Everything comes from the culture of cuisine. Every other culture comes hand in hand with this. When a man goes somewhere, he needs to eat and drink, so before anything else he gets to know the food,” says Zlatko Puntijar, a collector of the largest collection of cookbooks in Europe as well as the owner of the restaurant and hotel Puntijar. He is a member of the fifth generation of the famous Croatian catering family.
The “Puntijar” boutique hotel and museum, where you can see a collection of three thousand cookbooks, two thousand old menus and about a thousand tourist guides, is located in the elite forest part of Zagreb, and yet close to the very core of the centre, only five minutes drive away. The basic idea of the Hotel and Museum “Puntijar” is to preserve and transmit “Zagreb Mojo” to guests, as well as to future generations.
The most valuable material in the museum is the “Vienna Cookbook” (Wiener Kochbuch), the smallest cookbook in the world, which was first printed around 1900 in Vienna. According to available information there are only four copies. The uniqueness of the cookbook lies in its dimensions, only 2 × 2 cm in size, and containing only 100 amazing recipes.
Zlatko Puntijar is the owner of that rich collection. His favourite is “Nova zprilozena zagrebachka szokachka kniga” (Newly combined Zagreb cookbook). It was written in 1813 by Ivan Birling, the Higher Priest from Kaptol. “It is the first cookbook printed in Croatian, compiled according to Viennese cuisine, as well as the cuisine of Kajkavian North western Croatia and brings 554 recipes.
Apart from the great importance for the history of Croatian gastronomy and culinary lovers, the cookbook also has great cultural and lexical importance. Recipes, according to an old author, are intended for ‘home use’, which was one of the main reasons for republishing this rich, yet simple cookbook”, says Puntijar.
If, to a gourmet researcher of the culture and history of the city and the country where he found himself, the cookie museum is not attractive enough, then the fact that ‘Stari Puntijar’ restaurant prepares meals according to old recipes with an unavoidable contemporary flavour should be a powerful incentive to include Gračane and Puntijar hotel on the map of tourist attractions in Zagreb.
The owner of the rich collection, Zlatko Puntijar, a member of the fifth generation of the catering family from his collection, is mostly fond of “The New Buried Completed Zagreb Cookbook” (The New Complex Zagreb Cookbook), by Ivan Birling, the canon of Kaptol from 1813.
“It is the first cookbook printed in Croatian language, made by the Viennese cuisine, but also by the cuisine of Kajkavian north west of Croatia and brings 554 recipes. In addition to being of great importance to the history of Croatian gastronomy and culinary enthusiasts, the cookbook also has a great cultural and lexical importance. According to the author himself, the recipes are intended for ‘home use’ which was one of the main reasons for this rich, yet simple cookbook to be reissued”, Puntijar explains.
The former importance and value of cookbooks is evidenced by the fact that mothers were leaving cookbooks to their daughters through the will. The rural population did not use cookbooks, but the citizens and the nobility did.
