I’m Andrew, I was born and raised in Budapest. I used to work as a sous chef in the United States, and later as a line cook in a two Michelin-starred restaurant. I have been a culinary instructor and a market tour guide since 2013. On the side I work as a consulting partner and the head of dining experiences at Hungary’s the most visited gastronomy website.  I’m also a private chef for some of the movie stars shooting here (like Ashton Kutcher and his wife Mila Kunis). I run a blog about American food for Hungarians, and with a few great friends the biggest fermentation group in Hungary. I also have some gigs as a consultant and an R&D chef.  I’m an avid vinegar maker, (there was a recently published  interview with me in the Hungarian Hospitality Magazine, about vinegar making), and I’m also a distiller (mainly gin and palinka).

In my freetime time I still like to cook, but the thing that I love the most is spending time with my daughter and wife. Whether it’s sitting around my smoker that I designed and built, or hiking in the woods, it doesn’t matter. 

In high school, food became my hobby. While I was working on my bachelors and masters degree it became a serious passion. After finishing my studies I moved to the US. After some failed attempt to work in my field (foreign trade marketing), I went on and applied for a bartending gig. I somehow ended up in the kitchen and worked my way up to be a sous chef. After the kitchen, I ran a nightclub for a while, then I took a break went back bartending and started to travel in the US. When I felt I cooked and traveled enough, I came back. Moving back gave me the opportunity to look at my community from a different perspective.

Here I started over by working with a nice lady doing cooking classes and market tours. Unfortunately the cooking class market now has too many participants, so after almost a decade we agreed to cut my appearances back. In the fall of 2022 I decided to go back to a professional kitchen. I got accepted into one of the best restaurants in the country with two Michelin-stars. After I had my fun I moved on.

A lot of things have changed around me, but the love and passion for food haven’t. I love sharing food- and travel stories with people. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from, what you do, you will have an opinion on food, you will have favorites. And even though food is so diverse there are a lot of similarities between how we cook and how we perceive it. Thru it, you are not just closer to yourself but everyone who shares the passion for it. It helps to understand cultures, people and to experience foreign places like nothing else.

So join me to a fun filled culinary and cultural tour to one of the Budapest’s characteristics markets.