“Sweet celery and borscht with rice and milk” or “rhubarb tart with tarragon ice cream” are just two dishes that, although they sound strange, will not surprise anyone. I belong to the so-called “new Romanian cuisine”, which we can also find in restaurants in Bucharest. I spoke about this with culinary anthropologist Adriana Sohodoleanu, who researched them and included them in the book.

In recent years, restaurants have appeared in most of Romania’s big cities, relying on the reinterpretation of Romanian cuisine. Five years ago, when this phenomenon was still in its infancy, Adriana Sohodolianu, a sociologist and gastronomist, began researching and documenting it in her doctoral dissertation.

The results are published in the volume “What’s New in the New Romanian Cuisine”, published in late 2023 by Gastroart.

To learn more about the “new Romanian cuisine” and, as they say, what to eat it with, I spoke with Adriana Sogodolianu.

The hay on which the sausages were lying reminded me of René Redzepi and his “New Scandinavian Cuisine”

What prompted you to consider this topic in your doctoral dissertation in sociology? What was really at stake?

Adriana Sohodoleanu: In 2017 Maize was opened, a restaurant that offered a new concept – from farm to table, something new for Romania at that time.

Moreover, what I found on my plate, from amuse bouche with couscous to smoked chicken and pigeon organs, was different, it reminded me of what I either knew from abroad or read about this new approach .

The hay on which the sausages lay made me think of René Redzepi and his New Scandinavian Cuisine. Alex Petrican, who was the chef at Maize at the time, interned at Noma, René Redzepi’s restaurant in Copenhagen.

I understood that I was witnessing the emergence of a niche phenomenon in local gastronomy, and I decided to take advantage of this unique opportunity to be modern with a paradigm shift, because the temptation was too great for a researcher.

What exactly does “new cuisine” mean and how has this concept been integrated into the local context – in continuation or in opposition to “traditional cuisine”?

After four years of field research and five years of dissertation preparation, I consider “New Romanian Cuisine” to be both a historical continuation and a break with the past.

The movement builds its field by appealing to material resources such as local seasonal ingredients, micro-local recipes and symbolic resources such as traditions, stories and memories through which it reinforces the concept of the local.

Noua Bucătărie Românească tells the story of a performative and theatrical locale, offering affordable experiences for a class with excess economic and cultural capital.

What were your main sources of inspiration in researching trends in Romanian cuisine?

Being a new phenomenon in the local market, we drew comparisons with the decline of this phenomenon in other culinary spaces such as New Scandinavian cuisine, New Latin American cuisine, etc.

How did you choose the restaurants that were the object of the study, and what criteria formed the basis of this selection? Please also give us some specific examples of restaurants or chefs that we should consider when we want to experience the “new Romanian cuisine”.

Being a niche and initial movement, we didn’t have this challenge of selection, of creating a selection methodology; there were about twelve restaurants that met all the main criteria, while at least two have closed, while others have moved into more permissive categories or opened satellites with concepts inspired by nouvelle cuisine, but not as strict.

Alex Petrichan he did it – he has NOUA as a restaurant of new Romanian cuisine, but he also opened NOUA BAR, which means almost Romanian cuisine. He also signs the menu at Beans & Dots MARE.

Mihai Toader cook Neo-Romanian over an open fire in Soro.lume; Council CM Ionescu creates experimental cuisine at his Kaiamo restaurant.

Catalin Begenariou produces author’s kitchen on KANE. Alex Dumitru created a new Romanian cuisine in Anica. Andrii Chelaru Neo-Romanian cook Bohdan Alexandrescu creates several interesting combinations, a fusion approach on a neo-Romanian basis.

What are the main directions of modernization of Romanian cuisine that you identified in your research?

New Kitchen is a restaurant kitchen, we do not put it in the same row or opposite to home, home. In the restaurant landscape, it does not replace traditional cuisine, but offers an alternative, invites you to think about what you eat, beyond the simple automatic evaluation – I like it / I don’t like it, it’s right, how it’s done, that is, how I know in my moms

Where the ingredient comes from, why it’s appropriate to combine or treat it that way, who grows it and how, new ways to serve it, and the messages the plate conveys.

When at the table the waiter injects a piece of veal with sauce, you understand why the dish is called a manifesto against industrialization (Kayamo).

When NOUA invites you to try six or eight dishes and place them on a map of the region they represent, you’re practically “off the board”—what do you know about your country’s geography and cuisine? And what will you discover after this exercise?

The fact that you have a country with an incredible diversity of tastes, histories and influences is a wealth, a source of pride.

Noua Bucătărie Românească brings a gastronomic experience as a way to question what it means to be Romanian today, it gives you something to be proud of and we need something like that.

How do you see the role of chefs / restaurants in changing the culinary landscape in Romania, I mean the preferences of Romanians in what they put on the table at home or that they have started to prefer eating out more often?

Restaurants are places of cultural production, not just material. Sure, they cover basic needs, but in Romania most of us still don’t go to restaurants just because we’re hungry. We go out for the joy of meeting others, to celebrate something, for the experience.

