Martin Kudrlička: from UMPRUM to a cult pizzeria in Budějovice

Co-owner of the Paranormale pizzeria in České Budějovice Martin Kudrlička, together with his partner Kateřina Kutanová, has created a place that food bloggers across Czechia are talking about today. The story didn't start with a business plan but with years of studying dough, fermentation and baking — first in Prague kitchens, and later at home, in the south of the country.

Kudrlička moved to Prague to study at UMPRUM, and back then he was the last person to expect he'd end up at a pizza oven. Working side jobs at various places — from a legendary bar in Žižkov to the Alfabet kitchen — he got seriously into pizza for the first time: studying sourdough starter, flour, fermentation methods and the baking technique itself. He honed his skills further at Kro Kitchen and at the Slice Slice Baby pop-ups.

His partner Kateřina Kutanová is also a native of Budějovice, and after years in Prague the couple decided to return to southern Czechia. They first worked at the local artisan bakery Chleba se solí, where in their free time they could experiment with their own pizza recipes. It was there, outside their regular working hours, that the recipes were refined. “It felt like something fresh was missing here. And that's what we knew how to do,” Kudrlička recalls.

They started with pop-ups — with the Kmen coffee shop, at the Vivat Vila festival in Prachatice. Last year they took the plunge, as they jokingly put it themselves on Instagram: “It's not about a wedding or a baby, but about a shared pizza space where we'll soon be spinning out dough rounds and pouring natural wine.”

Originally they planned to stick to catering and pop-ups, but a space freed up — the former Rybotéka premises in the center of České Budějovice, which already had ventilation, stainless steel tables and a large walk-in fridge; all that was left to buy was an oven and a dough mixer.

Since then, the Paranormale pizzeria has been operating in Budějovice, using no yeast at all — the dough rests purely on sourdough starter for about two days, which makes it easy to digest and full of flavor. After each batch, part of the starter is kept aside and fed again, keeping the process going continuously, day after day.

Alongside the classic Margherita, the menu includes bolder options: the Honolulu, with pineapple purée and Thai basil, or the Anthony pizza, inspired by Anthony Bourdain's legendary sandwich — with kimchi mayo, mortadella, provolone and mustard seed. The best-selling pizza, meanwhile, came about almost by accident — “Some Kind of Ham,” which guests, especially families with kids, kept demanding so often that the owners simply had to create it. Instead of the classic base, they topped it with sage butter, and that modest idea became the bestseller.

Paranormale is far from a classic Neapolitan pizza. “We use different flour, a different oven, a different bake. It's more of a hybrid,” Kudrlička explains. The restaurant's own name leaves room for experimentation: “If one day there's goulash instead of pizza, that's fine too,” the restaurateur laughs.

It's precisely this relaxed attitude that defines the place today more than anything: there's no Aperol Spritz and you can't build your own pizza — just seven or eight carefully honed recipes, natural wines and the owners' own specialties, whose unusual combinations guests have already grown used to. The founders did the interior themselves too — building the shelves and tables with their own hands, even though a burst pipe during the renovation twice pushed back the opening by several weeks.