Christian Chu founded the experiential restaurant Levitate in 2017. Since March of this year, it has been located on Vinohradská Street in Prague. He transformed the cellar and the originally club-like space into a concept of four chapters, each providing an original experience. As guests move through the restaurant, they are served all courses of the tasting menu in each chapter. 

What is the concept of your restaurant?

Our restaurant primarily focuses on offering tasting menus, featuring Nordic-Asian cuisine. It is a combination of the Nordic philosophy, which emphasizes the use of local ingredients and traditional cooking techniques such as fermentation, pickling, salting, and smoking. We add Asian flavors to this. We carefully select the most interesting spices from Asia, especially from Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, and China. 

Where do you get your inspiration for such interesting flavor combinations?

It changes every year. I used to draw inspiration from visiting the world's best restaurants. Currently, I draw inspiration mainly from art. This whole new space is built on art. We have a collection of interesting paintings by well-known Czech artists, as well as music and natural scenes. So now my inspiration comes purely from outside gastronomy. 

What do you use the Retigo combi oven for?

For all dishes that require baking or steaming. We prepare dishes for slow baking, as well as quick ones, to achieve a crust. We also use it for fermentation and drying. We use it every day. It is one of the most important technologies in our kitchen. We couldn't function without it.

What is the biggest benefit for your kitchen?

It saves a significant amount of time and effort for chefs. It is smart and easy to use. It is our everyday friend in the kitchen.

Would you recommend it to other businesses?

Definitely, I would recommend it to everyone – from those who run bistros and simpler concepts, to the most prestigious gastronomic projects. And here, I would recommend having more combi ovens, so that each one is ideally intended for a different purpose – one just for steaming, another for baking, another as a holdomat, and so on. We would use more of them, too. 

Christian Chu

co-owner and head chef