Cooking for Liberland

Yes, I am cooking quite a lot at home already: a young adult daughter, her friends, a teenage son, a brother, friends etc… So when my friend Agnès – who shares my adventures in Liberland-, suggested we could cook for the “Liberlanders”, my first reaction was: “Are you serious?”.

Liberland for me is more synonymous with motorboat rides on the Danube and chases by the Croatian police… But I thought about it and quickly figured out that was a brilliant idea.

We suggested the idea to Kenneth, the LSA (Liberland Settlement Association) ground operations manager. He said: “Yes, come and cook!” But we had someone to look up to and take the succession of a wonderful Hungarian vegan cook, Atila…

Second obstacle: dealing with a tiny budget. Third obstacle: depending on local products, and fourth obstacle: working in an unknown kitchen… But we took the tiger by the tail and had a first meal with gratin dauphinois and mixed vegetables salad on the menu. I must say I can’t take any credit for that one and I must thank my co-cuisinière and also Denis, Les Echos’ journalist, who was assigned at the very important mission of peeling potatoes.

Meanwhile I was enjoying myself on a motor boat ride on the Danube with President Vit Jedlicka, LSA member and super pilot Ulrik and other boat party goers…

The gratin was our first success. Followed by other dishes: polenta with ratatouille, vegetable lasagnes, vegetable and chorizo risotto, summer fruit crumble, poached peeches, and a tart that President Vit Jedlicka qualified as the best dessert he had ever eaten. He finished the dish. Imagine my state of satisfaction… as Agnès and I have the dream to create the Liberland National Dish. So far we have the Liberland tart!

What a joyful, creative and entrepreneurial experience! Agnès is a real boss in the kitchen. She would get any boys around to help and participate to the preparation of the meals, quite unpredictable in terms of numbers as we never knew exactly how many guys would eat…

The atmosphere is great in that kitchen, it becomes the heart of the house. We can see some faces turn up, intrigued and attracted by the smells, the laughs, the conversations…

And the meals are obviously enjoyed by the LSA settlers. Anton, an Austrian 20 years old volunteer, has a huge appetite. When he sees there are two full plates next to him on the first night. he asks: “Are they unclaimed plates?”. He is giving everyone a laugh. He eats for four… And there is Daniel, a Liberland supporter telling us: “If I ate like that everyday, I would become a balloon”. He also commented later on FB photo that he could see the love in our cooking… How wonderful and what else could we expect?

Well, well, a bit of merit coins too, I guess, or sweat coins: basically getting points in exchange of our work, points that would give us some shares in Liberland. Although the points’ system is not established yet by the LSA and the president.

Sweating for Liberland can maybe pay one day, we hope!

In the meantime, we are back again this weekend, cook more, photograph more, film more, tell more of the story of the making of a nation…

More about Liberland and LSA