Big dreams pay off: The story of how quality Czech meat became a reality

How did the conversation about meat start at Ambiente?

Radek: About ten years ago, we made a list of the meat we offer at Ambiente restaurants – at that time there were about five different kinds. And we found out that ninety percent of our meat came from abroad. Right there and then, we started talking about how we could bring Czech meat up to the same level of quality as what we were sourcing abroad – this was the first impulse, which was then followed by several years of trial and error.

What have you all been working on?

Radek: We really delved in deep – searching on the Internet, reading old Czech and modern foreign books about meat, meeting with various knowledgeable people and, of course, we experimented. And eventually, we came to the conclusion that the key to success was in the maturation of the meat.

Vlasta: We literally felt that we were ripe for it! Around that time, we started working with František Štefunka from TORO Hlavečník. When a cut seemed suitable to him, he let it hang up after slaughter and mature. We started taking aged meat from him and figuring out how best to process it.

How did this all look in practice?

Radek: We bought quarters of meat from Štefunka. In the beginning, we aged them for forty days, but gradually we increased the ripening time and experimented with it in different ways. Underneath the La Degustation restaurant, we had a small "laboratory" where we tried cutting quarters, grilling and played around with various experiments together with other chefs from Ambiente.

Vlasta: Honestly – it had no head or tail. Sometimes it felt more like being in a market hall, where everyone is arguing about which piece of meat they’ll take to their kitchen.

Radek: Eventually, the other chefs returned to work in their restaurants, and Vlasta and I were left alone. But it wasn't easy even with the meat itself – Mr. Štefunka was preparing to renovate his slaughterhouse and could no longer devote himself to ageing.

So you decided to go it alone?

Vlasta: Exactly. We rented our very first box for the establishment in Jenč, procured a rack for meat and experimented with ageing. We visited the slaughterhouse, asked them to buy specific breeds for us, picked the lots we were interested in and took care of them ourselves. We hung them individually or dipped them in tallow.

Radek: At that time, we had a shelf welded, which originally cost us about sixty thousand. It weighed perhaps two hundred kilos empty and significantly more when loaded, so it was impossible to move it, which, of course, was something we needed to do. So we emptied it, arranged for it to be transported to the workshop and had wheels added to it. Transport alone cost us ten thousand, plus the wheels, so the initial equipment was very expensive. But we still have that shelf today!

Vlasta: Even so, the beginnings were embarrassing. For example, at Pizza Nuova, they ordered aged tall roasts from us – one was perfect, and the other couldn't even be bitten into. So we kept wondering what was going on. At that time, we met Professor Prokůpková from the University of Agriculture, who told us about the categories of meat, that there is a quality scale, we talked with her about fat, and she also told us the theory of what happens during ripening. It was then that we understood that it is not enough to just age the meat, but that the origin, genetics and feeding of the animal also play a role.

How long did it take you to figure out the optimal combination?

Radek: About five years. We figured it out gradually – one of the strategic decisions was that we would work with Czech spotted cattle. But still, it wasn’t a straight win – for example, we didn't know why some animals had fat and others didn't.

Where did you learn that?

Vlasta: Our inspirational trip to New York helped us a lot. It was quite challenging before the flight. We had to arrange all the orders in advance and figure out how to ship them – and to make matters worse, I ended up having surgery to remove my gallbladder a fortnight before the trip.

Radek: I took Vlasta to the hospital in Krč directly from the Příbram slaughterhouse. They kept him on the ward for a week, but he managed the operation and recovery without any major problems and, of course, flew with us. In New York, we mainly went to pubs and tasted local meat. And that’s where we confirmed, among other things, that using meat from a bull wasn’t the best choice.

Vlasta: When we visited the renowned Lobel butcher shop for steak, I proudly showed a photo of our animals there. They took a look, and said "skinny" – Lobel explained to us that this meat is useless because there is no tallow in it. We were a bit shocked. Still, we returned from New York full of new impulses. We found that we needed fat animals, preferably heifers and steers, but nobody raised them here. So we thought we had to persuade the breeder.

How did you persuade breeders to switch to steers and heifers when it was common knowledge that bulls were better for meat?

