Zakaska bistros in the New York Times

Here is the April 18. 2012 article in the New York Times: Flavor of Nostalgia Grows More Appealing to Poles Brimming With Pride

By JOANNA BERENDT

WARSAW — The bartenders in white shirts and black bow ties served endless shots of vodka followed by platefuls of herring in oil, and the occasional kielbasa, on small white plates as the crowds eagerly downed their drinks with an enthusiastic toast: “Na zdrowie!” Polish for “Cheers.”

If not for the designer handbags and ubiquitous iPhones, this could have been a time capsule from when Poland was behind the Iron Curtain and small bars like this one were common. Back then, Poles jealously guarded their culture, their heritage, their gastronomic delights against the smothering grip of Communism. But when Communism fell in 1989 the novelty of the West overran the capital, with rum cocktails, fast food and Asian fusion restaurants.

Today, Poles have come full circle and are feeling a lot more confident, embracing their traditions rather than rushing to welcome the latest foreign trends.

This standing-room-only bar, Pijalnia Wodki i Piwa (which translates as Drinking Room for Vodka and Beer) opened in January and is just one of a new breed of watering holes sprouting all over Warsaw that speak to this resurgent pride. Known as zakaskas bars, these new establishments try to recreate the Soviet-era ambience, with intentionally shabby décor, little or no furniture and cheap offerings.

“Everything associated with Polish tradition was identified as being trashy and crude, an indicator of Poles’ alleged low socioeconomic background,” said Tomasz Szlendak, a sociologist. “So people tried to recreate the world from ‘Dynasty,’ ” the former prime-time American soap opera, he said. Poles began consuming sushi at the highest rate outside of Japan, he added, thinking that was a sign they had arrived and were no longer a Communist-era backwater, a punch line for jokes.

“They would still eat their tacky herring at home, but once they were out they would pretend to enjoy only more refined food,” said Izabela Skiba, 23, as she dug into her own herring in oil and washed it down with a shot of vodka at the Miedzy Wodka a Zakaska bistro, another of the new bars.

Poles have lots of reasons to be feeling a bit cocky. Since the end of Communism, their wages have doubled and their standard of living has significantly increased. According to a recent survey by a Polish public opinion research center, TNS OBOP, 75 percent of Poles are satisfied with their lives, which places Poland in the European elite. The survey measured Poles’ contentment with their financial situation, workplace, family life and health status.

As they began to feel better about themselves, Poles began to explore their past in a variety of ways, from historical documentaries to retro crime novels. Zakaskas bistros fit right into that trend. More than a dozen opened up in the capital alone, and the rest of Poland followed suit.

“I didn’t want a fussy place,” said Iwona Sumka, 44, who owns three zakaskas bistros in Warsaw. “I wanted something even a bit ugly, where one wouldn’t feel the need to show off.”

Miedzy Wodka a Zakaska (Between Vodka and Appetizer), which she opened in October, is furnished modestly, with simple plastic chairs, candlesticks on the smudged gray walls and plywood tables. Mrs. Sumka fondly recalled the Communist-era cafeterias, where older women came to eat ice cream, far from the judgmental stares of strangers or prying neighbors.

“I wanted to create a place where elegant ladies could come and not feel embarrassed about having a couple of shots of vodka,” she said with determination.

These simple gathering spots try to build a sense of community by combining several Polish traditions. “Zakaska” is Polish for any of several appetizers that accompany a drink, usually vodka. The most popular zakaskas besides herring in oil are steak tartare, kielbasa or pâté.

But of course the zakaska is an accompaniment to the main course — vodka, which has been an irreducible part of Polish tradition since the 19th century. The original zakaskas bistros first became popular in Poland before World War II, but their heyday came in the 1950s and 1960s.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, capitalism brought Poles their fairy-tale visions of life in the West, particularly fast-food restaurants and cocktail bars. But as the years passed, so did their appetite for the things they were denied under Communism, and a bit of nostalgia for the old ways began to creep in.

