Article in “The Daily Telegraph” on the new Bucharest restaurant scene

The article, published on 5 Mach ‘09, informs on the new culinary scene that recently started developing in Prague, Budapest and Bucharest. For Romania’s capital the author assigned the shortest space in the article, probably because the city is the least interesting from a culinary perspective, rightly noting that not long ago there were “few edible dishes at all in Bucharest”. While for Budapest and Prague, the journalist Devanshi Mody, who wrote the article, notes a real preoccupation among the tops chefs to promote the local cuisine in a modern culinary setting, in Bucharest they are content with the trusted international food, the Romanian traditional cuisine being shun off: 

Bucharest is coming into vogue again with a trend for modern, minimalist cuisine rather than traditional Romanian fare. Beautiful historic restaurants, shut down by the communists for being too opulent, are now back in business, serving everything from French salads to surprisingly al dente pastas. 

The two Bucharest restaurants presented in the article are just international style, impersonal establishments, with countless similar examples found throughout the western world. The author notes that these eateries are ‘graced with the city’s glamorous young things’, meaning by that good looking women, which personally I do not understand what these ‘designer-clad youngster[s]‘, as the author puts it, that ply the expensive Romanian restaurants have to do with the quality of the food or service. I wonder how can they afford the bill in a country with some of the lowest EU wages; any suggestions? 

The article is laudable by trying very hard to polish up the sorry face of Bucharest restaurant scene, but it only adds to injury by avoiding to point out the desolation of a capital city that ignores its own traditions and identity. As is abundantly clear from the case of Bucharest’s period houses, neglected and mass demolished to make room for bland “international style” buildings, the country’s rich culinary tradition is just flushed aside, the locals prizing instead the so-called international food, transforming the city in an even blander place, no different from any standardized strip mall.

In conclusion, Bucharest is not a place that I recommend for a culinary excursion. If that is nevertheless your goal, you should be prepared to go instead off the beaten track to the small unglamourous restaurants that dot the city from its central area to the remotest communist era block of flats quarter. There, with patience and a lot of allowance for less exemplary service or other standards, you would indeed be able to find the real culinary flavour of Bucharest, reminiscent of its times of glory before the war. For a virtual taste, see my review of Nicolae Klepper’s “Taste of Romania”, one of the best books on the traditional Romanian cuisine. ©Valentin Mandache

Posted in Bucharest, Food Culture Tagged: Bucharest, Bucuresti, Cuisine, Eastern Europe, Romanian cuisine