Martin Škoda imports Oscar-worthy Spanish jamón to Czechia

Well-known Czech chef Martin Škoda, together with his partner Jiří Nevečeřal, brings elite Spanish Ibérico de Bellota ham to Czechia and turns its carving into a genuine show for corporate and society events. Their project is called Jamón Republika, and a single leg of ham can cost up to 100,000 crowns.

Škoda is well known to the public from cooking shows, recipe books and Instagram, while Nevečeřal usually handles corporate projects and triathlon. Together they decided to bring to Czechia not just a delicacy but an entire ritual: dimmed lighting, huge photos of Spanish bodegas on LED screens, and a genuine cortador — a ham-carving master who slices the meat into thin, almost transparent slices right in front of the guests.

Before launching their first events this past March, the partners spent long months searching for reliable producers, travelling around Spanish farms and bodegas, while Škoda himself spent several years learning the art of carving ham. In a product where a single leg can cost tens of thousands of crowns, literally every cut matters. “It's like carving an expensive wagyu steak — one wrong cut and you lose hundreds of crowns,” he explains.

Iberian pigs graze on vast oak pastures, feeding on acorns and grasses, which gives the meat its unique flavour. The law requires at least 24 months of curing, but farmers often cure their hams for 36 months or more, regularly re-hanging them depending on weather conditions and the storage room's lighting.

Today Jamón Republika works with three producers, one of which supplies ham to Oscar parties and served it at the World Cup final in America. A basic leg costs around 11,000–12,000 crowns, top-tier samples 15,000–20,000, while rare limited batches exceed 50,000 and even 100,000 crowns.