Who is Jokuti, who eats ?
Let me introduce myself and tell you about my eating habits and my story
“I never liked living at a standard of life that I could afford.”
Editor-at-Large, Forbes Hungary
Food + travel writer
Culinary MC
I am András Jókuti, 51 years old, living in Budapest with my wife and our three children.
As the Editor-at-Large for Forbes Hungary, I write about the world’s top restaurants and hotels. I also work as a food and travel writer for other publications and host numerous gourmet events, including the world’s most prestigious professional cooking competition, the Bocuse d’Or.
I interned at a Michelin-starred restaurant and completed the modern French cuisine course at the legendary Paul Bocuse Institute in Lyon to better understand restaurant processes and food.
Here is my Instagram profile with regular updates about my experiences: instagram.com/jokuti/
“I was already eating when it wasn’t yet fashionable!”
Eating has always played a huge role in my life.
I am a foodie who takes every opportunity to visit special, particularly excellent restaurants. From street food to traditional cuisine, I am interested in everything because I believe that:
“Fine dining can only be truly understood with an in-depth knowledge of local culture and traditions.”
I go on 40-50 gastronomic trips annually, primarily organized around restaurant visits. I have developed a foodie network worldwide with people who have shared many culinary experiences with me and think similarly about gastronomy, unaffected by fame or indulgence. I frequently consult with them about their regions, research other sources, and taste the most promising places, often returning regularly. This gives me up-to-date knowledge about the most important gastronomic destinations from South America to Asia.
I use major guides like the World’s 50 Best and the Michelin Guide for inspiration, often finding gems within them, but I am not exactly looking for what they seek.
What do I look for in a restaurant?
In short: authenticity
In detail: places, in any genre and price range, from the cheapest, dirtiest snack bar to the most elegant top restaurant, where the content and identity align, where the chef is not trying to meet an imagined guest’s demand but has his own concept, style, and philosophical background, which he realizes at all costs.
There is a lot of kitsch in fine dining. Restaurants that are excellent in form, technology, and sometimes even taste but lack substance, resulting in disappointment.
I don’t look for faults; I’m not testing. I seek lasting, valuable experiences and values, even if not everything is perfect. Something can be perfect even in its imperfection.
For those interested in a longer backstory (TLDR)
My name is András Jókuti. I was born in 1973 in Budapest, Hungary, and family legend has it that my career outside the womb started immediately with eating. Back then mothers giving birth by C section were not allowed to hold their babies, especially if, like me, they had the umbilical cord wrapped around their neck. But I immediately took advantage of the opportunity to access breast milk.
This appetite remained with me. In communist Hungary, the third child of an engineer and a high school teacher didn’t have many chances for gourmet experiences. Our meal budget was calculated to the penny to make ends meet, but luckily, my mother cooked very well. From a young age, I grew up with low-budget dishes and simple Hungarian cuisine with great flavors. After school, my mother would serve three-course lunches ‘à la minute,’ and I would rush to training, returning with a huge appetite for dinner. Even then, I preferred hot meals over the typical sandwiches. For snacks, I always brought the best sandwiches to school, able to trade them for anything if I felt like trying a different style. I ate at the school canteen - not famous for quality food - just for the fun of it, as a proper homemade meal awaited at home, making me realize how lucky I was.
We never had a chance to eat out, so I vividly remember the one time we did. I was 8 or 9 years old when my father received a bonus, and I chose the most exotic-sounding dish: wild boar, and was very happy with it.
As the third child with two strong and hungry brothers – all three of us played competitive water polo – I quickly learned to protect my food. This knowledge proved very useful later when eating with older players after out-of-town matches, who would quickly grab the best bites, even entire schnitzels, from the less prepared. The daily two hours, then 2x2 and later 2x3 hours of training during school breaks ensured a perpetual appetite, leaving no food on the plate. Fortunately, I was never truly picky, although I carefully cut out any ‘suspicious’ parts from fattier meats, which are now my favorites. I always spent my pocket money on food and movies and later my own earnings on food and movies and travel. As a high school student, one of my favorite treats was a foie gras sandwich at a café. Dining out wasn’t an option due to our modest budget, so I savored every bite of this treat, which I could afford only once or twice a month. I never ordered a drink with it, as there was no money for that.
I worked during my student years and that gave me more possibilities. Later, as a journalist, I had occasional opportunities to travel abroad and one of these trips led me to my first Michelin-starred restaurant, a place in Nice, now-closed, where I had a simple three-course lunch menu. That was enough for me to realize that the world of fine dining is wonderful.
From then on, I saved all my money for fancier places, just as I had for the foie gras sandwich; there was no turning back.
I adjusted my journalism career, which initially focused on completely different topics, to this. I wrote domestic restaurant reviews and co-founded the first serious Hungarian gastronomic guide, spending my earnings at foreign restaurants whenever I could.
Then, opportunities opened up, allowing for dinner menus and later, occasionally 2-3 star experiences. I always invested my money in restaurant meals rather than savings solutions. To ease my conscience, I tried to think that it would pay off someday...
I loved reading this and found many parallels within my own life. I wanted to be a food writer but as I’m sure you’re away it’s a very class based profession in Britain, either your mother is the Queen or they were a celebrity. I fell into cooking just because I wanted to be around food. I’m still perhaps more comfortable around obsessive diners like yourself than my fellow chefs really.