MOJMIR MARKO ŠIFTAR (PEN KLUB)

Chef Mojmir, along with your formal studies at BIC Ljubljana, you also honed your skills working in numerous renowned Slovenian restaurants, among them Restaurant JB under Chef Janez Bratovž. What did these culinary institutions teach you and how do you use that knowledge and those skills today as head chef of the Pen Klub restaurant?

I started at JB – which was my first real experience with the restaurant world, and where I really got excited about cooking and fell in love with haute cuisine – with Janez as my first head chef. I often like to emphasise the importance of who your first head chef is, because it dictates who you yourself will be in the future. Janez imparted me with the joy of cooking, creating, and exploring new flavours.

Later I joined the Slovenian national youth cooking team, where our head chef was Borut Jakič, who also employed me at Hotel Aleksander in Rogaška Slatina after I finished college. Borut was like a father to us on the team, and as a chef he taught me how to delegate, how being kind often achieves more than using other approaches, how to lead a team, and how to contemplate all of the above to become a better person and leader who serves as an example for his team.

Janez and Borut are two important pillars who made me what I am today.

You often draw inspiration from your home region of Prekmurje, yet you still allow yourself to be inspired by foreign cuisine as well. How do you look to achieve a balance between these different influences in your cooking style?

Since we opened Pen Klub, I haven't really been flirting with foreign cuisine, at least not in the same way as before. Of course, when talking about technique, it's impossible to determine where it originates from. Most things chefs do nowadays comes from old French cuisine, but that doesn't mean that I'm inspired by French cuisine when creating dishes. I don't really draw inspiration from any foreign cuisine any more, I'm just using the knowledge I gained through my research. The only truly French element in my current style is that I use a lot of butter. Asia I've completely abandoned, but I do like to employ their principle of flavour combinations, such as extremely sour and salty, but using Slovenian ingredients. And fermentation, which has become so popular in gastronomy in recent years, has always been a staple of Slovenian cuisine anyway.

The last three years I've had the feeling that I’ve really found myself, and I'm dedicating all my attention to Slovenian cuisine: the space in which it originated and is still developing, its ancient traditions, and local seasonal ingredients.

In your younger years, you participated in various culinary competitions, and today you serve as a mentor to the young people who take part in such competitions, as well being a judge on the MasterChef cooking show. What is the role of competitions in culinary education and what are the most important lessons young chefs can take away from them?

For a young chef (or someone who wants to become a chef), competitions are an advisable and beneficial thing in several ways. The first is that competition makes you stronger and more stable, and teaches you how to work under pressure, which is a good skill to have in any profession. Secondly, by taking part in international competitions, you also get to see the world and observe what is happening outside your little bubble, so you broaden your horizons and get a wider perspective. And the third thing, and for me the most important, is the friendships you make along the way. Food has always had a bonding element; it’s a way to get to know people and their cultures, and competitions are no different. I still have friends all over the world from virtually every competition I've been to, and that's invaluable.

The Pen Klub restaurant was once a Ljubljana culinary institution with a cult-like status. When you took over management of the restaurant, in what ways did you feel a responsibility to restore it to its former glory and what is the vision you are trying to realise with it? In what ways did the reputation of the space limit you and in what ways did it creatively inspire you? What kind of experience can guests expect when visiting the Pen Klub restaurant?

Just recently, I was listening to a podcast in which Boštjan Napotnik was explaining that the Pen is no longer the Pen because there is no more Miki (author's note: Marjan Miklič). It should be stressed that it has never been our vision to make the Pen the way it was. Those were different times, different guests; artists in those days lived a different life and could afford to spend more. Even then, "under Miki", it was by no means a cheap restaurant.

We went into the project with a great level of respect. Before we took over, during the period in which the restaurant was still open (although Miki was no longer there), I visited several times and fell in love with the space and its soul. So when we renovated, we thought a lot about how to pay homage to the legendary Pen, for example with the burgundy paint and some similar elements in the entrance hallway.

In the beginning, even our menu was divided into two sections. Half of it was, let's say, avant-garde, where we changed the dishes seasonally, every two months or so, while the other half represented a tribute to the most iconic dishes of the "old" Pen - goose liver, bean soup, veal liver, and other dishes. These dishes were met with approval by former regulars, and this part of the menu remained for about two years. Then I decided it was time to move on. We paid tribute to Miki and Ola (author's note: Eva Maria Miklič), to their extraordinary, iconic story, and then it was time to turn the page.

Now I am writing my very own story at the Pen Klub restaurant, and when I'm asked what my cuisine is, I call it "New Slovenian Cuisine", which has been adopted by quite a few Slovenian chefs, but somehow has not yet caught on as a universal nomenclature like “Nouvelle Cuisine” already did in France, for example. I cook very seasonally, I draw on customs and tradition, on my memories, even on the ingredients themselves. We are striving towards the idea of making people feel at home here, with the design of the house and the restaurant being such that it invites and allows that idea. As a point of interest, our main

dining room used to be the master bedroom of the original owners, the Ebenspanger family, and it really is the heart of the place.

What are some of your favourite restaurants and bars in and around Ljubljana? Where would you refer a guest visiting Ljubljana for the first time?

Of the "fine dining" restaurants I have visited recently, I would really like to highlight Grič. Especially now, after the renovation, I can say that it's the best restaurant in Slovenia. Luka is a truly exceptional chef and his food is so well thought out... I was really impressed.

For tourists, I would definitely say Figovec, because there is definitely a shortage of places like that in the capital. By that I mean restaurants that have real Slovenian food on the menu, and not also, for example, calamari and ćevapi. There are taverns that also have Slovenian food on the menu, where they even serve guests in traditional Slovenian costumes, but I am not convinced when they do not focus exclusively on our traditional cuisine and when their menus are full of generic international dishes. In terms of what it offers, Figovec is what we need more of: salad from the market, liver, fried chicken wings and drumsticks, and other similar dishes. I would also recommend LePotica to visitors from abroad, so they can really get to know what a potica truly is. And if you're looking for a traditional snack, you can't go wrong with Klobasarna.

For a good glass of wine you go to Wine Bar Šuklje, and I also like Movia for its ambience. While for a good coffee, Stow is the best choice for me. I'm a big tea drinker myself, but unfortunately we don't really have that culture here. Right now it's in a similar place to where our coffee drinking culture was 20 years ago.