Ákos Sárközi: “I believe in team composition, in that the team is the most important”

By: Tisza Andrea Date: 2023. 03. 30. 16:23

Michelin-starred chef Ákos Sárközi, who works in the restaurants Borkonyha and Textúra, was Szilvia Krizsó’s guest in the latest episode of the Future Talks podcast. This article features parts of the conversation, but you can watch the whole interview at futuretalks.hu who.

A day in the life of

Mr Sárközi told that all people see from the life of a chef on television is that he is there and he cooks something, but they don’t see that he has two restaurants to run, and a family to take care of, a wife, kids… His days are very busy, usually he gets up at 6.00, they take the children to school and the work starts: shooting a television programme, giving lectures, teaching, etc. – and of course cooking in the restaurants takes lots of energy. Luckily, he really likes this high-speed life. When asked about his attitude as a leader, the chef told Szilvia Krizsó: he believes in team composition, in that the team is the most important. He disagrees with the concept of identifying a restaurant with the chef who runs its kitchen, because he isn’t the only one who works there.

Ákos Sárközi, Michelin-starred chef

When building a team, he focuses on the human side. The chef sits down to have a chant with the job applicant, learning about their background – even the best professionals get a “no” from him if he feels they aren’t team players. A well-working team in the kitchen means constant good quality for guests, and nothing is more important than this. Ákos Sárközi explained that the term fine dining might have acquired certain negative connotations by now, but for him it basically means that the experiences gathered in gourmet cooking can later turn up in everyday cuisine.

Having a good time creating in the kitchen

It is growing trend that there are more and more restaurant guests with some kind of health problem or food intolerance. The world is going in the direction of a more conscious nutrition and this is a good thing. Restaurant should also take this into consideration, and Mr Sárközi is sure that fruit and vegetables will become more important in restaurants, but he believes that all kinds of dishes should be present on the menu, including those that are made with meat.

The Michelin-starred chef had also worked in mass catering before. What he learned there was organising work, using cooking ingredients well, feeding a large number of people – and the very basics of cooking. In Portugal he saw that restaurant kitchens are ingredient-based: they tend to work in close cooperation with farmers and suppliers, supporting one another. Ákos Sárközi didn’t open his French-style bistro restaurant with the purpose of winning a Michelin star, his main idea was to have good time creating in the kitchen. Szilvia Krizsó also asked him about the television show Konyhafőnök, and the chef told he decided to be one of the jury members so that he can change the way a few people think – showing them new technologies and ingredients, and encouraging them in general.