A Poet's Restaurant Reviews in Early 1990S Prague
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CULINARY REVOLUTIONS: FOOD, HISTORY, AND IDENTITY IN RUSSIA AND EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE | Abigail Weil, Harvard University To Revive Delight: A Poet’s Restaurant Reviews in Early 1990s Prague Abstract: In 1993, the Prague-based newspaper Lidové noviny (The I find that they are consistent with the restorative nature of the Czech People’s News) ran a short-lived restaurant review column, Básník má political and economic transition after communism. To Král, the res- hlad (The Poet Is Hungry). The author was Petr Král, a poet and essay- taurant represents a microcosm of society. Thus, in the spirit of restora- ist who had recently returned to Prague after two decades of exile in tion and revitalization, he elevates the genre of restaurant reviews, Paris. In this article, I contextualize Král’s restaurant reviews within his infusing them with political urgency and a sense of poetry. oeuvre and in the history of Czech restaurant culture. The first half describes the evolution of restaurants in Czech culture and literature from the First Czechoslovak Republic through the communist period. Keywords: Prague, restaurant reviews, postcommunism, poetry, The second half is devoted to close readings of Král’srestaurantreviews. surrealism ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN TO Prague in recent years will have a normal restaurant, even if they defended themselves, they would still “ š ů ” enjoyed a vibrant restaurant industry. In addition to Czech endeavor to appease the guest. ( Vinárna U rará k , October 2) restaurants whose sandwich boards beckon tourists with tradi- The excerpt comes from Král’s restaurant review series Básník tional Bohemian cuisine, one finds several exciting additions má hlad (The Poet Is Hungry), which ran sporadically in the to the culinary scene: three Michelin-starred establishments, weekend editions of the popular daily newspaper Lidové a multitude of international dining options, and a variety of noviny (The People’s News) from July through December of choices for the vegetarians who, until recently, were confined 1993. In it, he imagines restaurants as a potential locus of art to fried cauliflower appetizers. Most tellingly for the rise of and civil society, advocating for the restoration of values that “ ” foodie culture is the appearance of New Bohemian cuisine, he felt had been eroded during a half century of communism. upscale and upsold reimaginings of classic Czech dishes. The excerpt above contains two phrases that are crucial to There is an unlikely hero behind the development of the understanding Král’s project: “typical abuses” and “in a normal Czech restaurant industry (which is not to say Czech cuisine). restaurant.” For Král, the restaurant is a microcosm of society, He is not a chef or even an entrepreneur but a poet. and the “typical” unrefined behavior he encounters there seems In the early 1990s following the fall of the communist regime, to him endemic in postcommunist Prague. The other key idea the identity and priorities of the newly established Czech is the implicit disparity between the restaurant he is reviewing Republic were up for debate. The main concerns of the poet and “a normal restaurant.” Although the series is unconven- WINTER 2017 Petr Král emerged when, dining at a tavern, he tried to send tional in many ways, it is not oriented toward culinary innova- š ě 75 back a plate of t pánská, a dish of roast beef with hardboiled tion or revolution, but rather toward restoring normalcy. eggs, that he found too dry: Drawing on gastronomic culture from both Czech history and contemporary Western Europe, namely France, Král’sgoalisto In protest my waiter indeed took the food back, the criticism however he haughtily denied: every chef simply did it a little differently and reestablish pre-communist cultural mores in the Czech restau- everyone else who ordered it found it tasty. His haughtiness was all the rant industry. more annoying because it did not reflect only his personal position, While the reviews, eleven in total, form an extremely small GASTRONOMICA “ ” but two typical abuses of Czech hospitality in general. Above all, an sampling, the series stands as an innovative artistic interpretation unwillingness to understand that good restaurants must make various of the nation-building project that was taking place throughout chefs restrain from their personal styles—not to offer under one name dishes so different that ordering it every time is like buying a lottery the Czech Republic. It was also a novel venture by a major poet ticket. Even more dangerous is of course the inability to take criticism; in who had recently returned home after a lengthy exile in France. GASTRONOMICA: THE JOURNAL OF CRITICAL FOOD STUDIES, VOL.17,NUMBER 4, PP.75–87, ISSN 1529-3262, ELECTRONIC ISSN 1533-8622. © 2017 BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PLEASE DIRECT ALL REQUESTS FOR PERMISSION TO PHOTOCOPY OR