Restaurants are places where you can experience new or old, familiar/past or exotic, cosmopolitan. A plate can represent and represent the world with all that it has, good or bad, with its anxieties or desires – health care (sugar-free), animal (cruelty-free) or environmental (plant-based), for example.

Kitchens have such a power to introduce new foods, different cooking techniques and new ways of preparing and perceiving food into our diet.

What are the main findings of your research and what implications do you think they might have in the evolution of Romanian cuisine in the coming years?

Nouă Bucătărie Românească emphasizes local seasonal ingredients, a short supply chain and ethical relationships with small producers, responsibility to the community and the environment (they have implemented strategies to combat food waste).

These restaurants resurrect in their own, modern way, ancient recipes and dishes, some familiar, others forgotten or ignored, stigmatized (see nettle, quinoa, stevia). The kitchens redefine the meaning of the Romanian language and show that we have the resources – creativity, capacity, ambition – to make Romanian ingredients shine on modern plates as well thought out and crafted as those of the world’s best restaurants.

The phenomenon, although limited and elite, also has a positive contribution to the development of the local gastronomic community, even if it is influential, but does not (yet) extend beyond the gourmet community. Part of a disparate effort to improve the country’s service and image, both domestically and especially abroad, it remains to be seen how much these restaurants can create change among the target middle class.

When do you think Romanians will accept and include cultured meat and insects in their diet? Are daring restaurants and chefs still setting the tone?

Hard to say. Compared to other novelties, food involves swallowing, a very intimate form of consumption, and people are resistant to change. On the other hand, it is still too early to pose such problems, since these new sources of food are still far from entering the daily diet.

The legislative framework for them has been created, but we will not see them on the shelves soon. Insect meal production is still in its infancy as a technology and is not scalable, just like cultured meat. We know that lab-grown chicken is sold in Singapore, but it’s good to know that it’s only sold in a few places and only one day a week, so servings are very limited. This is a test, not yet a trade.

Who is Adriana Sohodoleanu?

Adriana Sohodolyanu. Personal archive

Adriana Sohodoleanu has written articles on gastronomic topics in publications such as Proceedings Oxford Food Symposium, Dilema Veche, Iscoada, Zile si Nopti and others.

Her essay explores the connections between food and society, drawing attention to the complex ways in which food culture is intertwined with the broader socio-political context.

Together with Cosmin Dragomir, she is the co-author of a book of historical dessert recipes and conducts weekly interventions on Radio Romania Cultural under the auspices of her “Culture on a Plate” project, which also includes lectures at the Calea Victoriei Foundation, cultural lunches in collaboration with chefs and sommeliers, tastings etc.

Examples of new Romanian cuisine and a dessert recipe

• Stewed nettles with garlic and onions, poached eggs and sour buttermilk salad with borscht celery and borscht jam, very aromatic and with a subtle taste of borscht and fermentation for rice pudding
• “Bold and creamy salad with baked chicken thigh, avocado, lots of green garlic, hot pepper and freshly grated horseradish; bold with chili and horseradish, creamy with avocado. It is normal that I also gave to the poor”
• Cucumbers rubbed with salt and marinated with borscht, fresh dill, dill oil, crunchy dill seeds, thyme greens and garlic cooked in borscht.

The examples above are from chef Andrii Chelar.

Dessert: Tart with rhubarb and tarragon ice cream by Chef Ioan Bebesele (Transylvania)

Rhubarb pie (rhubarb) is probably one of the most popular desserts in the villages of southern Transylvania in the summer. Because of the sour taste, I was thinking of interpreting the rhubarb as a lemon, so I moved away from the classic pie to a variation of the rhubarb pie, made from the classic lemon pie recipe.

Tarragon is rarely used in desserts in Transylvania, but it is perfect for rhubarb.

It took

250 g of white flour

115 g of powdered sugar

80 g of soft butter

2 eggs

a pinch of salt

Mix all the ingredients. Place the dough in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes until it hardens. Roll out the pastry to about 2mm thick and place in a 20cm cake tin and refrigerate until set.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and bake the top for about 20 minutes until golden. Rhubarb cream 600 g rhubarb 6 eggs 200 g sugar, divided into two parts (110 g and 90 g) 120 g fresh tarragon, divided into two parts (100 g and 20 g) Cook the cream with 110 g of sugar for about 15 minutes.

Turn off the heat and add 100 g of tarragon. Leave to infuse until the cream cools down. Beat the eggs with 90 g of sugar until the mixture doubles in volume. Strain the cream and bring to a boil again.

Add the beaten eggs and mix until the mixture is smooth and thickened. When the composition has cooled, add the remaining tarragon leaves and grind well with a blender. We use an ice cream maker or put it in the freezer.

Serve a slice of cake with a scoop of ice cream.

These are just some examples from the new Romanian cuisine that were published in Adriana Sohodoleanu’s book.

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