Retigo s.r.o.

What is the concept or philosophy of your project?

We want to offer people cooking courses in a pleasant environment with modern technology.

How did you come up with the idea?

I originally trained as a cook/waiter. Later, I switched fields and studied airport management in Prague, and I enjoyed taking courses and learning new things. When I decided to return to České Budějovice after university, I wanted either to find something in aviation—which was complicated at the time since there was no airport here—or in gastronomy. But I didn’t really want to own a restaurant; I wasn’t interested in the administration that comes with it. So, I started working with a brand where we ran cooking classes, and I traveled to people’s homes to train them after they bought the equipment. That gave me the idea to start a cooking school. We looked for a suitable space and eventually used part of our own house, where we built an extension for Fine Food Academy.

In what year did you establish it?

In 2016. Next year we’ll be celebrating the 10th anniversary.

How will you celebrate it?

We’ll probably have a party in the garden with our lecturers, partners, and clients—and of course we’ll celebrate with good food.

Who is your target group? Are they amateur cooks, or professionals who want to improve their skills here?

In the beginning, it was focused purely on the general public, but over time, it’s been changing. More and more professionals are joining us. That was one of the reasons why we renovated and upgraded the studio. Previously, it was, let’s say, more of a home-style kitchen to make people feel comfortable, but since more professional chefs are coming, there was pressure to bring in professional equipment, such as combi ovens.

So are your courses still intended for amateurs?

Practically all of our publicly listed courses are designed for amateurs. But now we also provide training directly for restaurants and chefs.

Which courses are in the highest demand?

Definitely meat. And these days, Asian cuisine is also very popular.

Which lecturers do you invite to the courses?

We cook with Honza Horký, long-time captain of the Czech national culinary team, Zdeněk Křížek, Honza Punčochář, Emanuel Ridi, and we bake desserts with Pepa Maršálek. We also have many chefs from the region, such as Martin Košťál, or our own Filip, who has been with us since his chef training days.

I see various kitchen appliances here, mixers and so on. For example, when you run a pasta course, do you make everything from scratch?

Yes, from the dough all the way to the final dish, and it’s cooked in pairs. Each participant prepares the entire dish from A to Z and then eats it. It’s not just watching. Everyone tries it with their own hands—and the reward is eating it at the end.

How long have you had Retigo combi ovens here?

Since the renovation, about a year.

How satisfied are you with them?

Very much. We operate more than just the cooking school, and we have already been using Retigo there. Based on that experience, we chose the brand again.

Which feature or function do you appreciate the most?

Reliability. That’s key for me. They work as they should and don’t let us down.

Do you use the preset programs or set them yourself?

It depends. In our restaurant Kantýna, we also use the presets. We have additional accessories such as the smoker—we smoke food quite often, cook sous vide overnight, and so on. But here at the courses, we set everything ourselves.

Would you recommend Retigo for other operations, whether for restaurants or cooking schools?

Absolutely. Since I use it extensively myself, I recommend it to my colleagues. As I mentioned, we also use the smoker, and we have a hold-o-mat and the DeliMaster pastry oven. We have units in all sizes, from small to large, and for the renovated training space, we ordered them in black.