We opened the restaurant in 2014 so that Grandma Elena’s recipes would not be lost. Today we cook for several hundred guests a day, but in the kitchen things are done just as they were back then.
How it started
A recipe book from 1962
Grandma Elena wrote down her recipes in a notebook with blue covers while she was the cook at the village canteen in Molnița, near Chernivtsi. It records the quantities, the little tricks and even the names of the people who loved each dish.
Her grandson turned the notebook into the restaurant’s menu. We kept everything we could: the wood-fired oven, the cast-iron pots and the habit of serving the first pie on the house.
Molnița, 1962
120seats
64recipes on the menu
300+pies a day
12partner farms
Grandma’s notebook
Leaf through the recipe book
Scroll down to turn the pages. ↓
1962
Recipes
Elena Jechel · Molnița, 1962
My dear grandchildren,
Here I have written down everything I know about good food. Never rush, taste often and always put an extra plate on the table. Someone else might drop by.
Grandma Elena
Molnița, 1962
The village near Chernivtsi where Grandma cooked for the whole canteen. Many recipes were named after the people who asked for them most often.
2
On Sundays, for the whole family
Zeamă chicken soup
Ingredients
a free-range hen
homemade noodles
fresh lovage
sour bran broth
Grandma’s tip: Add the sour broth at the very end, once the heat is off, so it does not curdle.
3
For holidays and weddings
Cabbage rolls
Ingredients
pickled cabbage
pork and beef
rice
thyme and pepper
Grandma’s tip: Simmer them slowly for three hours in a tightly covered cast-iron pot.
4
From the wood-fired oven
Cheese pie
Ingredients
flour, water and oil
cottage cheese
one egg
dill
Grandma’s tip: Stretch the dough by hand until you can read a newspaper through it.
5
The grandchildren’s favourite dessert
Papanași
Ingredients
cottage cheese
eggs and semolina
sour cream
sour cherry jam
Grandma’s tip: Fry them in hot but not smoking oil, so they cook all the way through.
6
2014: the notebook becomes a menu
Her grandson opened the restaurant to keep these recipes alive. You can taste every one of them, exactly as they are written here.
