When, as a student during summer holidays, he worked as a waiter on Hvar, Split native Karlo Kaleb had no idea that meeting the famous chef Hrvoje Zirojević would change his life forever. He brought him coffee every day, and their casual gatherings were always filled with hundreds of questions about food, cooking, and ingredients that the curious young man asked the gastro star. Seeing how passionately he talked about these topics, Hrvoje recommended that he enroll in culinary school, but Karlo didn‘t listen to him and continued to take exams at the Faculty of Economics. However, he soon realized that it wasn‘t for him and decided to pursue his dreams in gastronomy.
"I enrolled in and completed a correspondence culinary school and then went to work with Hrvoje for a season at the Laganini restaurant on Hvar, so I really owe him a lot," says Karlo, now the proud owner of the Krug restaurant, the first in the city to receive a Michelin star.
Behind the talented and hardworking 37-year-old from Split are years of work and effort. He interned with chef Eric Vildgaard at the Danish restaurant Jordnær, which has three Michelin stars, and in Copenhagen, he became close with his current colleague from Krug, Jura Delić, who gained experience at the famous Danish restaurant The Alchemist by Rasmus Munk, as well as the British The Fat Duck by Heston Blumenthal. Once he had gained enough knowledge to start his own business, Karlo cooked on yachts where he was left to his own devices, but that didn‘t discourage him.
"On yachts, we had free rein regarding the whole job. I learned, tried, practiced through trial and error. I chose the harder path, worked up to 17 hours a day, searched for myself, and although it was all quite grueling, the progress was quite fast," says Karlo. After an exhausting period, he realized it was time to "anchor" himself, not only because of burnout but also because of his two daughters, ten-year-old Roza and eight-year-old Luca, with whom he wanted to spend more time. His native Split was the only option because of them, although perhaps it would have been easier to start with the restaurant concept he envisioned somewhere abroad.
"The biggest problem with Split, but also Croatia in general, is the culture of eating at home. Our people cook at home much more than they eat in restaurants, while abroad the situation is the opposite," explains Karlo, who, before opening the restaurant in September 2023, was plagued by numerous questions, from whether he would have regular guests to how people would receive their specific concept of 12 seats at a circular bar with the kitchen in the middle.
"Guests in the restaurant sit in front of us, everything happens here and now. It‘s quite interesting, but I wasn‘t sure if people would recognize and love the concept as much as I did. After just a few months, we were constantly full and all the worries, the million questions that had been running through my head, disappeared. My biggest success became my regular guests," says Karlo, who recently received a big and important title. He became, in fact, the first chef of a restaurant in Split with a Michelin star, and that in less than two years after opening.
"Not even in our wildest dreams did we expect it to happen so quickly. It wasn‘t something we worked for, or our goal, but we are really proud and happy. It‘s a reward for the whole team, for all the daily effort. And I think we‘re all proud, we‘re the first in Split, which is somehow unreal, a special fact. There are excellent restaurants and wonderful chefs in our city, and I think this Michelin star will mean a lot for this community because tourism is the most important thing in Split. I hope in the future there will be more and more good chefs who will stay here and grow the gastro community," says Karlo.
At his "Krug", the focus is on local ingredients, exclusively those that can be sourced at the Split market, the local butcher, or from a field on Marjan owned by an elderly couple who grow vegetables, fruit, and herbs completely naturally.
"I just got back from the market where I bought peppers, local tomatoes, and peaches. Before that, I went to the field to pick zucchini flowers and borage. The most important thing is good ingredients, we pay a lot of attention to that and it takes a lot of time. These are fig leaves, then herbs - mint, chives, thyme, really everything we use in food and drink, in fact for everything they grow we find a way to use it," he explains.
The menu concept is such that they first serve four bites to be eaten by hand, then two fish dishes, one of which is always a bit lighter and fresher, especially in summer; currently, it‘s swordfish sashimi, with crispy tempura of pickled beetroot and pickled citrus peel and chives, with a sauce of tomatoes and fermented strawberry juice "cut" with nettle oil. After that comes steamed fish with a sauce based on homemade butter and a mussel buzara, and the main course has always been meat-based from the start. It‘s meat that they can source from a local butcher – lamb, veal, beef, or ox. Desserts are changed depending on what‘s available. Sometimes his two daughters cheer him up in the restaurant, but generally, says Karlo, he likes to spend time with his children outside of work.
"When I‘m with them, I like to get away from the restaurant, I take them to the beach, on a trip, we enjoy time together and create beautiful memories. On Mondays I‘m off, so we spend the whole day swimming and eating, usually something really simple. We bring tuna pasta so we don‘t have to leave the beach and we snack on fruit," Karlo concludes with a laugh.
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