Katarina Vrenc

Katarina Vrenc, chef of the Zagreb bistro Sopal awarded by the Gault&Millau Croatia trophy Young Talent of the year 2023, learned to make pasta by hand with her grandmother in Matulji as a little girl. Growing up in a family of gourmets, she also wanted to write about food, but as soon as she entered a professional kitchen, she discovered her dream job.

Her professional path was long and thorough: from being a student at the High School of Tourism and Hospitality in Opatija, to finishing gastronomy program at the Aspira College in Zagreb, attending numerous culinary workshops by experienced chefs, and ending up with internships in top restaurants such as Plavi podrum in Volosko and Zinfandel’s at the Esplanade Hotel in Zagreb, with famous mentor Ana Grgić Tomić.

She also started private projects “Fine street food around Croatia” and “Private Chef”. Since last year she is the chef at bistro Sopal in Croatia’s capital. At each new job Katarina Vrenc strengthened and developed her gastronomic philosophy: to cook honestly and innovatively, from fresh, seasonal ingredients whose origins she knows. Her dishes win guests over with taste, but also that they are visually and aesthetically appealing.

Katarina Vrenc loves Italian flavors and Japanese respect for food, in her culinary creations she combines fish, vegetables and meat with ease, and in fact shows how sophisticated dishes can be made from simple local ingredients and how modern local cuisine can be branded in this way.

At the Taste the Mediterranean festival, Katarina Vrenc participates in a panel on the challenges of women in gastronomy – on the way from cook to chef.

Photo: Zvonimir Ferina