In 2026, the cooking school Fine Food Academy in České Budějovice will celebrate its 10th anniversary. The original idea of focusing purely on amateur cooking enthusiasts was gradually developed by its founder, owner, and head chef, Honza Krob, into a thoughtful concept of courses also for professional chefs. Today, the academy organizes classes both for hobby cooks and those who cook for a living. Among the lecturers are Honza Horký, long-time captain of the Czech national culinary team, Zdeněk Křížek, Honza Punčochář, Emanuel Ridi, and pastry chef Pepa Maršálek. In the newly renovated training kitchen, participants also use three Retigo Blue Vision combi ovens in elegant black.

What is the concept or philosophy of your project?

We want to offer people cooking classes in a pleasant environment with modern technologies.

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.

How long have you had Retigo combi ovens here?

Since the renovation, about a year.

And 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 preset programs or do you create your own?

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.

Honza Krob

Owner and Head Chef