For World Chaîne Day in Hungary Bailli Délégué Katalin Pintér invited members to a ‘taste-trip’ - a gastronomic journey around the world and with the world!

Our Annual General Meeting took place before the dinner at the Continental Hotel Budapest. The extraordinary meal was in the hotel's Araz Restaurant. Two hundred years ago the Hungária Baths, one of Budapest's famous historic baths, operated in the building. Its facade was preserved during the hotel’s construction. The restaurant’s atmosphere is slightly ‘bistro’, yet elegantly designed.

Our hosts were the ever-kind Zoltán Géher, General Manager, András Kákonyi, Food and Beverage Manager and Executive Chef Áron Barka who is a Chargé de Missions. This was the fourth time we have enjoyed their hospitality.

Planning the evening's menu, Áron said he always starts with the beverages. Not only a much-travelled chef but also sommelier, Áron has tasted, practiced and tried as many as he could.

As Officier Irén Novák commented, Áron's goals are to reproduce a country’s flavours he has experienced or to further develop the basic idea. His creativity is only limited by the number of existing animals.

Bailli Délégué Honoraire Iván Novák, who is a Member of the Conseil Magistral, jokingly noted that, if not in 80 days, but in a few hours we travelled around the world from New Zealand to Alaska as we made our way in long leaps through Brehm's scientific book ‘The World of Animals’.

The worldwide Chaîne is synonymous with highest levels of hospitality and outstanding quality of gastronomic culture, of which the Bailliage of Hungary is an excellent embodiment.

Vive la Chaîne!

Judit Merkler-Szántó
Dame de la Chaîne