Ideas and other matured ingredients

One of the charms of living a slower life in a village, where you have turned every stone and explored every path, lies in the leisurely walks and slow pot stirring, allowing the ideas to mature and ripen. So far, one of our best ideas was expanding the cellar with an ageing room.

A few years ago, during a time when the restaurant business was far from thriving (to be honest, not much good was happening anywhere back then), we embarked on an extensive renovation, equipping our home cellar with chambers where, with minimal intervention and guidance, we let time do most of the work. In the subtle glow of Himalayan salt, time transforms everything good, though a bit plain, into the extraordinary, especially taste-wise. 

In one of our dry-ageing rooms, large fish develop their flavours at temperatures nearing zero. The fish hang there for an average of one week to two months, although we experimented with the tuna 'prosciutto', dried for six months, as well.

Just a few steps away, the perfect humidity makes Slovenian cheeses mature, reaching their full potential - again with the assistance of time.

Probably the most dynamic microcosmos is at work in the meat section of the ageing room. There, the backs of mature cattle from vast pastures age for up to half a year. The beef is occasionally joined by adult ducks, left unbled before ageing to enhance their flavour.

When the season is right, we fill one of the rooms in the cellar with traditional salami, sausages, blood sausages, and homemade lard.

In a small chamber where aesthetics is often pushed aside by the more important flavour development, various jars, bottles, pots, and incubators house fermenting and ageing creations. Over 20 types of miso, homemade vinegar, sriracha, kimchi, duck feet or deer heart garum, and soy, which can age there for up to two years, are all prepared here. These fermented wonders eventually make their way to your plates and even glasses as a part of our non-alcoholic pairing.

As these products accumulate over time, we store them in an old cupboard transformed into our mini market. You can browse the shelves in person during your visit at Grič or, since we are maturing and keeping up with the times, by scanning a QR code.