Jarka graduated from painting faculty at the nearby Wrocław Academy of Fine Arts. Her adventure in gastronomy started several years ago. Some might say that it was an accident, others might say she let things go and wisely put into life the inspirations she had come across. And we must admit, it all serves her particularly right. Her journey started from working in someone’s kitchen, through baking several dozen trays of cakes a week in her home oven an finished with the tastiest green place in Wrocław. Baszta, just like Jarka, is full of good energy and hard work and that is why it constantly develops a community of devoted customers. Baszta is created by Jarka and 6 other vivid personalities who all dream about going to Thailand. Why? Read further!
The gastronomic concept of Baszta evolved from a cafe, through typical vegetarian comfort food inspired by traditional cuisine, till it reached the final form inspired by vegetarian Thai cuisine. The choice of solely plant-derived products, and only occasionally dairy products, is not a manifestation or taking side in the battle for animals’ rights. It comes from a genuine conviction that vegetables, fruits and grains have gustatory, nutritive and ecologic qualities. And we have to admit that this principle serves well Jarka’s kitchen – after a dinner at Baszta you feel that your dish had everything it needed. In this context, seitan roulades, vegan spreads or vegan burgers seem unnecessary complication, putting plant-derived food in inferior position to carnivores’ diet.
Jarka did not let herself be taken in by this scheme and she doesn’t hoax her guests with her kitchen either. Here the vegetables play the lead role and inspire as ingredients themselves. ‘What is most important to me is to find, for example, a good beetroot and do not wear it off with the processing technique. Thai cuisine is excellent at it’, she says. The menu, changing seasonally, contains Asian soups, curry, pad thai, stir fry, fried rice, snacks, salads, cocktails inspired by Asian delicacies. It is not, however, a typical Asian cuisine as the chef uses typical local ingredients – Polish vegetables and fruits. Everything is fresh, warming-up, amazing, healthy (not obsessively healthy, though, as there are tempeh, tofu, soya sauce or cane sugar), colourful. Invariably, each day there are gorgeous cakes ‘smiling’ from the display. Jarka did not cease to bake them herself, although she is leading the Baszta kitchen every day.
The restaurant occupies the entire space of the historic Baszta Niedźwiadka (Bear Tower), first built in the 13th century. The two upper floors are open to guests, while the ground floor with the kitchen welcomes with scents and greeting maneki-neko (Japanese cat figurine with waving paw). The clear, monochromatic space, the highlight of which is the original outstanding form of the building, is only a background for the kitchen and alternating art exhibitions. Baszta is a place with a strong personality, the personality of Jarka Kawałko. It is not about playing to the gallery, but about listening to one’s own intuition. And this intuition happens to be responsible for the best curry, best marketing, interior design and event management. Go check Baszta, it is really worth it, especially since the new winter menu landed last week!
text: Agnieszka Szydziak, photos: Jaga Gałganek
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