Meeting with Radek Zarębiński

In February, at Water&Wine we had a visit of Radek Zarębiński, sous chef at Gaggan, the best restaurant in Asia according to the 50 Best ranking. Radek was raised in Bielsko Biała, then for over ten years, he’s been living in the United States. He studied cooking at Alma in Parma and then polished his cooking skills working at the restaurants in Italy and the USA (including New York’s Acme and Providence in Los Angeles). He’s been working at Gaggan for over a year. He came to W&W to discover one of the most interesting gastronomic concepts in today’s Poland, exchange experiences and just cook together.

– Getting to know the Water&Wine guys was an amazing experience. I haven’t been to Poland for years, so I had no idea what cooking in Poland is like today. Marek and his team showed me that Polish cuisine is booming! The team tries wholeheartedly to bring together the idea of home-grown products with highest quality cooking. I feel truly inspired. I hope that one day we will be cooking together again. I think that thanks to Water&Wine Poland can stand out in the world of gastronomy.

For our team, it was also a very special encounter.

– We had a chance to exchange recipes, information and different perspectives on the Polish cuisine. We were surprised when Radek showed us that Polish, familiar ingredients, such as root vegetables (horseradish, celery, parsnip) can match with products typical for Thai or Indian cuisine – curry leaves, ginger, hot paprika. It turned out these flavours fit in perfectly in one dish. We hope we will be able to meet with Radek again in the future to discuss and learn something new.