A showman but, above all, an excellent cook. This is David Valíček, who has tested his skills in several worldrenowned restaurants while pursuing his dream of opening a restaurant and cooking classes in his home region. You can read about his dreams, his views on his native region, and his new goals in our interview with him.
You have gained culinary experience on several continents. How do you manage to pass on your gastronomic experiences in your new studio?
For a young and aspiring chef, it is very important to travel the world and gain experience in managing catering operations. On the other hand, one must never forget where one belongs and what kind of background one comes from. It has always been vital for me to soak up as much experience as possible that I could use when I return to develop my own catering business. After a few years, I made a comeback, and I am very happy about that.
At the same time, I am also proud that I did not end up in Prague. I am grateful that I stayed in our region after my return and started the Food Atelier project in Ostrava. Even though the project continues outside the city, I am still a proud Ostravian.
You have a solid taste foundation on which you are building the Residence 13 project.
The Residence 13 project is a continuation of my Food Atelier project, which has been very successful in Ostrava, not only in relation to the business clientele. Experiential cooking courses are in great demand, and I am also proud that I have managed to change the view of cooking in school canteens. Since the public has taken a very positive attitude towards me and Food Atelier and I want to have my own fixed place, I came up with the project Residence 13 in the small village of Staříč in Podbeskydy. Now this project has completely absorbed me; I am gradually building new spaces for experiential cooking and maybe even accommodation. But what more should I describe? Come and see and soak up the aromas and flavours of my kitchen.
I perceive that your goal is activities for corporate clients. What kind of experiences do you serve up?
It is a great thing to host corporate clients, because those in other fields also enjoy cooking so much. Nowadays, it is a very popular addition to various team-building events, which can relax the atmosphere among colleagues and bring people together, not only within the company, when preparing food under expert guidance. It is about connecting with each other, where I am actually such a centrepoint, and a great help for other companies, where they can “switch off”, come up with other ideas, even sometimes it can be connected with some education and the main thing is that everyone is great friends afterwards, and over a meal it is just great!
Thank you for the interview.
