Tomáš Karpíšek, founder of Ambiente, receives Czech Medal of Merit

Tomáš Karpíšek, founder of the Ambiente restaurant group, has received the Medal of Merit from President Petr Pavel for his contribution to the economy. The award was presented on Wednesday, 28 October, as the state's recognition of the man who gave Czech cuisine back its self-confidence.

Karpíšek's journey began in 1995 with a single restaurant in Prague's Vinohrady. He wanted to bring to Prague the atmosphere of a Tex-Mex restaurant he had seen in Innsbruck, Austria. He stood at the stove himself, while his partners Kateřina Veselá and her brother Petr took charge of day-to-day operations. Italian and Mexican concepts followed, and then Lokál, an authentic Czech pub free of the main curse of such places: bad food.

Today Ambiente serves more than four million guests a year and employs around 1,600 people. Its portfolio includes Lokál, with schnitzel, goulash and good beer; La Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise by chef Oldřich Sahajdák, which draws visitors to Prague from abroad; and Café Savoy, with its spirit of Austro-Hungarian classics. The newest addition is Biskup: a colonial-style shop with vegetables and dairy at the front and a bistro at the back.

From Austria Karpíšek brought back not only the idea for his first restaurant but also the conviction that chefs should be connected with farmers. He built the same kind of relationships with producers in Czechia: Ambiente has its own supplier network, with Amaso linking restaurants to Czech breeders and butchers, and the Naše maso shop showing their work to customers right at the counter. Meat gets a fresh interpretation at Čestr and Kantýna, bread and baking craft at Eska, and Czech confectionery tradition at Myšák. The group can feed a guest from morning pastries to the last drink at the Bokovka bar.

As the number of venues grew, staffing became a question. Karpíšek noted that chefs are often expected to draw up a financial plan, calculate prices, hire people and lead a team, none of which is taught in the kitchen. He learned business on the job and considered his Austrian training an important advantage. That is why the company created the UM centre for courses, testing new methods and sharing experience, while the “Food and Joy” project takes part of that knowledge beyond its own restaurants. Karpíšek is now planning to open his own secondary school, for which premises are being sought.

Another key decision for Ambiente's growth was offering talented colleagues a stake in the business. “A person should share not only the work but also the success and the results,” Karpíšek said in 2023. Chefs and other employees became partners, each venue has its own management and responsibility, and the group provides them with shared infrastructure.

The founder's long-standing goal is to build a company that will run without him and to gradually hand it over to a younger generation of colleagues. The award came shortly after Karpíšek's associate Oldřich Sahajdák and other members of the “New Czech Cuisine” association urged the president to finally honour gastronomy leaders: abroad this is common practice, and in Britain Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Clare Smith wear the Order of the British Empire.

By the Around Prague newsroom