Culinary soulmates – Young Talents Marko Magajne and Marko Vršič
Talented chefs combine their styles and cooking skills so skilfully that they elevate dishes to the heights of haute cuisine.
“I always ask myself how to be different from the others – how to convince the guests to come here,” is Gašper Puhan’s motto. He turned the 18th Century baroque chateau Novo Celje into something as trendy and tasty as can be – Galerija okusov. And when one restaurant can pride oneself with two top young chefs named Marko, perfection is achieved.
The former Slovenian national culinary team member Marko Magajne was joined by Marko Vršič. They immediately hit it off, two soulmates that found each other. Both with kind spirits, creative culinary touch, and different personalities. Pure chemistry. Together, and with great care, they choose smaller local farms, grow, and develop together with their menus, give all they have for the authenticity as well as freshness of flavours. Although the restaurant is locally oriented when it comes to ingredients, it is actually quite refreshingly international thanks to its uniqueness, playfulness, and ambition. Their creations remain on the table, never under it. There is no waste; zero waste, to use and reuse the ingredients and other products, is their philosophy.
Magajne is calm, reasonable, Vršič happy, and passionate. They are able to join both styles so well, that their unique dishes leave the taste of the starry sky in your mouth. Magajne takes care of the local selection and the development of quality flavours, he passionately picks herbs, while Vršič upgrades the flavours even further and brings them together with the help of his international experience. Both Markos’ modern interpretation and cooking skills lift the recipes to unimaginable heights of haute cuisine. The duo has a lot of experience for their age, and extraordinary potential. It is to their advantage that they are still learning, and the fact that they are still discovering adds fantastic value to their work.
