Recipe Steak Tartare

Provocative appearance and produced in an extremely interesting way is branch cake – Šakotis. Its taste is as impressing as its appearance. And no one argues about the taste of the Lithuanian branch cake – it’s fabulous. It’s for a good reason that it came to Lithuania in the beginning of the 20th century and in just over a hundred years have become the centerpiece of every Lithuanian wedding table and a mandatory sweet offering to the most honourable guests.

Cotechino with shrimp and lentils cream recipe from the European Young Chef Award 2017 was created by Davide Fiammenghi, representing East Lombary – European Region of Gastronomy 2017

Waterzooi is a classic stew of Flanders. Its name is Dutch, ‘zooien’ meaning ‘to boil’. It is sometimes called Gentse Waterzooi (in Dutch) which refers to the city of Ghent. The original recipe is made of fish, either freshwater or sea, though today chicken waterzooi is more common. The most accepted theory is that rivers of Ghent became too polluted and the fish disappeared. The stew is made of the fish or chicken, vegetables including carrots, leeks and potatoes, herbs, eggs, cream and butter and usually serbed as a soup with a baquette to sop up the liquid.

The true origin of the Wiener Schnitzel has again become a matter of vigorous debate between culinary historians in recent times. One thing, however, is absolutely certain: the Wiener Schnitzel is truly cosmopolitan. The earliest trails lead to Spain, where the Moors were coating meat with breadcrumbs during the Middle Ages. The Jewish community in Constantinople is similarly reported to have known a dish similar to the Wiener Schnitzel in the 12th century. So whether the legend surrounding the import of the “Costoletta Milanese” from Italy to Austria by Field Marshal Radetzky is true or not, a nice story makes very little difference. The main thing is that the schnitzel is tender and crispy!