Pohlreich in Jenčice: “Yes, Chef!” tries to save a Czech pub

The TV show “Yes, Chef!” on Prima heads to Jenčice in the Central Bohemian Uplands: on Thursday, 15 October, at 21:30, the eighth episode airs, in which chef Zdeněk Pohlreich tries to save the village pub U Kaštanu. The episode can be watched on prima+ a week before it airs.

According to owner Zdeněk Kotulan, the venue's main problem is that it offers something the locals don't particularly need. The pub is betting on burgers, but few guests come. “Our concept is built on burgers. But you either have to go at it one hundred percent, or close down. We're glad Zdeněk will give us advice,” he says. In the kitchen he is helped by Milan, who has no chef's training: he gained his culinary experience, among other things, as a teenager working part-time at McDonald's. The owner himself has no chef's qualifications either.

The menu reads better than it tastes

Pohlreich is first intrigued by the menu: besides burgers, it features Thai soup, trout, beef steak, lokše and beef tartare with truffle. For a village pub in the Central Bohemian Uplands, that is a fairly ambitious choice. The tasting gives mixed results: the lokše turn out well, the tartare is under-salted, the meat in the soup is tough, and the trout is poorly presented. The steak draws complaints too. “This dish definitely reads better than it tastes. And in a restaurant that is always a warning sign,” the chef sums up.

The kitchen, he says, is surprisingly clean, but exemplary tidiness won't attract guests if they don't like the food.

An insurance agent with a dream and an exam at 40

Gradually Pohlreich finds out that the pub does not feed its owner. Zdeněk has been working as an insurance agent for seventeen years, and the pub is above all a dream come true for him. An important personal event also took place during filming: he has a school-leaving exam coming up. At forty, he decided to finish the school he dropped out of in his youth because of conflicts with his domineering father. Now he wants an education to advance his career, and the chef, of course, won't miss exam day.

Before that, the chef is in for an unexpected experience: yoga classes are held in the pub building, and Pohlreich decides to try one. “A yogi once told me I have kindness in me and I just need to let it out. In this episode I will do that,” he promises. When some passing lads approach him on exam day, he replies with unexpected calm: after yoga he is so relaxed that his fifth chakra is starting to open.

A stress test and a question about the future

After that, the filming becomes less peaceful. During the stress test the pub fills up and the kitchen can't cope. Even Zdeněk's wife, whom he left a year ago and who no longer lives with him, comes to help. At that moment the team has only four tables ready while about ten are waiting their turn.

Whether the owner can turn a hobby into a working restaurant, and whether Pohlreich's advice to focus on honest village cooking instead of complicated experiments will help, will be revealed in the episode.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by denik.cz