Author: Velimir Cindrić
Photography: Hotel Miramare Archive
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The heritage hotel Miramare, built in 1906 and completely renovated in 2021, is the ideal luxury getaway on the Adriatic Coast. It is situated on the seafront, in the heart of the charming town of Crikvenica, and is only steps away from the sandy beaches.
This place is the ultimate relaxation spot, cherishing a hotel tradition that spans a hundred years. “Feel the pulse of the town while gazing into the deep blue sea” —this is how this first five-star hotel in the town presents itself on its website —and it is not exaggerating one tiny bit.
The stunning Art Nouveau building that once housed the namesake hotel is truly an outstanding example of coastal tourism which can easily measure up to any of Opatija’s famously gorgeous hotels.
Not only has Crikvenica made great strides in the tourism industry with this luxury hotel, boasting top-notch wellness amenities and additional facilities, but its teaming up with Zagreb’s Le Premier hotel, which belongs to the same group, offers a fascinating opportunity to visit both the inland and the seaside, an enticing combination of a trip to the capital with a seaside stay, which is precisely what many of their guests are looking for.
Naturally, high-end hotels have always been synonymous with superb cuisine. Thus, one of Miramare’s major draws is a delightful restaurant with a relaxing atmosphere where guests can indulge in the delectable tastes of the Mediterranean and beyond. The menu showcases dishes crafted with the utmost care and an unwavering focus on detail, using only the finest locally sourced and seasonal ingredients. As there is always a creator behind every creation, we had the pleasure of speaking with a young yet seasoned chef whose culinary zeal can be felt in every plate.
– I really liked to eat as a kid, so I was in the kitchen all the time, and, little by little, I fell in love with cooking and food in general. Then, Jamie Oliver became a rage in the early 2000s, and I was fascinated by his approach to cooking. Very early on, I believe I was in seventh or eighth grade, I made up my mind that I wanted to be a chef, although everyone kept telling me not to, because of the hard work, the necessity of working weekends and holidays, and balancing between the possible and impossible. Still, I stuck to my decision, and it seems I was not mistaken – says Ivan Vrbanec, a 33-year-old head chef of Miramare.
Vrbanec initially hails from Zagreb, but he relocated to Bistra when he was 14 years old and completed culinary school in Zaprešić. He landed his first job at the Kerempuh restaurant located at Zagreb Dolac Market, where he worked virtually all three years of his apprenticeship and remained there for an additional year and a half. After that, like many other fresh and aspiring chefs, he ventured to the seaside to work as a seasonal chef, spending two seasons on a motor yacht. But then, a more challenging opportunity came his way.
– At the age of 21, I came to Mano [famous Zagreb fine dining restaurant, AN] and my life took a new turn. Everything became a little more serious and much more interesting. I came across a lot of new things there – French cuisine, French expressions, all the things I was unfamiliar with before… There wasn’t much stuff available on the Internet at the time, so I had the opportunity to learn some basic French techniques in practice for the first time while also witnessing some modern ones. So, that’s where I really started learning – Ivan recalls.
He had a stint of a year and a half at Mano, followed by two years as a sous chef in another, at the time rather popular Zagreb restaurant, Appetit City. After that, he spent four months working at the renowned Hiša Franko restaurant in Kobarid, widely regarded as one of the top restaurants in the world (“It was a very, very nice and very difficult experience,” Ivan will say), and then for nearly a year he honed his skills, for the first time as head chef, at the hit Zagreb restaurant Tač.
– Afterwards, I went to Ireland and worked there for a year and a half at a French restaurant. I was curious about how things worked abroad. I was not particularly impressed. In my opinion, their cuisine is considerably inferior to ours: there is a lot of fried food, fish, and chips, hamburgers…Of course, they had genuine French restaurants, various fine dining establishments, and so on, but I believe that quality of our food was much better at the time – says Vrbanec.
Following his time in Ireland, he made his way back to Croatia, where he was summoned from a resort on the island of Obonjan to take charge of their kitchen alongside a team of 30 people, a position he held for one season. It was Ivan’s first encounter with hotel gastronomy. The sheer volume of meals served each day, exceeding 600–700, was impressive. And on top of that, he was in charge of an extensive à la carte menu. The staff alone, which numbered around 200 people, required 400-500 meals per day.
– It was difficult, especially because the island is uninhabited and only connected to the mainland three times a week. So it was fairly logistically demanding on several levels, including the storage issue. You can’t store several tonnes of meat, fish, or other items since the storage space is insufficient. So you had to be really smart about it. The only advantage is that you learn about kitchen economy and how to work with what you have. When something runs out, you have to come up with a solution. It entailed getting out of my comfort zone. I was 26 years old, with 30 people below me. I honestly don’t know how I mustered up the courage to take such a position. But that was wonderful training for what I am doing now at Miramare – says Vrbanec
After this adventure, Ivan, as he put it, returned to his first love: fine dining. He took helm of the kitchen of the Bowa restaurant on the island of Šipan, where he also created tasting menus, but the pandemic struck shortly after. Working as a caterer for film crews shooting in Croatia provided Vrbanec with financial stability during that period. This continued for two years, until the time was ripe for Miramare:
– My colleague Dalibor Karlović, chef de cuisine at Le Premier Hotel in Zagreb, asked me if I would be interested in running the Miramare kitchen. At first, I had no idea what to do, but I was excited for new challenges. After some thought, I accepted the invitation, and we began negotiations. That’s how it all started… – says Ivan.
