Year 2007, third edition of the Identità Golose congress in Milan: the audience is captivated by the lesson of a chef who speaks on stage at Palazzo Mezzanotte in colourful and effective Italian. His name is Tomaz Kavcic, he comes from Slovenia and illustrates a fascinating technique for cooking fish on a salt plate; not inside a salt crust, as already common here and there. In a nutshell, a thick layer of coarse salt is placed on a red-hot pan, everything is heated to a high temperature, a sprinkling of local herbs is added, and lo and behold, the sea bass cooked on the griddle gives back a special flavour without any added fat.
From here, the cook establishes himself and more and more Italians begin to travel to the gostilna Pri Lojzetu, a restaurant in a period farmhouse nestled amidst the vineyards of the Vipava region, not even half an hour's drive from Gorizia. In 2010, Slovenia is “guest region” at Identità Golose. With Tomaz, two then-unknown chefs, advocated by himself, also speak: their names are Janez Bratovz and Ana Ros. The former is the molecular patron of JB in Ljubljana, a restaurant that was already in the 50Best at the time; the latter is the then unknown chef and patron of Hisa Franko, a restaurant that a decade later would lead to the country's first (and so far only) 3 Michelin stars. 18th June 2024: the fifth edition of Michelin Slovenia is published, with 10 starred restaurants (here the details). These restaurateurs may not know it, but they are all in some way indebted to the work of Tomaz Kavcic.
We return to Zemono Castle more than a decade later and find a restaurant in great health. The chef doesn't seem to have aged at all, perhaps because in the meantime he has piled up important awards - among other things, he is honorary consul of the Republic of Serbia in Slovenia - and runs a restaurant that is almost always sold out (take a look at the day-by-day bookings). With him is his inseparable partner Flavia and his daughter Sara, 30 years old recently, who is more and more inside the mechanisms of Pri Lojzetu.
Nestled among the vineyards, the restaurant was founded in 1897
Tomaz Kavcic and Flavia Furios
With daughter Sara, fifth generation of the family restaurant
is a restaurant that continues to value its territory and its multifaceted (there are Germanic, Latin and Slavic influences) and troubled history, brought up to date with the techniques that have changed the features of global cuisine in the last two decades. It is a style that has never been interested in recruiting raw materials of high lineage: lobsters and wagyu here give way to humble trout and corn, vegetables and beef cheeks, expressions not so much of the zero kilometre but "of all the lengths one has to go to find the best possible ingredient", he explains. Certainly, the taste is always full, rounded, never affected by experimental extravagance. And anchored in an ever monolithic principle: “in Slovenia, without broths and soups, it's not Sunday.”
Irony and playfulness, characteristics that have been somewhat lost in the seriousness of the last decade, are never missing, entertaining the diner: the dishes can have edible material on top as well as underneath; a dish is served trapped in our childhood fishing net, the trout is anticipated by the invitation to stick one's hands in a vase with stream water, stones and vegetation from the river bed... And the same fish will then be served in all its parts, anti-waste kitchen tricks that bring us back to the stringent topicality. What is
not topical, finally, is the price: in the widespread ill-considered increases, it is odd to find the richest tasting menu in a restaurant coming off at only 100 euros. Applause.
PRI LOZJETU, Zemono (Slovenia), selection of dishes spring 2024
Welcome
The start of the spring menu was a double-sided dish: on the 'normal' side, on the left, an egg sponge accompanied by cream of white and wild asparagus and nettle flowers, emblems of Vipava vegetables. When you have finished tasting, you turn the plate over and find a cream of dairy cheese with green asparagus from the garden. Double delight.
Trivia fact: the plate used dates back to 1974, when the Yugoslav regime required a red line for cheese or meat dishes and a blue line for fish and vegetables
Fried/unfried squid
Steamed squid is served under breadcrumbs (a texture reminiscent of fried food), cut and served on a mayonnaise/vegetable idea (the sauces normally associated with fried squid) but made only with vegetables and potatoes. Two spoons of joy
Vipava Valley 1
The first trip to the Vipava Valley smells like pomegranate juice sprinkled (a farewell to winter) between leaves and creamed spinach, apple and pear aromatised in red turnip juice and cubes of salmon trout, marinated for 3 days in sugar and salt
Vipava Valley 2 (left)
The second trip into the region presents a delicious raviolo made of three doughs (tomato, parsley, carrot) with a filling and sauce of trout head, tail and bones. All around, dried parsley stalk powder: “Traditionally, parsley is found everywhere in our cuisine. So much so that I think the Italian saying has Slavic origins.”
Vipava Valley 3 (right)
Inside the jar (served in a fishing net), there is barley (“traditionally, we don't have rice”) cooked in sour milk cream with a bit of langoustine bisque, snapper with flowers and peas
Summer ragout
The summery, deconstructed version of the popular ragout with polenta: “polenta has always accompanied our ragouts, whether of fish, meat or vegetables. In the soup, there is a ragout made of game bones, served with a corn soup - lighter than a polenta - and saucy streaks of parsley, celeriac and red onion
Reductions - fire and time...
“Cooking means time and fire, no shortcuts,” Tomaz has always admonished. It takes painstaking patience to package and embellish this beef cheek cooked at low temperature (it is hidden by the leaf) surrounded by reductions of carrots, chard, yellow peppers, a very small reduction (9 to 2 litres). Last touch, smoked potato soup, poured over the meat
The talented sommelier Anže Kristan will take you on a tour of the great wines of the Vipava region, which have nothing to envy from the celebrated Slovenian Collio. Take note of the indigenous Zelen grape...
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