This sentiment has been at least partly caused by the sizable emigration from Poland that followed Polish accession to the European Union in 2004. In a search for jobs, at least two million Poles left for Great Britain, Ireland and elsewhere.

“People get sentimental,” admitted Roman Modzelewski, 59, a bartender and local legend from Przekaski Zakaski who goes by the name “Mr. Roman.”

“In the 1980s, I worked in a Mediterranean restaurant in Switzerland. After three months, all I could think about were traditional Polish dishes, like beetroot soup with croquette and bigos, which is cabbage beef stew.”

The new wave started slowly, in 2006, when a local restaurateur, Adam Gessler, 57, opened Przekaski Zakaski. In his bistro, there are only two prices: 4 zloty (about $1.25) for all beverages and 8 zloty (about $2.50) for simple appetizers. At those moderate prices the bartenders serve just one brand of beer, Tyskie, and one brand of vodka, Zoladkowa Gorzka, also evoking the lack of choices of the Communist era.

“I wanted to create a space where people would not be judged by what they order and, hence, how much money they have,” said Mr. Gessler, who also owns several high-end restaurants around town. “I needed a place where people would be welcome unconditionally, regardless of whether they were professors or students, priests or prostitutes, politicians or taxi drivers.”

The ambience, or perhaps it is the vodka, seems to work — on everyone. Mr. Gessler recalled a night when three former Polish prime ministers from three different parties — Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Leszek Miller — visited Przekaski Zakaski at the same time.

“They kicked off the evening separately,” Mr. Gessler said, “but they sure ended up toasting each other.”

Magda Gessler in the New York Times

Here is the January 6, 2012 article in the New York Times: Warsaw's Restaurant Guru Moves Past Traditional Polish Cuisine

As Magda Gessler sailed through Gar, her latest restaurant in Warsaw, she greeted waiters and patrons, enjoying her position as one of Poland’s biggest food celebrities, a combination of Martha Stewart, Gordon Ramsay and Nigella Lawson.

In September, her television show “Kuchenne Rewolucje” (Kitchen Revolution) — which debuted in spring 2010 and resembles Mr. Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” — broke into prime time and now averages more than four million viewers a week, though the number includes repeats on Saturday afternoons.

It seems as if every other restaurant in Warsaw these days has some association with her. She owns two patisseries and two traditional Polish restaurants and she is a partner in 12 others that have franchised her name and use her as a consultant on everything from the menu to the décor. Three more Gessler-franchised restaurants opened in Lodz at the beginning of December: Polka, which focuses on Polish food; the fast-food styled MG Eat; and Marcello, an Italian restaurant — her paternal grandmother was from Venice.

Ms. Gessler said she hoped to open a restaurant in Toronto, where her boyfriend, a plastic surgeon, lives and where she spends 10 days a month. She also writes about food for various publications, has acted as the host of a radio show and has published two cookbooks. Her newest, “The Spoon of Violets,” will be released early in 2012.

“When I was 6 years old, I thought I was a princess,” Ms. Gessler said in English — she speaks seven other languages. “I knew that I was different, that I was special and that I would have everything that I wanted.” That healthy ego has made her a controversial figure in Poland.

Piotr Fromowitz, the executive producer of her television show, said they needed someone controversial. “There was a feeling that the ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ format could be very successful in Poland, but the only question was who could host a show like this. Magda’s name came up because the show is not about cooking so much as it is about running a restaurant, hiring the right staff and the décor. She is someone who is controversial — some people love her and others do not — but she really knows how the restaurant business works.”

Ms. Gessler goes into restaurants across Poland — many are mom and pop establishments that run on love more than good food — and tells them what to change, everything from staffing to ingredients. “Gordon Ramsay has to advise a restaurant on where to source their Amaretto from,” Ms. Gessler said. “We are still on a lower level. I have to tell people to use butter over margarine.” The show has proved popular in a country where food has long played a central role in family and religious events and where even today — outside cosmopolitan cities like Warsaw and Krakow — dining out is still seen as something saved for special occasions.