Vrbanec is in charge of Miramare’s gourmet restaurant and caters to the culinary desires of the hotel’s guests. He admits that it can be quite difficult for him because of the large number of people he serves (up to 300 guests during peak season) and the significant quantities of supplies he must manage, especially when it comes to sourcing and preparing them. While we were discussing Ivan’s culinary style, the question of role models came up. If Jamie Oliver ignited the fire of his culinary passion, other major chef names emerged as he progressed to more challenging cuisine.
– After eating at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in Dublin, I was a little disappointed because those dishes were worse than anything I could have cooked back then. I was initially thrilled about going to that restaurant, but later I was a little disappointed because I received poorly prepared dishes. That hits you a little bit. And now, when it comes to role models, there are some wonderful chefs that I’ve learned a lot from during my career, chefs whose style I appreciate.
Some of them are Francis Mallmann [a renowned Argentinian chef, author, and restaurateur, specializing in Argentinian cuisine, especially Patagonian, with a focus on unique Patagonian grilling techniques, AN], and Alex Atala [a Brazilian chef of Palestinian and Iraqi origin, in charge of the D.O.M. restaurant in São Paulo, who revolutionized the Brazilian indigenous cuisine by incorporating ingredients from the Amazon region, AN]… These are the people who love spending time in nature and who thrive on pushing the boundaries of experimentation.
Of those whom I’ve worked with and whom I most admire, I must definitely mention Hrvoje Kroflin of Mano, who has been there since my beginnings, and, naturally, Ana Roš from Hiša Franko (crowned as the world’s best female chef in 2022 by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants), with whom I had a fantastic collaboration. And then there’s Mauro Colagreco, the renowned chef of Mirazur restaurant in Menton, France, who was a guest chef at Hiša Franko while I worked there. He is truly a visionary chef whose boundless creativity earned his restaurant the prestigious title of the world’s best restaurant in 2019, and to have the privilege of sharing a kitchen with such a legend is an experience that stands out as the pinnacle of my professional journey.
It was an exceptional experience, and my culinary style has been moulded by all of that but there’s still plenty of room for growth. Considering my experience in the culinary world, I’m still a relatively young chef. I believe that chefs truly come into their own and develop their unique style only after reaching their mid-thirties. I’m not that far off, but I still feel like I haven’t reached my full potential yet.
But in general, I have a pattern that I stick to – I try to keep things natural and organic. I do my best not to “bastardise” or waste any of the ingredients I use, and I try to make the most of what I have. I like simple and pure flavours. It might sound weird to some, but to me simple means pure. No need for boiling the ocean. I’m not interested in turning tomatoes into strawberries. I want the flavours to be pure, without artificial stuff that people use. Basically, my main focus is on the natural.
I really like working with fire! I enjoy the smokiness and the bitter flavour of the slightly charred food. It’s challenging because you can easily make a mistake. You have to be extremely careful and focused so you don’t miss the right moment. And that is what determines me —nature and fire —reveals Vrbanec.
What Ivan particularly highlights is the carte blanche that his employer at the Miramare Hotel has given him, which is the best thing an employer can do when hiring an experienced chef who understands kitchen economy. While there are certainly boundaries to consider, it is important to remember that within those boundaries, endless possibilities await.
Once Vrbanec revealed the direction his culinary style is heading, it was fascinating to hear how this translates into his unique culinary creations. As Ivan recently devised an impressive tasting dinner, we asked him to single out three standout dishes from his carefully crafted menu.
– We served, for example, oysters in black tempura with green apple gel¸ accompanied by a brunoise diced green apple, lime fillets, and borage flowers. It was a really good and interesting dish, and I am very pleased with how it turned out. The menu also featured salted lean fish with buttermilk cream, raspberry and shallot gel, fresh chili, and honeysuckle. This course is a delightful fusion of fresh, creamy, salty and slightly sour flavours that come together to create a harmoniously complex symphony of tastes. However, one thing that stands out in all the dishes is the use of fresh ingredients.
I’d also like to mention one more dish: fregola sarda (a type of pasta from the island of Sardinia, similar to Israeli couscous) with collard cream, grated bottarga, raw scampi on cheese croquettes, and marinated salicornia.
There you have it, the three things you asked for, but there was much more. You know, I’m the type of guy who is always looking for ways to enhance things, so it’s likely I’ll be working on that menu. If I were to do it again, I would change it, at least a bit, because you always see some little thing that doesn’t sit quite right there, and you want to change it for the better….. – Vrbanec says simply.
In the far future, he plans to open his own restaurant, an idea that has been simmering in his mind for the last couple of years.
– Still, that’s far away. I’m sure I still have a lot to learn about the industry and come up with new offerings in the meantime, which I’m confident I can do. I believe that all the pieces will fall into place at the perfect moment. All it takes is patience and persistence. For the time being, I am staying at Miramare, where the general working environment allows me to focus on honing my skills while also enabling me to provide our guests with an exceptional culinary experience in keeping with this luxury hotel – he concludes.
