Poland - quality food for quality friends

Norbert (25, club owner, entepreneur)

Norbert cooked lobsters for me and his friends:

LIFE IN THE NINETIES

I was raised under rather affluent circumstances. Both of my parents developed entrepreneurial skills quite early in the 1990's. Given the Polish economic turbulences, my family was considered rich and living in wealth. We therefore had access and ability to eat (in and out) really well and access and ability to buy better, even premium products.

My family enriched fast and we therefore quite fast found time for quality time with the closest relatives. Cooking and dining for long together became a quite common activity in my parents' home partially because my parents felt a need to share their relative wealth with our relatives and friends.

Both my mother and father found pleasure in cooking at home and serving food to others which was widely accepted and acknowledged. I took part in this custom from the very begining, even though I was really small when it started. This is where my love for food, especially good food, and gathering with people around it came from. Even now, when I'm adult and f

THE TABLE

I think that good food comes together with close bonds with people and sharing. Poland - same as Russia, I think - and it's culture are deeply immersed in traditional hospitality and hosting others. My family, grandparents and parents, raised me in that attitude and I guess I follow their steps in that sense.

FOREIGN FOOD

One can easily see that the Polish hospitality does not mean that the table has to be covered with traditional Polish cuisine. The plates are more and more European and even Asian or African. A ciulinary tradition that is visibly neglected is American, for it is considered as fat and unhealthy. Nevertheless, Polish cuisine is currently subject to renewal and one can even say that there is a hype for fine-tunned Polish recipes, especially when it comes to religious holidays (Christmas, Easter).

EATING OUT

I often eat out as I don't have time to cook and invite friends on daily basis. Being a huge fan of quality food and table, I often ask cooks for recipes or even photograph (if not 'steal') restaurants' menus.

OPPORTUNITY: Communication through quality restaurants's menus.

RECIPES

I find much pleasure in cooking seafood as it both tastes great and impresses my guests. The process of cooking seafood (like lobsters) is also a very beatiful and clean one. I invite my guests to participate in it and as they take part, they indulge in the freedom and pleasure of cooking.

Cooking together seems to be an important part of the "good life through good food" culture. Dining with friends at one's home is apparently not only about serving food but also about bonding through participation in the cooking process.

OPPORTUNITY: Communicate the pleasure and happiness of cooking together with close friends and relatives.

FINDINGS: Food loving is not only about taste and other sensual impressions, it sometimes comes to bonding and spending quality time with close friends and relatives. There might be an opportunity to focus somehow on a strategy close to "the best food for the best peers" or event "some of you deserve the best"