“In one episode,” Mr. Fromowitz said, “she taught a Greek restaurant owner in Poznan how to make things taste right for Polish people, and she was also telling him how he should treat his wife. It was very funny. The program aired on a Saturday evening and the next day the neighbors of the restaurant were calling the owner saying he better open up early because there was a line outside. The owner told us that he used to maybe sell one pan of moussaka each day and now he was selling eight.”

Ms. Gessler has played an integral role in Warsaw’s dining culture since opening Fukier, with its over-the-top baroque-meets-kitsch interiors, 21 years ago.

“She was the first person to really push the boundaries of Polish food, making it more sexy,” said Mladen Petrov, who reviews restaurants for the Aktivist newspaper in Warsaw. “She has this unique personality and you can sense it in all her places, there is something special.”

Malgorzata Pietkiewicz, a journalist whose book “Gessler Empire From the Kitchen” was published in July, agreed. “You have to know that after the transformation in the early 1990s, Fukier was like an oasis in the desert,” she said. “The food was good, there was nice service, interesting interiors — all of which was different from how things had been during Communism.”

Much of what set Fukier apart came from Ms. Gessler’s experiences of living abroad for most of her life. Her father, Miroslaw Ikonowicz, was a journalist and the family — including her brother, the left-wing Polish politician Piotr Ikonowicz — bounced from Bulgaria to Cuba during her early years. It was in Havana — where dinner guests included Fidel Castro (whom she remembers smelling of cigars, rum and cologne) and Che Guevara — that Ms. Gessler said she first understood a meal was not just about cooking. “There is something important that happens to people with food,” she said. “Even the most powerful of men can be manipulated by a good meal.”

She went on to study art in Madrid and married Volkhart Müller, a correspondent for Der Spiegel, with whom she had a son, Tadeusz, in 1982. During her 17 years in Madrid, Ms. Gessler taught cooking courses, managed a handful of restaurants and began catering when her husband became ill with cancer. Mr. Müller died in 1989 — the year Communism collapsed in Poland — and on a trip back to Warsaw, Ms. Gessler met her second husband, Piotr Gessler, who was running what was then the capital’s top restaurant with his flamboyant brother Adam.

Food and restaurants have long been a tradition with the Gessler clan — their paternal grandmother had run a restaurant in Warsaw in the early 20th century and their father operated a string of patisseries in the capital during the Communist years. They fell in love, he left his first wife, Marta, who also owns a restaurant in Warsaw, Qchnia Artystyczna, and they had a daughter, Lara, in 1989. The couple is now finalizing their divorce.

“It was like a script out of ‘Dynasty,’ Ms. Pietkiewicz said of the acrimony within the family over the Gesslers’ getting together and opening Fukier.

Some members of the Gessler family are unhappy that she continues to use their name. That has also created some confusion because Mr. Gessler, his brother and nephews now run successful restaurants in Warsaw, Krakow and London that use “Gessler Restaurant” in their titles.

While Polish cuisine has long had a staid and caloric reputation — “it’s only simple food like fat kielbasa and pierogi that people know about,” Ms. Gessler said — things are different. Chefs and restaurant managers who moved to Europe after Poland joined the European Union in 2004 have returned with experience and ideas, opening up some top-notch places that serve gourmet Polish food with a twist.

And the food scene has indeed changed, thanks in part to Ms. Gessler’s energy. Mr. Fromowitz, the producer, said: “If you did research as to who should be our food guru in Poland, I think the majority of people would say Magda Gessler.”

Some argue that Ms. Gessler’s restaurants will not top any gastronomy lists, but she has helped get people thinking more about food, the dining experience, and restaurant themes and aesthetics.

“I think she is being more modern, moving away from traditional Polish food,” said John Borrell, a former correspondent for Time who is now a wine importer and hotelier in Poland. “If you want to build a food empire — which I think she has — it is probably smart to diversify. There is no long term big future in old fashioned Polish restaurants.”