Four Seasons Hotel Prague names Arpád Szucs as the new Pastry Chef
Arpád Szucs is whipping up a delicious new pastry and dessert menu for CottoCrudo and The Gallery
Prague, Czech Republic, 2018-May-09 — /Travel PR News/ — Four Seasons Hotel Prague has announced the appointment of Arpád Szucs as the new Pastry Chef. Arpád comes to Four Seasons in Prague from Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest.
Arpád Szucs is creating a new selection of high quality European style breakfast pastries and desserts for CottoCrudo and The Gallery. He started working as a Pastry Chef at Four Seasons 12 years ago in 2006, first in Budapest, then Milan, London and Budapest again.
Arpád was born in Budapest. He fondly remembers his grandmother making strudel every weekend – usually two or three kinds – with apples, quark and poppy seeds or dumplings with homemade apricot jam. This inspired him to make his first dessert aged sixteen, a punch cake for his father.
Arpád’s father was a great supporter of his passion for cooking. After telling him he wanted to become a chef, they went looking for a school and found the Taverna Gastronomy School in Budapest. Here he was exposed to all areas of cooking and discovered his love for pastry. He received two diplomas there.
After specialising in gastronomy in high school and university he went on to L’École Valrhona de Tain L’Hermitage – a famous chocolatier school in France close to Lyon. It is the most prestigious pastry school in the world, not just any pastry chef can attend. After a week long course, the chefs feeling for pastry and chocolate is completely different and they receive a certificate to prove it. Valrhona chocolate has been described as the Rolls Royce of chocolate and it is one of Arpád’s favourite ingredients to use.
Arpád loves to bake all kinds of homemade breads and loves to experiment with different doughs. Croissants, brioche, specialty Hungarian and Danish doughs are all part of his repertoire. His favourite sweet thing to bake is šátečky filled with ricotta, a dough with yeast. His favourite bread to bake is focaccia. He loves to use Italian ingredients for French recipes. Here he shares his recipe for focaccia:
Focaccia Recipe by Arpád Szucs
- 500 g soft flour
- 500 g strong flour
- 400 g potato
- 30 g fresh yeast
- 500 g cold water
- 50 g salt
- 60 g olive oil
Mix all ingredients for 8 minutes, then let rest one day in the fridge. On a tray with baking paper, let it rise for 30 minuties at 40 degrees C. Add tomatoes, herbs and any other desired flavours, and bake 15 minutes at 210 degrees C.
His confectionary is based on French high standards, putting local ingredients forward, inspired from the old middle class ways and creating top quality pastries and dessert variations. Maintaining this high French standard Arpád also likes to mix in different traditions. Hungarian, Czech and Italian recipes are all brought together making him a truly Central European pastry chef.
His motto is “Be passionate about work, motivate the team and learn something new every day. If you make a fantastic pastry or dessert one day, tomorrow make it even better.”
When he is not whipping up delicious pastries at Four Seasons, his favourite dessert to make at home for his wife and kids is a special Hungarian cake called gerbeaud. Cooking must run in the family as his son is also following in his father’s footsteps. He is currently cooking in the Intercontinental Hotel, Budapest.
CottoCrudo, a modern Italian restaurant, bar and lounge at Four Seasons Hotel Prague, offers a menu of Italian and Mediterranean dishes, including an extensive wine list of more than 300 labels. The chic urban setting showcases traditional and authentic Italian dishes with a modern touch, created by Executive Chef Leonardo Di Clemente and his team. For reservations: rezervace@cottocrudo.cz or +420 221 426 880
SOURCE: Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
PRESS CONTACTS
Martina Vavrova
Director of Public Relations
Veleslavínova 2a/1098
Praha 1, 110 00
Czech Republic
martina.vavrova@fourseasons.com
420 221 426 615