Hostinec Raj

The restaurant & setting. We're in Hrabušice, in the heart of the Slovak Paradise national park, where Martin arrives after a morning hike through the gorgeous landscape. Reštaurácia Raj is a traditional village restaurant with a large hall and outdoor seating, where an honest homemade lunch menu of six dishes is served for an unbelievable 5.50 euros. Martin quickly works out that the place lives off lunch, „I'm travelling through time," he jokes as he walks through the hall, and he immediately senses that this is no stage set but a genuinely working operation.

The people. The restaurant is run by owner Marian, who started out with this crew long ago cooking ten lunches on an ordinary kitchen stove. The soul of the kitchen are the women, above all Slávka, who has cooked here for 23 years and commutes daily from Spišská. A year ago the young and capable Lukáš joined, Marian's son, who lifted the number of lunches by a hundred portions and began introducing new things into the place. The kitchen handles up to 270 lunches a day, and the women have every machine named after someone close, the combi oven is Fero and the pan is Štefan.

Why they called Martin. This is an unusual episode, because the problem is neither in the food nor in the footfall. The restaurant is packed every lunch, the food is excellent and financially it works, as Marian himself admits. The crack is interpersonal: after the death of a long-time colleague Marian hired Lukáš, but instead of cooperation between the old and new shift, friction arose. The experienced cooks feel the owner favours his son, that they have lost their overview and that they are being pushed towards expensive new machines they don't want to use.

The first visit. Martin orders the chicken broth, a štefanská and fried cheese from the menu and is amazed at what he gets for 5.50. The soup is excellent, „a massacre for 5.50," the tripe soup is exactly to his taste, the dumplings are as they should be, the cabbage is ideal and the halušky are nicely browned on bacon. „I can't remember the last time I came to a restaurant that was so full at lunch," he says, and openly admits he doesn't understand why he was actually called here, given a restaurant full of people and excellent food. The question „why am I even here?" hangs in the air.

The diagnosis. Martin quickly uncovers the root of the problem, which is not gastronomy but a broken team. Slávka confides that she feels sidelined, that Marian sorts everything out only with Lukáš and that there is a double standard, since she had to come in front of the cameras „voluntarily under duress," while Lukáš preferred to deliver lunches today. There is even a row right in the kitchen about ordering and sour cream. Martin names it plainly: „You have good food, lots of guests, you're making money, but your staff is totally broken." He himself calls it Dr Novák's psychological counselling office and knows this episode won't be about cooking.

The reset. Since the food needs no changing, Martin turns to the people and the machines. He patiently teaches Slávka to work with the expensive combi oven she had been avoiding, shows the women how to have broth and confit duck prepared overnight at low temperature so the machines work for them while they sleep. To honour their lifetime of hard work, he sends the women for a massage, at which Slávka admits it was the first time in her life, and takes them on a flight over Hrabušice so they can see their village from above. He reminds Marian that alongside expensive technology one has to look at humanity and respect, since in 20 years the team has met outside work barely three times.

New concept & menu. There was nothing to rebuild here; Martin explicitly does not want to change the identity of an honest village restaurant for ordinary people. Instead of a rebrand he simply elevates what already works: he prepares a thicker mačanka with browned smoked meat and croutons, confit duck with cabbage and a bread dumpling, pork cheeks with mashed potato and pan-juice sauce, bryndza halušky, a classic sviečková, blueberry pierogi with browned butter and fánky. He also gives the women a new kitchen helper, a multifunctional slicer, which they immediately name „Martin".

The big night. On the test evening the kitchen works brutally hard, the women put in the effort and the dishes go out, but the trouble comes from the opposite direction than expected. Chaos breaks out on the floor, the staff chase the tablet and the order screen instead of plating food, and Martin relentlessly points out that the most lost person on the floor is the owner's son Lukáš, who doesn't know where to stand. „The owner, who should only be directing, runs around the kitchen ladling food, a bit bizarre, isn't it?" The kitchen holds it together regardless and the guests leave satisfied, though Martin is sorry the women may not get the recognition they deserve.

One month later. A month on, Martin returns to a colder Hrabušice for a small surprise visit and is pleased by what he sees. The machines „obey," the women are less tired, they have done some training and managed sviečková with bread dumplings even at a recent wedding. Slávka says the scales are now balanced, „it's the way it should be," and that Marian too has searched his conscience and praises them more. Martin admits he didn't, in the end, resolve the head-chef question with Lukáš, but decided to give each of the women a turn at running the kitchen on trial. The broth and the schnitzel with mashed potato are excellent again and the quality of the food has stayed continuously high.

Verdict: 4 knives. Martin awards Hostinec Raj 4 knives and this time does it differently, giving the sticker not to the owner but to the women in the kitchen, who in his view are the true heart of the place. „These 4 knives are proof that the food is genuinely good, it's the work of everyone, not just mine," he says, and tells Marian to truly cherish the women. The kitchen crew is proud of the rating, „we're proud that we got 4 knives".