Magazine: Silent and successful

Attila Radvánszky, is the owner of Haxen Király restaurant and member of MVI’s (Guild of Hungarian Restaurateurs) presidency. You are ‘back in the ring’ after 10 years. Is it you who changed or the circumstances? Rather the latter, I did not change much. Formerly MVI was a lukewarm organisation only represented to the public by one or two people. The new team is dynamic and my being in the presidency probably has to do with my staying out of fights of the former leadership.

• What made you change your mind? The current president, just like me, feels that things must be improved. He is a good organiser and he chose the right people for the task, for instance vice-president Tamás T. Nagy is a determined person who does not shy away from conflicts and dares to speak out.
• Do you speak out in matters that need to be addressed? When I was named restaurateur of the year in 2009 I got the chance to reach more people with my opinion. Since then I like to draw the attention of colleagues on matters that I think are important.
• So the recognition made people more interested in your opinion! Probably they think it is worth listening to what I say. In 30 years my wife and I earned kudos with 4 restaurants whose former owners had thrown the towel in – I think one can rightly be proud of this.
• What things would like to call attention to? There are two key issues: the authorisation to open a restaurant should have the approval of a professional organisation. The other one is fighting the absurd trend of criticising Hungarian gastronomy – unfortunately very often famous chefs say negative things such as ‘paprika makes Hungarian cuisine boring.’
• Do you represent a completely conservative set of values as regards Hungarian cuisine? We run a traditional kitchen. I know that modern trends can bring improvement but I will never accept the despising of classic Hungarian dishes.