Radek: Our main contact was Jakub Červenka, director of a company called Zbirožská. Together, we convinced the owner of the company directly, explaining to him why he doesn't have to get rid of the unselected heifers so soon – we’d take them, but we needed them at a weight of 750 kg. They normally weigh about 500 kg, so our case had to be strong for him to be willing to invest in it – I brought an electric grill to the meeting, some steaks, and grilled a few portions for everyone in management. It worked, success came and we still work with Jakub today.

Vlasta: He gradually started supplying us with steers as well. Together we created a "guide to raising steers", writing down how the individual animals should look, how they should be fed in the last period of their lives, and so on.

So have you compiled a recipe for the ideal feed mixture?

Radek: To be honest, it's not easy. First of all, genetics are important, and differences in climate are reflected in the meat – for example the animals in the Highlands need different feed. It’s also important to follow the feeding regimen set in the last three months of life so that the animals gain enough weight.

Vlasta: The Association of Czech Fleckvieh cattle (Čestr) also helped us a lot. They approached us at Čestr (our restaurant of the same name), to inform us that they hold the cestr.cz website domain, and a lot of people had been calling to try and make restaurant reservations! Naturally, we’ve been collaborating since then, because they had an excellent overview of cattle breeders. Thanks to them, more people got to know us, we received more recommendations for quality animals and then were able to find out for ourselves if the selected breeders were willing to supply heifers or steers.

Radek: The work with breeders was quite the experience from the very beginning. I’ll never forget the visit we made to Agro Malinová, where we took live animals for the very first time. I went to see their chairman in Rakovnicko, and explained to him that we needed live bulls. He just had seven of them there, so we agreed on two deliveries.

The amount was agreed in advance, but when I already had the first three animals in the truck, the chairman informed me that he was increasing the price by three crowns per kilo of live weight for the bulls I’d be taking in the next load. The whole thing was take-it-or-leave-it style. In short, these were the early days, thanks to which we learned many a lesson.

How did you divide the tasks between you?

Vlasta: I took care of the meat and Radek went to breeders and got contacts for the company. But apart from that, we also had our original jobs – Radek worked in the Ambiente office and was in charge of managing all the chefs, while I worked as a chef at Čestr. We took care of our own business first and then set off to Jenč. We had a system – calmly preparing steaks at four in the morning, packing everything up and delivering it around the pubs before starting work. 

How did you learn to work with meat?

Vlasta: We learned a lot at Čestr, there was a lot of experimentation. Sure, there were mistakes and losses – sometimes a relatively large batch of meat had to be thrown away because something had gone wrong. Gradually, we fine-tuned the procedures and our meat began to be sold directly in Čestr, some went to Lokál Dlouhaáá and Pizza Nuova. We also started to discover various new parts – for example the “squirrel”. We asked Mr. Štefunka what it was and he pointed to a pile of meat that is cut from carcasses and put into sausages. No one here could get it until then, because they cut it off right at the slaughterhouse – he probably had a ton of it there.

Radek: Štefunka said: "Hey, Mařena, prepare and vacuum-pack these six pieces here for them." We cleaned it in Čestr, repacked it again, came back to it a month later, threw it on the grill and found out that it was perfect. It is also worth mentioning that at the time when “squirrel” was sold as production meat, we paid 45 crowns per kilo. But since we’ve had  it on the menus, suddenly everyone wants it, and today the purchase price is 170 crowns.

The butcher František Kšána went with you to New York – how did you meet him?

Vlasta: He came to recommend a certain breed of black-spotted pig to us – he was very determined that he wanted to promote this breed. He would drive to Mladotice, load maybe four halves of a pig from the local slaughterhouse into his own car and offer them to Prague's chefs and butchers. Around the end of 2011, he told us how these pigs made great sausages, that he would teach us the entire preparation. Tomáš and I arranged a meeting, inviting several chefs, and František showed us all sorts of new things – we liked his meat, and the sausages too. And that's when Tomáš had the idea that he could go with us to New York and see what was going on there – we liked him and we agreed that he would help us with the pork and sausage making.

Radek: Fando's beginnings with us were fun, and he exuded enthusiasm from the start. We rented a school workshop in Navrátilova Street in the centre of Prague for the production of sausages. Fanda smoked hams there, among other things, in a smokehouse which always reported an error an hour after starting and turned off. He’d spend nights in the workshop, always turning the smoker back on after an hour. Once he came to a meeting completely exhausted, with bags under his eyes – he told us the whole story, and so we had the smoker repaired.

