BOOKS

Swiss-Croatian culinary star's book of recipes

 

A culinary star of the former Yugoslavia, and for the last twelve years the owner of a Swiss restaurant "Sonne", Stevo Karapandža has presented the long-awaited book 'My favorite recipes,' published by 'Profil', featuring his favorite recipes throughout the forty years of his career.

 

 

 

The book aroused great public interest of different generations who grew up and learned how to cook with Karapandža's TV show that was broadcasted on the Yugoslav television in prime time for almost twenty years. The book presentation was held at the restaurant "Bon Appetit" in Zagreb and it attracted great public attention since the three cookbooks he had written twenty years ago are still sought-after. Karapandža didn't do the cooking and the presentation by himself, two of today's Croatian culinary stars helped him: Almo Čatlak and Branko Ognjenović, the owner of the restaurant where the book promotion was held.

 

International career - spaghetti for Frank Sinatra

 

Karapandža prepared for his guests a dozen of meals from his cookbook, mostly fish dishes, and especially impressive were the salmon in a chives sauce, the carpaccio of monkfish and the risotto with shrimps... Dalmatian, Italian or in brief a global cuisine.

He began his forty years long career in Zagreb, in the Esplanade Hotel, currently called The Regent.

- When I started my education to become a cook it was all but an attractive occupation, many were even ashamed of it, and today being a cook is prestigious and appreciated all over the world - said Karapandža remembering his beginnings.

He continued his career in the Intercontinental hotel chain in Paris and London, as well as the London's Savoy Hotel. He headed the culinary teams in the United States of America, Mexico, Japan, Australia and Europe. As a consultant, he worked all over the world. Twenty years ago Stevo has left Croatia and went to Switzerland, where he and his wife Renata opened a restaurant which is included in the Michelin guide. In his restaurant Sonne in Ennetbaden, near Zurich, he mostly prepares Mediterranean, Croatian or similar dishes as daily offers while his menu is mostly standard.

- The Swiss are afraid of the whole fish so I serve only filets... - said the cook who once prepared ‘spaghetti a la Stevo' to Frank Sinatra himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gordana Popović, our lifestyle editor with Swiss-Croatian culinary star Stevo Karapandža

 

 

 

Although they own a restaurant of a larger capacity, including a large terrace, only Stevo, his wife Renata and another female cook work in the kitchen.

- We never leave the restaurant, not even on Mondays when it is closed, because that is when we invite our friends and cook for them - we were told by the chef who is enamored with his occupation.

- In four or five years I will retire and come back to Croatia, to Lovran. I do not intend to open a restaurant, to answer many who ask me that question. I might engage in consulting, and I will most certainly write a new cookbook.