“Up to now, we were opened seven days a week. However, our suppliers rest on Sundays – the farmers don’t pick their crops and don’t go to markets, others have a free day on Sunday as well,” the executive chef Oldřich Sahajdák explains. As he wants to cook with ingredients that had been harvested, plucked or hunted/caught and killed no more than one day ago, he decided that it would be better for the restaurant to respect this natural cycle and to be open from Tuesday to Sunday.

“We have purchasing manager Libor Beran who visits farmers every day and provide our kitchen with supplies. Although he brings raw materials and ingredients even on Mondays, we want only those that had been picked on the same day or the day before preparation, and that’s a problem around noon on Mondays. Moreover, some meals require a longer preparation time and we need to have the freshest ingredients ready for them on Sundays already,” Sahajdák further explains.

He has also decided to make a change in the degustation menu. Instead of two degustation menus (six and eleven-course), La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise will be offering a nine-course menu complemented with other amuse bouche for 3450 CZK. ”When we know exactly how many meals we are going to cook, we can better plan our purchase and will be able to handle ingredients even more thoughtfully,” adds the executive chef.

He is very well aware of the fact that for a preparation of a high-quality food, it is important to have available the freshest ingredients possible as well as satisfied people who the food. “Our chefs, like the Czech popular singer Karel Gott, give the best possible performance, if they are well rested and are supported by their families – they are not missing at home on Christmas or on a birthday of their beloved person.

Such chef in combination with a great ingredient is more valuable to us than any Michelin star,” Oldřich Sahajdák says. He believes that only then it will be possible to push the boundaries of the Czech cuisine, to train up better chefs and to educate guests who will be better able to see the difference between “good” and “excellent”.

The restaurant with the capacity of 35 seats serves traditional Czech meals with a modern twist prepared with local ingredients. It has a team of 30 chefs, sommeliers and waiters/waitresses who are constantly developing new food and drink ideas. They devote their efforts not only to cooking, but they also pay a great deal of attention to processing fruit and vegetables to be used for non-alcoholic pairing.

La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise restaurant was awarded Michelin star in 2012 and since then it has been defending it successfully every year.