At the time, Amaso was headed by Petr Karkovský, but he left in 2013. What happened?

Vlasta: This period was very demanding. We wanted to buy new equipment and instead found ourselves in a lot of debt. So we consulted with Tomáš Karpíšek, and he decided that I would lead the company. We needed a person who understands not only business, but also the needs of restaurants and kitchens.

Radek: Back then, you ended up in Čestr from one day to the next...

Vlasta: You could say that. I was a chef and the management of the company was transferred to me. I didn't have much experience with it. Every other phone call was from someone we owed money to, and we had a pretty bad reputation.

That's a big change – leaving the kitchen for the office. I know you’ve both experienced something like this. What was it like?

Radek: The best time was when Vlasta and I were together in Amaso; we complemented each other perfectly. When needed, I drove with meat or visited breeders. I was always up and running and it worked.

Vlasta: It wasn't quite a smooth transition from the kitchen to the office. In the beginning, I also spent a lot of time at the slaughterhouse and travelling. So for me it was more of a transition from warm to cold. And also a change in the rhythm of life – working in the kitchen, I didn't go to bed before midnight, and I had to get up at three in the morning for the slaughterhouse. But those were good times. Then when Radek left to head up Naše maso, it all fell on me again.

The Naše maso butchery was established in 2014. What was it like in the early days?

Vlasta: We knew from a certain point that we wanted to open a butchers shop. First came the e-shop and then the brick-and-mortar store. Even once we were up and running, it wasn’t without complications – in the beginning there was a bit of a problem, for example, with staffing. Not everyone had enough experience and there was a lack of people who could really manage the butcher shop. One more important thing happened at Naše maso – we started cutting and portioning meat the way the chefs needed it. The butchers had their established procedures, but we knew that a lot of the time, those weren’t optimal for culinary purposes.

Radek: The opening of a butchers shop was especially exciting for Fanda. He moved from Amaso to the shop, where he could personally explain to people what we sold and why our products were good. Even so, he did not want to directly manage the company, so after some time I took over the post of boss.

It looks like you've been through a lot together. Where did you meet?

Radek: We knew each other by sight already when I worked in Celetná. I got to know Vlasta properly when he was already a chef and I was still "green". We went to a special event for Elle together – it was a good time!

What made the event special?

Radek: The chef sent us there with no instructions, so we arrived around two in the afternoon. We came to say hello to Vlasta, and he immediately said "Doesn't this seem a bit stupid to you?!" We prepared everything here, and you did nothing?!” So ​​there was a little rivalry, but we tried to explain to him that they just told us to arrive at such and such an hour.

Vlasta: They walked behind us like princes from Celetná, while we had already been there since ten in the morning preparing everything. 

How do you manage to combine your work life with your personal life? From what you’ve said, it sounds like you don't have much free time left.

Radek: I mean, Vlasta managed to build a house... and he already has four children.

Vlasta: But I also almost got divorced twice... I was at work a lot, I admit that. We had rougher times in the family, and I didn't get to enjoy much time with the kids when they were growing up. But now I try not to work at least on weekends, and in general to function as efficiently as possible so that I can be home early.

Radek: It has a lot to do with time. So often, I dread telling my employees that they won't be home for Christmas, but no one asked us back then. When Brasileiro opened, it was the first time in half a year that I had two days off in a row!

It's a fact that today people probably approach work differently...

Vlasta: We valued work, but mostly we were worried about it. Back then, there were plenty of potential employees everywhere, unlike today. When a person was given a chance, they wanted to impress. For example, I had incredible respect for Tomáš Karpíšek for seven years. I remember like it was yesterday – how he arrived at Máneska with a cup of soup that he had bought in London. He liked it terribly and wanted us to try to cook it exactly the same way. We then deciphered the ingredients from the small label and tried it maybe five times in the kitchen until it was just right. We were willing to devote our free time after work to this!

Radek: We spent nights testing new dishes and menus. Closing for the day was unthinkable for us.

Vlasta: Thanks to this conversation, I finally understand why people describe us as tenacious. At first I wondered what on earth we have to do with metal that doesn't crack when bent – but we’re just very persistent.