La Degustation

Bucket List Item #753 – eat @ La Degustation

Prague, Czech Republic

Dear La Degustation,

I have to thank you for broadening my horizons. You made me like cauliflower.

Sincerely yours, always and forever,

Lynzi

Seriously though, I’m pretty sure I still hate cauliflower unless La Degustation makes it. I’ve been continually attempting to eat cauliflower since this day and it always sucks. I keep ordering it at nice restaurants and moments later wanting to slap a chef. I once ordered a cauliflower foam soup from a Bib Gourmand restaurant in Vienna that was appalling.  I wanted to grab them by the ear and drag them across the border to chef Oldřich Sahajdák so they can get a firm talking to and perhaps even a back hand.

What the fuck did they do to their cauliflower to make it so damn good? I wish I knew. Oldřich, you are my hero!

La Degustation is one of three restaurants in Prague who have been rewarded a Michelin star, so they’re in the big league. Before we moved back to the states, Dave and I made a point to try all of them, and I can confidently say that La Degustation reigns supreme. They take a lot of pride and care in sourcing their ingredients locally and ethically and the staff draws inspiration for their dishes from traditional Czech cuisine. Personally, I think they manage to take Czech cuisine out of the dark ages and into the future. This restaurant has managed to take a very heavy style of cooking to a very light place and somehow make ingredients that are normally intimidating light as a feather. I don’t understand how they do it, but every detail is brilliant from the tasting menu to the amuse-bouche to the wine pairing. It’s a positively scintillating dining experience.

There’s no point in walking you through the menu as virtually everything on the menu is seasonal, but I can say, without a doubt, that if you choose one fine dining experience while you’re in Prague that La Degustation should be it. Period.