Closely connected to fine food and drink, Czech wedding ceremony is traditionally followed by a wedding feast, usually reserved for family members and close friends. The celebration then continues with afternoon and evening party which is typically open also for other guests. How does a traditional Czech wedding feast look like? And which modern culinary trends have been seen recently?

Traditional Wedding Menu
Consisting of 4 courses, traditional wedding menu starts with a ham roll filled with horseradish cream or whipped cream. Follows soup which the braid and groom eat together from one plate, feeding each other – most commonly it is beef or chicken broth with liver balls and vegetables. As a main course wedding guests are usually served beef sirloin with cream sauce with bread dumplings and cranberries, pork with sauerkraut and potato dumplings or roasted duck with cabbage and dumplings ‑ whatever it is, it is usually traditional Czech meal. Coffee is accompanied with a wedding cake or typical wedding pastry. Nevertheless, modern gastronomy has also found its place on Czech wedding plates.

Modern Menu - Fresh and Variable
Rather stodgy and not so easily digestible, traditional Czech meals do not suit everyone – also considering the fact that most weddings take place in summer months. Therefore, lighter menus have been more and more common, including for example trout fillet or pikeperch with red lentils with green asparagus as a starter; liver ball soup can be replaced with mushroom or broccoli cream or fine onion soup. Modern main course options include steak with fresh herbs and grilled seasonal vegetables or meatless vegetable skewer with spinach pancakes or venison which is getting more and more popular: great option can be deer ragout with home-made potato gnocchi, boar back with rosehip sauce or with celery and pea puree. As a dessert you can have a pancake with ice-cream.
Traditional or modern, the most important is that the menu is enjoyed by the wedding guests – after all, the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach.