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If you sit down for lunch or dinner in Bled’s Promenada restaurant you won’t just be having a meal. You’re in for a festival of tastes presented by Slovenia’s most popular chef, Bine Volčič. Promenada, as the name already says, is situated along the promenade of Slovenia’s tourism hot spot Bled. Promenada is a young restaurant. It opened in 2010. The restaurant shares the building with Hotel Park and has the same owner (Sava Turizem). And that means it has a name to uphold in Bled. It was in 1953 that Hotel Park’s chef Ištvan Kovačevič brought a special cream cake (kremšnita) recipe here, which made kremšnita a trademark of Bled.

Sixty years later it’s chef Volčič who’s making fame in the little town. Not only least because of his appearance in the popular reality television show Restaurant Seeks Chef. Bine, who is still in his early thirties, is the only chef in Slovenia who regularly has to hand out autographs. But, of course, it is his creative work in the kitchen that makes Bine a real star.

A visit to Promenada is an experience full of surprises. The first surprise comes when you ask for the menu. Menus don’t exist in Promenada. Bine’s culinary inventions are handwritten on a blackboard that hangs on the wall. You either make your choice yourself or Bine will come, have a talk with you and help you choose the perfect meal.

The menu changes regularly, depending on the season and the chef’s inspiration. Today the starter is Cromesquis; fried balls of pork. It’s French cuisine, but Bine gave it a Slovenian twist. Pork, pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, champignons, parsley. "Typical Prekmurje ingredients," says Bine.

It might be clear already, Promenada is not your typical restaurant. "We have a different philosophy, it's a little crazy," says Bine with a smile and a wink. It’s not French cuisine, it’s not Italian, Slovenian, or Asian. Bine’s creations have something of all. "It’s totally fusion. I really like Asian flavors. They’re fresh, aromatic. I love to combine them with our food.'' The creativity behind the dishes show that Bine is as much an artist as a sculptor or a painter is. Promenada’s kitchen is his atelier. He doesn’t colour with paint but with tastes. Bine says that ideas for new recipes just come to him, or not. "It happens that I don't have inspiration for two or three months and then suddenly during the night three new recipes appear in my head." Bine, who learned the tricks of the trade from the best in France, has around 250 cookbooks. He often goes through them before he goes to bed so that he can dream of something new. He gets enough inspiration to regularly replace the choices on Promenada’s blackboard.