Robert Witold Makłowicz (; born 12 August 1963) is a Polish

food critic The terms food critic, food writer, and restaurant critic can all be used to describe a writer who analyzes food or restaurants and then publishes the results of their findings. While these terms are not strictly synonymous they are often used int ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and

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, notable as a promoter of the

Polish cuisine Polish cuisine ( pl, kuchnia polska) is a style of cooking and food preparation originating in or widely popular in Poland. Due to Poland's history, Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to be very eclectic, and it shares many similariti ...

and

slow food Slow Food is an organization that promotes local food and traditional cooking. It was founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986 and has since spread worldwide. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and re ...

Biography

He was born in 1963 in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

to sailor father Włodzimierz and mother Beata (''née'' Preiss). He is of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

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, Hungarian and

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descent. He became fascinated with European cuisine during his studies at the Faculty of History of the Jagiellonian University. After the end of communism in Poland, in 1993, as a joke, he had shown one of his friends a recipe for wiener schnitzel he prepared himself. He was instantly offered the job of a culinary critic of the Kraków variation of the ''

Gazeta Wyborcza ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of " real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the ...

'' daily. Soon afterwards his essays and descriptions of various restaurants in Kraków became so popular that he was moved to the all-national weekly magazine published by ''Gazeta Wyborcza''. He also started cooperation with various other newspapers, including ''

Przekrój ''Przekrój'' (; ''Cross-section'') was the oldest Polish weekly newsmagazine in operation, established in 1945 in Kraków. After temporary closure in 2013, it was bought by photographer Tomasz Niewiadomski and subsequently relaunched in December ...

'', ''

Wprost ''Wprost'' (, meaning "Directly") is a Polish-language weekly news magazine published in Poznań, Poland.

'' (2002–2005) and ''

Newsweek Polska ''Newsweek Polska'' is a Polish language weekly news magazine published in Poland as the Polish edition of ''Newsweek''. History ''Newsweek Polska'' was established in 2001. The founder of the weekly is Tomasz Wróblewski. The magazine is owned ...

'' (since 2005). In 1996 he was also offered a short programme in the morning block of the public TV. Although far from prime time, the programme gained much popularity and, since August 1998, Makłowicz has been preparing a weekly show named ''Robert Makłowicz's Culinary Travels''. Each show is prepared in a different region of the world and presents the local cuisine as prepared by Makłowicz himself or by local people, not necessarily professional chefs. In 2016, he appeared on ''Bake-Off. Ale Ciacho!'' culinary show broadcast on

TVP2 TVP 2 (TVP Dwa, ''Program II Telewizji Polskiej'', ''"Dwójka"'') is a Polish public mainstream TV channel operated by TVP. Launched in October 1970, its varied line-up contains a variety of programming (documentary, history, talk-shows, game-sh ...

channel. In 2017 TVP ended cooperation with Makłowicz. His show ''Makłowicz on the Road'' is shown on the Polish

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ( ...

. In 2020 Makłowicz created his own channel on

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Personal life

He has a younger sister named Dominika. In 1991, he married Agnieszka Pogoda with whom he has two sons: Mikołaj (born 1992) and Ferdynand (born 1996). Makłowicz is

Armenian Catholic Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

Books

Makłowicz also published a number of books on culinary traditions of his homeland, Galicia. The first of the series, the ''C.K. Kuchnia'' ('' K.u.K. Cuisine'') became a nationwide best-seller. Other Robert Makłowicz's books: * ''Zjeść Kraków'' (''Eating Cracow'', 2001) with Stanisław Mancewicz * ''Dialogi języka z podniebieniem'' (''Dialogues of a Tongue with a Palate'', 2003) with Piotr Bikont * ''Czy wierzyć platynowym blondynkom?'' (''Do You Believe Platinum Blondes?'', 2004) * ''Kalendarz znaleziony w brytfannie'' (''A Calendar Found in a Baking Tin'', 2005) * ''Podróże kulinarne Roberta Makłowicza. Smak Węgier'' (''Robert Makłowicz's Culinary Travels. The Tase of Hungary'', 2006) * ''Stół z niepowyłamywanymi nogami (''A Table without Broken legs'', 2007) with Piotr Bikont * ''Fuzja Smaków. Podróże kulinarne Roberta Makłowicza'' (''The Fusion of Tastes. Robert Makłowicz's Culinary Travels'', 2007) * ''Cafe Museum'' (2010) * ''Dalmacja. Książka kucharska'' (''Dalmatia. The Cookery Book'', 2016)

Filmography

* 2023: '' Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom'' (voice role)

References

External links