Poland - of the importance of butter

Magda (c. 50, celebrity chef, TV host, cookbook author, restaurateur)

MAGDA: "I have always treated fats as incredibly important. They are somewhat like glue that makes dishes and recipes stick together and allow other ingredients to combine easily"

BUTTER IS AN INGREDIENT

Magda serves (pyzy z mięsem) and (kluski leniwe z masłem) for me:

MAGDA: "Ages ago, when I opened my first restaurant, U FUKIERA [one of the most famous Polish restaurants and the oldest one still operating - MŻ] I had no idea of the importance of small things. Now there are multiple books one can reach to and get to know how important small things are, like Anthony Bourdain's "KIll Grill". My people simplky went to the supermarket and bought one of the butterpacks available back then. Food was of high quality anyway back in the early nineties and given the competitive circumstances it didn't matter that much that we used standard store products.

At some point, middle nineties maybe, my restaurants, three back then, were evolving fast and I decided to put an accent on perfecting each element of the restaurant process. When it came to butter, we -- my cooks and I -- suddenly realized that a lot of our failures in taste and consistency came from that area.

We therefore looked for the best butter we could get and this is how we got to the Wyszkow Diary Products, a traditional company that didn't go into highly industrialised processing and didn't settle for compromise when it came to quality.

This very strict attitude brought multiple economic problems on that company and signing wide contracts with me and then other restaurateurs from Warsaw probably saved the company. The butter and other diary products from there are still in use in each of my restaurants and present in most of my dishes.

I also use it on TV and in my cookbooks. I think that it's important to help companies like that -- the ones that care for tradition and quality".