Home comforts

Pull up a chair and enjoy family cooking at the heart of the city, suggests Michael Bird

February 2010 - From the Print Edition

Earlier this year, new Minister of Health Attila Cseke launched an attack on junk food – concerned that Romanians were becoming too plump, too sick and too seduced by the charms of a diet of Snickers, kebab, cream bun and Whopper, Cseke proposed a pioneering tax on crisps, cake and bacon double cheeseburgers.
What will escape the financial arsenal of the Minister’s war on fat and the causes of fat is Violeta’s Vintage Kitchen – an eco-friendly family-run cafe in the capital’s centre. This is the kind of inspirational enterprise more at home in Greenwich Village or Stoke Newington than five minutes’ walk from Bucharest’s Intercontinental Hotel.
Former German translator Violeta Din¬¬ca and ex-trucking boss Ediz Abibula set up the cafe in 2008 with 40,000 Euro, and have since attracted an artistic crowd of film-makers and the university elite, plus middle-class liberals and part-time hippies.
Kate Bush resounds from the stereo, Romanian landscapes decorate the walls, while daily newspapers and novels by Mi¬¬lan Kundera and Haruki Murakami are scattered around tables, in a scene redolent of a common room for master’s students in sociology. The space is non-smoking, but mushroom heaters in the back garden offer a sanctuary for chronic puffers.
Every morning Violeta herself cooks two soups, two main courses and two desserts. All include a comprehensive vegetarian option, such as salads with rocket, pomegranate, pistachio and Gorgonzola. Every day the meals change and no two menus are the same.
The cafe has adopted the Italian slow food ethos of local food and eco-gastronomy. Wherever possible Violeta uses Romanian producers, seasonal vegetables and organic or ecological food without additives.
A few minutes’ walk from the cafe is an organic granary - which mashes grain on-site, while many products are bought at Bucharest’s weekend farmers’ market (Targul Taranului) at The Ark on Piata George Cosbuc. Popular is the home-made bread, which Violeta can mix with potatoes, herbs and a Parmesan-style unpasteurised cheese from Horezu, Valcea county.
Building on a strong family tradition of cooking, Violeta started up the small business at the suggestion of her husband and three kids. “I used to like what my Grandmother was doing when preparing a large table for the family,” she says. “Everyone came together to appreciate good food and wine. What was fascinating to me was how she was expressing her feelings through cooking.”
While growing up her own children, Violeta became concerned about the ingredients of their daily diet. “I wanted them to know what was good and bad food,” she adds. “I wanted to demonstrate to them the difference between eating and nourishment.”

Violeta’s Vintage Kitchen
23 Strada Batistei, Bucharest
Tel: 021 310 0681
www.violetas.ro