Adrian Bęben is a Polish chef deeply connected to his country’s culinary heritage. His cooking is rooted in local ingredients, traditional techniques, and the flavors shaped by forests, fermentation, freshwater fish, and smoke. He draws inspiration from other cuisines only to reinterpret their ideas through Polish products and traditions.

The Best Chef: Restaurant Wandal is strongly rooted in Polish cuisine. How was the concept of Wandal created and what does the name mean?

Adrian Bęben: Wandal was created from a longing for classic Polish cuisine. The name is used with a wink — we do not want to vandalize the monuments of Polish culinary culture, but rather pay tribute to them. Food is incredibly important in our culture. The most important meetings happen at the table and while eating. When I cook and talk about this food, I feel Poland.

The Best Chef: How would you describe Polish cuisine beyond the dishes it is usually known for?

Adrian Bęben: It is not only about dumplings. Polish cuisine is very rich, very good and very succulent. What is important are not just specific dishes, but the special features of our region and our cuisine. It is everything that comes from the forest — game meat, wild fruits and mushrooms. We also have fish, like Polish turbot from the Baltic Sea, and everything is prepared using Polish local ingredients, from the north of Poland to the south.

The Best Chef: What flavors and techniques are characteristic for Polish cuisine?

Adrian Bęben: There is the smell and taste of smoke, which is typical for countries further north, but also sour flavors coming from lacto-fermentation. Żurek, in my opinion, is our flagship soup and a unique phenomenon worldwide. We also have freshwater fish, which Poland has always been famous for, and in more baroque cuisine we combine them with root spices. We connect strong-tasting, oily fish like eel or carp with strong spices such as cinnamon, cloves and saffron.

The Best Chef: Do you use inspirations from other cuisines in your cooking at Wandal?

Adrian Bęben: Sometimes, when I find similarities between dishes from other cultures, I try to learn from their techniques or their way of thinking, but I adapt everything completely to our products. In Polish cuisine we have okrasa, and in Asia there is XO sauce. We take this way of thinking and replace the products. Vinegar is part of our kitchen, but instead of fish sauce we use our own fermented garum. Our okrasa becomes more layered, made with dried crayfish and mushrooms, not with shrimp or dried seafood.

Instagram: @adrian.beben @wandal.www
Restaurant website: https://wandal.pl/
Restaurant Address: Pańska 97, 00-834 Warsaw, Poland