REAL COOKING FOR REAL LIFE
Cooking is for everyone. I’ll show you how to make it simple, enjoyable, and truly yours.
Upcoming Courses
All courses are fun, casual, and beginner-friendly, yet carefully designed using real teaching expertise to make sure you actually grow and learn.
Questions? Get in touch to schedule a free video call.
sebestyen.gastro@gmail.com
+36 20 333 6735
Private Foodie Day in Budapest:
Market Visit, Cooking Class
& Wine Tasting
Duration: 5-6 hours
Let me take you on an unforgettable culinary journey. I’ll show you Budapest through food and take you through my idea of a perfect Saturday, on any day of the week — market, cooking, wine, and good company.
45,000-55,000 HUF
(min. 4 persons)
I grew up in a small Hungarian village, surrounded by fields of wheat and corn, where food was never abstract — it was something you could touch, smell, harvest, and prepare with your own hands. I spent my childhood fishing on the Danube with my grandfather, watching crops being harvested from the passenger seat of his tractor, and learning where food truly comes from.
My family was deeply rooted in food. My parents ran a grocery store, we had our own vegetable garden and fruit trees, and my extended family produced honey, hunted, foraged, and cooked everything from scratch. Later, near the Austrian border in our weekend house, summers meant mushroom hunting, collecting herbs for tea, roasting chestnut, and turning pine needles into syrup. Food was never just a product — it was a way of life.
Although I always dreamed of being a chef, I never wanted cooking to become “just a job”. I wanted it to stay something personal — a passion I could explore freely without the pressure of having to be successful.
30+
THE CULINARY JOURNEY
I found it brilliant how people could make something out of nothing — how a tomato seed planted in spring could become mom's Lecsó* by autumn.
30+
THE CULINARY JOURNEY
I found it brilliant how people could make something out of nothing — how a tomato seed planted in spring could become mom's Lecsó* by autumn.
So instead, I kept gastronomy at the center of my life. I cooked for friends and family, wrote recipes, explored restaurants and farmers’ markets, experimented constantly, and learned by doing. Whether it's fermentation, raising quails, collecting chanterelles in the local forest, or baking with sourdough — I did it all.
Over time, I realised how disconnected many people have become from their own food. So I began teaching — first friends and colleagues, then others — not to turn cooking into something complicated or intimidating, but to help people feel capable again. I love fine dining and Michelin-star restaurants, but I believe the real magic is much simpler: being able to cook something at home and feel proud, nourished, and connected — to yourself, and to the people you share it with.
HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE
I like to say that cooking is figurative magic, but wine is real magic. There are very few plants on this planet that have shaped human culture as deeply as the vine. For thousands of years, wine has been part of rituals, celebrations, trade, religion, and everyday life. As a Hungarian, this feels especially meaningful to me — our historic Tokaj wines are even mentioned in our national anthem, something I believe is unique in the world.
In many ways, my journey with wine followed the same path as my journey with food. Just as we’ve become detached from how our food is grown and prepared, I believe we’ve also become disconnected from the true nature of wine. It’s often treated as either something purely functional, or something overly exclusive — when in reality, it’s one of the most extraordinary expressions of nature we have.
Over time, my curiosity grew into formal study, and I became a certified sommelier. But much like with cooking, I never wanted wine to become about status, jargon, or intimidation. To me, wine tasting isn’t about proving knowledge — it’s about slowing down, paying attention, and learning how to enjoy a gift from nature. My goal is to help people reconnect with wine in the same way I try to reconnect them with food: with curiosity, openness, and a sense of wonder, rather than elitism.
Notes from the Kitchen
I’ve always been fascinated by the process of cooking—how one creates something out of nothing. Take a pumpkin soup for example. Have you ever thought about how much human effort, how many hours of sunshine, how much rain went into growing that one humble vegetable? I have.
Think about it for a moment. That teeny-tiny pumpkin seed, not larger than the nail on your pinky, was sown into the soil in late spring or early summer. It was there when you stepped into a puddle in May and your shoes got wet, and it just blinked at the blue sky when you were hiking in June, enjoying the first sunny days.
Maybe you’ve both smiled at the same dinosaur-shaped cloud—who knows? Then, that tiny seed grew into a plant with long trailing vines and heart-shaped leaves—it might even remind you of the pumpkin carriage in the Cinderella story.
Eventually, while you were partying at festivals or tanning on a beach in Greece, this simple plant grew amazing trumpet-like flowers, as if wanting to tell the whole world that it’s alive.
Not long after, it bore fruit. That, my friend, is the vegetable you’ve bought at the store, now sitting in the back of your fridge, waiting to become soup, and warm you up on a cold day. I have the utmost respect for that pumpkin plant—all the hardworking hands that put it on our table, including yours.
To me, cooking is love. It’s art. My religion and philosophy. My kitchen has helped me through all sorts of hardships in my life, and at times it has brought me immense pride, joy, and satisfaction. My greatest wish is for you to experience something similar.
2025, November
Budapest
READY TO COOK?
sebestyen.gastro@gmail.com
+36 20 333 6735