20 gourmet courses presented by 3 thoroughly talented chefs, exciting wine variations, and picturesque setting in the autumn sunshine, a mere stone's throw from Lake Balaton - all this is perhaps beyond fairy-tales already. But it's all true: we visited the 5th Gourmet Festival of the Hertelendy Castle and tasted what the Slovenian celebrity chef, Dejan Pavlič (Relais & Chateaux Grad Otočec), Péter Pataky (IKON restaurant, Debrecen) and the host, Zsolt Hampuk created especially for the occasion. Here are our favourites.
The autumn Gourmet Festival has become a tradition for the Hertelendy Kastély: the two-day event was held for the 5th time this year. This time, the Slovenian Dejan Pavlič (representing Relais & Chateaux Grad Otočec) and Péter Pataky, the chef of the Debrecen-based IKON restaurant joined the resident chef Zsolt Hampuk at the Castle to enchant guests with courses that introduced rural flavours.
THE FIRST EVENING
On the first evening, Dejan Pavlič and Zsolt Hampuk presented their exciting creations. Just before dinner, we had the opportunity to talk to the Slovenian chef, who revealed that his grandmother was professional cook, and it was her influence that led him to know at the tender age of 16 that he wanted to be a a chef. He has been working at Grad Otočec for 10 years now; in 2008, he won silver with the Slovenian team at the chef Olympics in Erfurt; he loves to travel and be inspired by international cuisine; as a private person, he prefers simple dishes; he loves fishing and riding his motorbike. Dejan brought a part of the ingredients for dinner from Slovenia: the brown trout, for one, is from the river that runs by the Grad Otočec castle.
The amuse bouche (the customary hors d’œuvre of such dinners) was named 'The Land': the dish comprised of quail egg marinated in coffee, potato stuffed with salmon, vitelotte, beetroot purée, creme avocado and onion powder. Our taste buds have sprung into action for sure: we could hardly wait for the antipasto. It was time for the above-mentioned Slovenian brown trout in three variations, with wild herbs and vegetables. This course was simply marvellous: the fish was prepared smoked, tartare and paté, served with pumpkin purée, home-made mayonnaise, salmon and trout caviare, and a peculiar, vivid green parsley sponge.
For us, the absolute favourite of the evening was the thyme flavoured saddle of rabbit, served with carrot purée and apple jelly. What else to serve that poor bunny with than carrot. Jokes aside, this dish was really harmonious, the caramelized apple slice and the marinated mini apple were both direct hits. One of the chef's preferred green spices, the fresh thyme was harmonising with the meat beautifully. Before the main course, we could take a break, spooning apple pálinka sorbet. The apple pálinka is specially made for the Hertelendy Castle, from the crop of the apple orchard right beside the castle.
The venison saddle in black walnut sauce with chestnut pasta and peas proved to be a heavy, manly course. the meat was soft, fine pink in colour, and black walnut sauce complemented it wonderfully. Although the chestnut pasta was heavier, the crunchy green peas gave lightness to the dish.
From the desserts, we preferred the sour cherry-chocolate composition, a worthy finish to the dinner, with various chocolate textures, rum cherry and a tonka bean chocolate bonbon.
The complete menu:
- Amuse Bouche
- Three kinds of brown trout with wild herbs and vegetables
- Sivit Pinot 2012, Pletér Winery
- Creamy pumpkin soup
- Home-made ravioli filled with curd cheese and bacon on flap cap mushroom with mustard sauce
- PRUS Rosé 2012, Bela Krjana Winery
- Thyme-flavoured saddle of rabbit with carrot purée and apple jelly
- Burja Bela 2011, Burja Winery
- Sorbet
- Saddle of deer in black walnut sauce with chestnut pasta and peas
- Sutor red 2010, Sutor Winery
- Rhubarb velouté with strawberry jelly and lemongras ice cream
- Rheingold Riesling 2006, Villa Tolnay Winery
- Cherry and Chocolate
- Pinot Noir 2009, Villa Tolnay Winery
- Petit fours
The second evening
The creations by Péter Pataky, the chef of IKON in Debrecen and Zsolt Hampuk were a roaring success among guests. Péter Pataky swears by excellent ingredients and the flavours: he says flavours come first, everything else is secondary. The chef is highly critical of his own cooking, and has the international promotion of quality debrecener at heart. At home, he prefers simple dishes; his big favourite is chicken paprikás prepared from free-range farm chicken, with Kalocsa peppers and home-made noodles. He prepared for this dinner with carefully selected ingredients.
The amuse bouche was saddle of lamb with smoked carrots tartare sauce, grilled pepper cream, horseradish, dried green onions, and the chef's favourite debrecener in small cubes.
The antipasto named "The Sea" spoke for itself: for a moment we imagined ourselves to be sitting on a Mediterranean seaside, having been served scallops, branzino tartare, squid and langoustine tails with salad purée and edible petals. Later, when the home-made crust roasted leg of veal arrived, we knew we were home. Although it was served with cauliflower textures and lemon oil, it still remibit of nded us of our grandmother's cooking.
The rosé breast of duck with plum-cabbage agnolotti (home-made durum pasta) and anis Jus deserves special mention: the consistency of the meat was heavenly, and the chef counterweighted the thickness of the pak choi-bound pasta with a bit of slightly sour mirabelle plums. Bull's eye.
We are known for our sweet tooth, so the desserts swept us off our feet. Our favourite was the Rákóczi curd cheese dessert 2.0, which reminded of the original in taste, but was completely different in terms of serving: there were marinated apricot, apricot sorbet, meringue, sweet crumbs and curd cheese apricot jelly on the plate. Heavenly.
