[The text below was written when this site began, in November 2013. Further down is an update from 2021, 8 years after the launch of a site that once attracted as many as 100,000 people a month and currently gets around 30–40 thousand a month.]
Where did the idea for Prymitywna Kuchnia come from? My head, and an enormous love of food. Homemade food that’s delicious without necessarily being difficult to prepare. I’m a man, and I don’t always have much time. I also love eating, which unfortunately isn’t doing my appearance many favours. I won’t frighten you with a photograph.
I was on the Dukan diet once. Since then, my weight has stayed in double digits. Unfortunately, my BMI is nothing to boast about. Edit: in 2021 it is — read on.
I also like cooking.
But I don’t like recipes whose ingredients list is longer than the list of the Polish national team’s defeats in the last 4 qualifying campaigns for major tournaments.
So I decided to share my recipes. They’re usually inspired by recipes from websites or cookbooks, but are generally modified — simplified — so thoroughly that I can comfortably call them my own. I often improvise too. I look in the fridge and create 😉
Why “Prymitywna Kuchnia”, or “Primitive Kitchen”? The reason is simple: it will never be complicated, and there won’t be lots of peculiar-sounding ingredients. It will, however, always be delicious. Taste is a matter of taste, of course, but I hope to convince at least a few people that this kind of cooking makes sense. It makes sense when it brings joy: the joy of making and the joy of eating. You don’t have to be a MasterChef or some Top Model to enjoy it. Even when it doesn’t work out. Believe me.
What can you expect from this site? Recipes from different corners of the culinary world. I spent almost 5 months in China, which is why I like Chinese food. Spicy Chinese food, too: more Sichuan than Beijing. I also love seafood. I could eat prawns by the kilogram — that’s monthly consumption.
Still, I think you can’t last very long without meat, although a long time ago I was vegetarian for a year. I still can’t believe that myself.
Expect mostly recipes for the day’s main meals. I don’t make desserts and cakes very often. If I did, my double-digit weight would soon be up in three figures. When I do make them, they’re usually simple too. I love cheesecakes. I promise you a recipe for a quick, simple and wonderfully fragrant cheesecake from Czeladź.
Welcome to my kitchen.
[Update from September 2021.]
Over 8 years, Prymitywna Kuchnia has changed. Not just its tagline, which has rather lost its relevance. I have the impression that among young women, more and more don’t necessarily have to be lazy to be unable to cook. Everything in my life has changed too, including the women 😉
First, I’ve managed to remain a food lover while convincing myself that I don’t necessarily have to eat a lot to feel full and eat well. So the BMI I wrote about in 2013 now impresses even me, and, more importantly, is within the normal range.
Second, when I started Prymitywna Kuchnia, it was more of an internet experiment than a culinary one. I could already cook, but certainly not as well as I can now. This blog wasn’t just a diary hidden in recipe introductions; it was also a kind of cooking education. I must immodestly admit that I now cook really well. It’s my passion and hobby, and above all an escape from my everyday work of managing business growth. My food, meanwhile, almost never meets with reluctance or disapproval.
Third, there is less and less time. Not for cooking, because that’s my escape, but for writing about it on this blog. That’s why I started an Instagram account a while ago, and I warmly encourage you to have a look and follow. Although lots of people read the blog — up to 40 thousand a month — I don’t know how to promote the Instagram account and probably simply don’t have the time either. So take a look and follow. There are plenty of ideas for simple breakfasts, lunches and dinners that don’t need written recipes, as well as the occasional new quick recipe I don’t have time to describe on the blog.
View this post on Instagram.
Come on in! And, as always, #smacznego — enjoy 🙂