REPRODUCE ARTICLE CONTENT THROUGH THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS’SREPRINTSANDPERMISSIONSWEBPAGE, HTTP://WWW.UCPRESS.EDU/JOURNALS.PHP?P=REPRINTS. DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1525/GFC.2017.17.4.75. Král’s decision to turn his attention to the restaurant industry take root in the Czech Republic. However, contemporary suggests an expansive conception of art and politics. His self- France was only one of his two main reference points. styling as a restaurant critic reflects not only his gourmet palate Crucially, Král advocates for restaurants to reclaim their status but also his poetic sensibility, characterized by his ability to as sites of important cultural activity. This suggests that Král perceive sublime dimensions in the everyday realm. drew inspiration from the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918– In this article, I analyze the goals and methods of the 38; henceforth “the First Republic”), which loomed large in the poet’s temporary stint as a restaurant critic. I argue that he el- popular imagination in the early 1990s. The First Republic was evated the genre of restaurant reviews, infusing them with ar- a high-water mark for the Czech restaurant industry as well as tistic devices and political gravitas, in an attempt to reawaken art and literature. It was the era during which Karel Čapek, the creative and civic potential in the newly dawned post- Franz Kafka, and Jaroslav Hašek, among others, created their communist era. Because for him the restaurant functions as seminal works. But most importantly for Král’s project, and for a metaphor for society at large, the true scope of his seem- many other Czech thinkers in the early 1990s, the First ingly modest newspaper column was indeed monumental. Republic was a functioning democracy. Newly independent af- ter the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire, the First Republic Gastronomy in Czech Literary Culture: A Brief with its capital in Prague was the long-sought-after goal of gen- Overview erations of writers, scholars, and politicians in the region. This legacy helps to account for the restorative nature of the Czech Through Básník má hlad, Král promoted aesthetic values, un- transition after communism (Smith and Jehlicka 2007; Ash bound by communist constraints, to which he had been ex- 2009). In defining the new Czech Republic in the early 1990s, posed during his time in France and which he believed could many in Prague took a page from their own history. WINTER 2017 76 GASTRONOMICA FIGURE 1: The poet Petr Král. PHOTOGRAPH BY ONDŘEJ NĚMEC/VÁCLAV HAVEL LIBRARY,2013 Král’s restaurant reviews were, in a playful way, his contri- goes on to rail against the euphemistic nature of poetry, in which bution to this project of national self-definition. Básník má “the word shit is replaced / by the word violin the word coffee- hlad, intended to inspire restaurant-goers and energize the house by barracks / pleasure by the word castration the word industry, aims at eradicating some remains of communism back-side by book / the word book by sausage / even the word egg by reestablishing Prague’s European gastronomical tradition. by egg.”3 In the next stanza, he tells how “[d]isgustedly I turned For Král the art of reviewing restaurants is about much more away from shit I grabbed a sausage / and began to read.” In this than the search for the next great bite; at stake is the aesthetic poem, the messy material reality of life, including food and its in- revival that accompanied the political transition. evitable by-product, excrement, intrudes into the idealized Král, who was born in 1941, is today a member of a world of poetry. By introducing these elements into a poem that group that congregates at the Literární Kavárna [Literary is ultimately about the drive for artistic creation, Král creates a Coffeehouse] Řetězová in Prague’s Old Town. The klatch is poetic persona that navigates between idealization and reality. composed of a rotating cast of prominent writers, architects, At the same time, he transforms the everyday into artistic mate- and filmmakers, among others, all male and mostly around rial, not unlike Dalí’s repurposing of bread and corn for Král’s age. For several years, they have spent every Friday after- Retrospective Bust of a Woman, 1933. noon at the bar-restaurant, where they feast, drink, reminisce, That two of Král’s main artistic inclinations, surrealism and lovingly tease each other.1 The poet Ivan Wernisch, who and Francophilia, emerged early in his career made them is also a member, nicknamed the group pátečníci or “Friday mutually galvanizing. In the late 1960s, Král was a major fig- men” (Ditrych 2009), a reference to the Friday salons hosted ure in the second wave of Czech surrealism (Sayer 2013). by the writer Karel Čapek during the First Republic, which Following the Soviet invasion of Prague in August 1968, welcomed illustrious artists and statesmen, including then Král and several other Czech writers and artists fled to Paris president T.