Taste of Prague Podcast, Ep 7 - Chef Bára Simunková

Okay, all Czech chefs who worked, not staged, in multiple three-Michelin star restaurants in a big city abroad, hands up! Okay, there must be only one. Bára Šimůnková has worked in Eleven Madison Park, Le Bernardin and Per Se, three 3-Michelin stars in New York City. Again, was not there on a stage (except Eleven Madison Park) - she actually worked there as a line chef. And now she’s coming back and is hopefully due to open a restaurant in Prague in the spring. Oh yeah, and she’s not even 30.

Anyway, we have heard of Bára when she came back and worked at our favorite bakery in Prague, Praktika, and it was nearly mythical: „have you heard of this Bára? She worked at Per Se and Le Bernardin and she’s amazing.“ And as will be revealed in the podcast, she was praised by Paul Day when he hired her for Sansho as her first job out of school. Given all that, it’s a wonder that Bára has been moving below the radar and has not been filling the title pages of major Czech cooking and food magazines.

Maybe it’s because she’s laser-focused and does not waste a lot of time. She knows what she wants and does not take sh*t from anybody. When she felt being passed over for promotion because she was a girl from the East, she went straight to the managers to talk it over. When she arrived in NYC, she basically sent emails to what she thought were the best five restaurants in town, and got a response from three right away.

And now she’s back and due to open a restaurant in Prague. What are the differences between chef life in NYC and Prague? How does she feel about the Prague food scene, having come back from the best restaurants of NY? How demanding is work in a three-Michelin restaurant? What will her Prague restaurant be all about? Listen to find out. Enjoy the podcast with Bára!