Several years ago, I went to London and got my first job in a restaurant. It wasn’t in the kitchen but washing the dishes, which, incidentally, was right next to the kitchen. The deal was that if I finished my dishwashing duties fast enough, I could move to the kitchen. And that’s how it all started," recalls Bartosz Szymczak, chef and co-owner of Rozbrat 20, a restaurant in Warsaw that was awarded its first MICHELIN star in 2024.
While in London, he moved between jobs and places a few times. "I worked in a MICHELIN-starred restaurant - didn’t like it. I worked in a hotel - didn’t like that either," he admits.
During that time he kept hearing one name: Tom Aikens. "I had heard stories about how demanding he was as a chef, and, yet, despite all the tales, when I saw a recruitment ad for his restaurant, I applied for the job. In the end, it was when I was working for Tom Aikens that I fell in love with the culinary world and understood what it was all about. It is thanks to him that I am who I am and where I am today. Tom Aikens shaped me as a chef," Szymczak admits.
Going to work for Tom, he knew what he was getting into. "I knew it would be tough, but that was precisely why I wanted to work with him. And, yes, it was tough, but Tom also communicated his love of cooking to me, thereby sowing the seed of my own passion!" Szymczak adds, crediting his British mentor.
When discussing his mentors, Szymczak also pays tribute to Lee Westcott, who, at the time, was opening a new restaurant. As Szymczak explains, "Lee taught me how to manage and lead a team." These experiences proved priceless when Szymczak returned to Poland and set about building and running his own kitchen team at Rozbrat 20.
“I’m always striving for the ideal dish”
"It wasn’t simple or straightforward; we’ve had ups and downs. At the beginning, when I joined Rozbrat 20, my colleagues didn’t always understand me, and there was a fair bit of staff turnover over the first few years. But, thankfully, the team gradually got better and better, until we reached the point we’re at now. I work with amazing people who understand each other perfectly and we are a tightly-knit team that shares the same goal.”
Bartosz Szymczak is nothing if not a perfectionist. "I’ve never put anything on the menu with which I wasn’t 100% satisfied. Whenever I taste a dish, I wonder if it could be better. In the initial development stages, 90% of the dishes don’t taste as good as I want them to, so the process is often lengthy. For some dishes, I can spend two months finetuning ingredients or combinations, while for others, the taste and balance come together immediately.”
"Even during the initial brainstorming, I know how I want the dish to look and what texture it should have, but I don’t always achieve that right away. I taste each dish countless times, and if I’m not entirely happy with the final result, I just don’t put it on the menu. Sometimes I’ll come back to discarded ideas months later, possibly changing just one ingredient, and suddenly everything works. I’m always striving for that ideal dish - my version of perfection with the flavors and combinations in my mind," Szymczak explains. "Every dish on the menu has to be there for a reason," he adds.
In addition to getting a kick out of creating new dishes, the chef also enjoys adding a new spin to earlier creations. One example is a dessert on his late autumn menu that combines mushroom and coffee. "Its origins date back to 2019 when we introduced it as part of a seasonal mushroom-harvest menu, but long after the menu changed, many guests kept asking about it and reminiscing. So, I decided to put it back on the new menu in an updated version even though the initial underlying concept remains. The mushroom is still there, but now there’s coffee instead of chocolate and the reindeer moss has gone. The inspiration is six years old, but the taste is brand new," Szymczak explains.
The reputation Rozbrat 20 has gained under Bartosz Szymczak’s leadership has resulted not just in a fully booked restaurant and a MICHELIN star but also in better access to ingredients. "Nowadays, we often don’t have to go looking for producers, they come to us. They tell me their stories, and if those stories are genuine and interesting, we take things further. I’m interested in how producers talk about their products and their attitude toward them. The next step is seeing how the farming or production process is carried out. If everything is right and we’re happy with the ingredients, we start to work with them," he explains.
Bartosz Szymczak’s personal experiences and journey are reflected in his cuisine and, by extension, in the ingredients. Alongside local produce, he likes to use items he became familiar with while working in London. "We also have trusted suppliers who go to markets in France or Germany to source the right products for us. They know us, our kitchen and our vision of the „perfect” ingredient," he shares.
