Rok

The young Rok Martinčič took a different business path with his wife, but when his father fell ill, he realised that the family restaurant meant a lot to him. The first years after taking over, he still stuck to more traditional cooking approaches, before inviting the renowned chef Uroš Štefelin to join him in the kitchen for a while. Partly owing to his influence, he discovered that he wanted to connect the restaurant’s tradition with unique fine dining experiences. Through persistence and experimentation, he managed to get to the top. In 2023, Gault&Millau awarded him the title of Chef of the Future.

“When you grow up in a tavern and you can enter it not only in your slippers but even barefoot, you quickly realise that maintaining a work-life balance can be challenging. With all due respect for the classic cuisine fostered by my parents, I wanted to put an end to preparing hundreds of lunches on Saturdays and Sundays and start creating dishes and menus that would draw more discerning guests and help us breathe more easily,” says the chef who now cooks mainly for parties booked in advance. Reservations have become the rule, and every time they publish something new, one has to act quickly.

Extremes of using outlandish techniques and plating combinations that are fashionable but don’t work well fail to make an impression on Rok Martinčič. One of the best compliments he has ever gotten from his guests is that his creativity makes an experienced foodie feel at ease because they can still recognise what is on the plate before them. Originality – yes! But it should be subdued and tailored to the tastes of people expecting good, but not completely unknown food.

Rok says that he spent his childhood eating steak tartare with bread, toasted on the iron plate of the wood stove that still stood in the restaurant’s kitchen until but a few years ago. That stove made way for the new needs and requirements of haute cuisine, but you never know, it might make a comeback! He believes that haute cuisine will keep its place on the gastronomy map, but that culinary locations that return to authenticity – in dishes and people – will gain increasing notoriety.

Rok Martinčič associates this authenticity with honesty. “Most of the guests are regulars and many of them have become my friends. I greet each guest personally. The network of people who come to us is growing through recommendations, word of mouth. It may be the slowest way to build a profile, but I believe it’s also the most durable. People trust people, and I realise that every time I come out of the kitchen to the dining hall to greet the guests.”