The Ambasada Pacyfiku (embassy of the Pacific) restaurant is an initiative designed to bring new flavours to Polish palates as well as to educate its guests about the culture of Australia and Oceania. As one of Kraków’s leading five-star hotels, the Gródek wants to create new standards.
It is the first restaurant in Poland – and the only one in this part of Europe – specialising in the cuisine of the faraway region of Australia and Oceania.
Most of the products used in the restaurant come from the antipodes. Its Chef, Ilona Zdziech, the owner of the only shop with Pacific food in Poland and the author of the first Polish book dedicated to the cuisine of New Zealand, has long been fascinated with this remote area of the world and its cuisine and pays special attention to preserving the authenticity of recipes. Her efforts were praised by one of the fathers of world fusion cuisine, Peter Gordon.
Not only will restaurant’s guests have the chance to try unfamiliar and exotic specialties from Kiribati, Tuvalu, Samoa or Tahiti, but also to learn more about the customs, traditions and geography through meeting scientists, travellers and authors. Visitors will also be welcome to learn basic phrases in the languages of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia, attend a course in playing the ukulele, try their moves on the dancefloor learning Polynesian dance, and learn about healing properties of the products from Down Under during culinary workshops. Dariusz Zdziech, PhD, the restaurant’s manager, president of the Australia, New Zealand, Oceania Research Association, an explorer and author of many publications concerning the region of Australia and Oceania, embraces the current trend in turning a restaurant into a place where one can encounter the culture and art of the Pacific region.
So if you feel like trying kangaroo steak, taro salad, cassava, kumara, yams, or the national dish of Vanuatu, Lap lap, accompanied by exquisite Hawaiian coffee or guanabana tea, come and visit the Ambasada Pacyfiku restaurant at the Hotel Gródek in Kraków.
Official website of the restaurant: Ambasada Pacyfiku
Photo © Ambasada Pacyfiku