CHEF
(^) +
VISIT
duroc pork cheek stew ‘retro’ style with
ear carpaccio & bácskai maki
baked Hungarian hortobágy pancake with
minced meat & sour cream
Chef Bíró Lajos is a
proponent of Hungarian
ingredients, such as paprika,
using them in several of his
dishes. The resulting flavours
harmonise perfectly.
Ken Ling
In 2004, he set up Bock Bisztró with sailing buddy
József Bock, whose family has been making wines
for nine generations in Villány in southwestern
Hungary. The current menu includes mangalitsa
pork and goose liver sushi, but it changes monthly,
on average, with about 25 to 30 new dishes each
month. His inventiveness had a story behind it. “In
1971, I was working in a hotel where people made
fun of you if you didn’t have any new ideas,” says
Chef Lajos. “I had just gotten into the kitchen, and
I didn’t want to be laughed at.” It’s been 40 years,
but up till today, at age 67, he still gets up at seven
in the morning, and turns in only at ten or eleven
in the evening, learning, looking at new things,
getting himself inspired.
“My 21-year-old son is also in the culinary arts,”
says Chef Lajos. “He is studying in Switzerland
now, and this year, will be working in Vienna, and
next year, in Shanghai.” If you come from the Far
East, he recommends that you go to Europe for
four months. Then, go to America for two months,
and have a look at what’s going on over there. “In
your first four to five years, you don’t get to have
a girlfriend,” he says. “You are going to work 16-
hour days, because you want to learn as much as
you can.” You want to be exposed to new ideas;
you want to learn about new cuisines, you want to
work for new chefs. “Those years are only about not
dying from hunger or thirst,” says Chef Lajos. To get
somewhere in your life as a chef, it requires work.
“It’s a stupid idea that it’s only about luck.” QL
Bock Bisztró |Budapest, Erzsébet körút 43-49, 1073 Hungary | Tel: (36) 1321 0340
065