beyond meat” or meat substitutes. I don’t understand why people who don’t want to eat meat feel the need to imitate it, including the terminology. Why don’t we call vegan meat in the shape of a burger slice a pea patty, why do we call it fake when we try to avoid meat at the same time.
As part of the collaboration with the slow food movement, you had the task of selecting and bringing a typical Czech crop to the Terra Madre food festival in Turin. What did you choose?
It depends what is typical for us… One can perceive “the most” or “historically the longest”. I approached the strategy “what has most penetrated into Czech gastronomy”. You can say that we grow a lot of wheat here, cereals in general, canola, tell me a lot of milk. But it also applies to Germany or Austria. So what represents us? In Turin, there were specified categories – cereals and fruit.
We are great in fruits and vegetables. So I got in touch with the local pomological society, which are experts in fruits, apples, pears… And finally we decided that we have to take an apple. He was then selected poppy, which we do a lot and has made its way into our gastronomy. And finally cherry tree, which is unique, moreover, fits perfectly with the topic of biodiversity. It is such a “pear from Mars”, a very remarkable raw material.
You suddenly accompany foreigners and show how Prague tastes. How does it taste?
Like meatloaf in a bun at the renowned butcher’s Our meat and potatoes in ashes at the Eska restaurant. I go to pubs with them, we talk, and not only about food, and I get paid for it. It’s a dream job!
What interested or surprised the foreigner the most?
They are always pleasantly surprised by the unbeatable price-performance ratio. But at the same time, they miss, for example, vegan food. We do most of the Americans and that suits me because I used to live there. But be careful, we don’t just talk about food, we also deal with politics, for example.
In addition to showing foreigners how Prague tastes, you take part in the program Pečení na Nedelí. You traveled all over the country looking for typical recipes. How do you think the Czech Republic tastes and what did you find out during the creation of the program about Czech baking?
With the program Pečení na Sunday, we spent a lot of time in the field and this influenced my knowledge of ethnography. Basically, we climbed into people’s barracks during the casting. We were looking for authentic faces, grandmothers, aunts, people who can do something with their hands and are not pros… And to your question: The Czechia tastes like snail pizza.
And what should foreigners taste to get to know typical Czech cuisine?
For tourists, I would simply recommend the proven combination of something sour, carbohydrate and meat, it’s great. Pork, dumplings and sauerkraut… We always had dumplings here, meat was always a necessity for survival in Central Europe, because it is not pleasant here for a long time during the year, it was always necessary to preserve the food.
Let’s go to the Food blog of the year poll – you shared the victory with Karolína Four. How do you perceive the food blogging scene?
10 years ago there were about four blogs and a blogger contest was out of the question. Now there are hundreds of them, it’s a community, a bunch of people who do a similar thing and have something to talk about. This is very valuable and I am very flattered that my blog, which is out of the mainstream, has caught the attention of so many people. To some extent, it confirms to me that my content is fun and has value for them, but at the same time, it puts a responsibility on me that I am not used to, it scares me. Public attention stresses me out, even though I appreciate it immensely. I know it’s not the Oscars…
They are the Oscars within your category… I find it interesting that you and Karolína Four are the first, i.e. food blogs that are not focused on exact recipes, but we deal with the quality of ingredients from different perspectives.
There are more and more blogs where you can find beautiful photos and great recipes. And the rule is that if you are something different, it is better for you, you are unique in your category. The amount of work behind the blog during the year is also appreciated.
You are in close contact not only with farmers and producers, but also with chefs. How do you perceive the possibilities of their connection?
I think the chef has a lot on his hands these days. Recently, I was working on a project whose implementers have the task of creating an organic region in the Tišnovsk Region, supporting organic production and its sales. And we discussed the need to connect with the chefs of good restaurants in Brno.
why? Small farmers have enough production volume to supply one restaurant 100% year-round. And this farmer-chef relationship has power. Farmers do not have the capacity to supply dozens of shops, they are in the markets… But a good restaurant chef can make a big difference. Taking eggs from one farm all year round and thus supporting it…
You have a lot of work activities, but at the same time you have a little daughter. How do you manage to combine business and family?
I’ll probably never be a large landlady, because I’m not ready to run a business, be in it every day and devote 150 percent to it. It would be at the expense of the family and I refuse to accept this model. It is not possible to juggle a child with a high career, so I juggle it with freelance work. When needed, I close projects, when I need to earn more, I take on more work.
But I think the child is a tribe. And we have a great family background: grandmothers, siblings and others… My family and I are very closely connected, and I have no regrets when my daughter goes to visit her grandmother for three days. Grandma is looking forward to her, she is looking forward to her, my husband and I can enjoy each other a little more.
What are you looking forward to in the near future?
We are expecting a new addition to the family and I am very much looking forward to crawling into bed and sleeping.
Yes, I can do that very well too.