Biography
Roman Hadrbolec is Czech Republic´s first Celebrity Chef, creator and Executive Chef of Noem Arch restaurant and design hotel in Brno. he is also an author of "Cooking for the rich and famous" cookbook, creator of spice blends range, creator of a range of high quality ready-made meals and professional consultant/adviser on food products for major Czech food companies.
At the age of sixteen, during his school holidays, Roman went to Tirol in Austria to get some apprenticeship training in the Hotel Alphof, one of the Top 10 hotels in Austria, located in the village awarded as “The most beautiful village in Europe” - Alpbach. During his 4 years of studies, he received training in all departments of the hotel, finishing as an assistant to the Owner/General Manager.
Seabourn Cruise Line
New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and the World of Celebrities
After completing second contract he decided to move to U.S. for greater challenges. His first job was at “the last” German restaurant on Manhattan called “Heidelberg”. Within two months as a Head Chef he improved his knowledge of food and a restaurant management, and became General Manager. After a while working in New York, he was ready to explore the West coast.
At the end of the year 1997 he moved to Los Angeles and took a job in one of the oldest and well-known restaurant in Beverly Hills called “The Players” as a Head Sous Chef. There he improved his culinary talents and skills, and with the owner’s help he started to cater as a Private Chef to high society of Beverly Hills, and later to celebrities as well.
His creativity, presentation and quality of food were highly appreciated by film tycoon John Davis, son of the multibillionaire, Marvin Davis. During his employment as a Private Chef at Mr. Davis’ residence, his duties included planning dinner parties and entire menus for Mr. Davis’ regular guests such as Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cher, Bruce Weber, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren and others. Part time he also catered for Mr. Lou Adler, the owner of ODE Recording Company and his family. There he had pleasure of meeting and preparing meals for his friends – to name few: Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, Darryl Hannah and others. Roman was as well preparing dinners and catered parties for Mr. Joe Barbera (of the Hannah/Barbera Co.) and for Tony Pritzker and his family (of the Hyatt Hotel empire).
In the beginning of the year 2000, Roman moved to Chicago to become a Private Chef to Mrs. Miriam U. Hoover – widow of Mr. H. Earl Hoover, The Hoover company owner, he met and kept in touch with since the cruise line job. Roman travelled with Mrs. Hoover to her summer house up in the Bois Blanc Island in Michigan, to the winter residence in Palm Springs, California, but as well to other cities in the States, where he was attending various Charity Events with her. As Mrs. Hoover says “Roman was more than an employee, he became a member of our extended family”.
Steel Restaurant in Dallas, Texas
Later, at the end of the year 2000, Roman felt in love and he moved to Dallas in Texas where he helped built a fine dining restaurant & lounge called Steel. It was his first experience with Japanese and Indo-chine cuisine and he felt in love with it. His dishes are influenced by this experience up to date.
In between three months Steel restaurant & lounge became very successful icon of the city and has won many awards (“Best new restaurant bar 2001 in the USA”, “D Best of Dallas”, “Award of Excellence” by Wine Spectator magazine and other).
Roman went from working as the Kitchen Manager to running the floor as the Restaurant Manager and he is still the leading example for the restaurant staff until nowadays.
Back to the homeland
At the end of the year 2003, Roman returned home, to the Czech Republic, to start using his many years of experiences living abroad to build a career of his own.He involved himself in management of a four stars hotel in the city of Ostrava during the World Hockey Championship of 2004. After the games he spent months in a laboratory, creating spice blends range for one of the largest spice companies in the Czech Republic, but also creating his own unique and exclusive spice range called “R”. Later that year he has created a range of high quality ready-made meals for Guseppe Company. He also became professional food consultant and a member of an innovative commitee for Seliko company.
At the end of 2005, Roman was represented by leading PR agency in Prague, which took him unexpectedly into show business as a Celebrity Chef. As a guest he appeared on all prime television shows and had given recipes and interviews to a wide range of press media.
From January until July of 2006 he had a regular everyday spot cooking live on popular morning lifestyle network TV show “Prima jízda” (“Nice ride”), on channel TV Prima and he also appeared on the Czech TV lifestyle show "Sama doma".
Roman´s first cookbook
In November 2006 he launched his first cookbook “Vařil jsem světovým celebritám” (“Cooking for the rich and famous”) featuring 44 original recipes and as well stories from his life and work for internationally famous celebrities.
Part of the cookbook is also unique CD called “Soulscape Vol. I.” recorded especially for this book by American artists Vincent Covello and Fawn from group Body, Soul and Mind™.(www.myspace.com/bodysoulandmind).
For more information on the book click here.
Celebrity Chef
As already mentioned above Roman had a regular everyday spot cooking live on popular morning lifestyle network TV show “Prima jízda” (“Nice ride”), on channel TV Prima and he also appeared on the Czech TV lifestyle show "Sama doma". Later in 2006 he was a guest Chef on a reality TV show "You are what you eat" on channel TV Prima. As a special guest Roman was invited to the prime TV shows on all Czech channels and also in Slovakia.To see all his appearances, please click here.
For his detailed press articles list click here.
First Fine Dining Concept - Noem Arch Restaurant in Brno
In the beginning of 2008 he has opened his first fine dining restaurant concept in a design hotel called Noem Arch in the city of Brno (www.noemarch.cz).
He has started to sell his exclusive spice blends in the stores of Potten and Pannen around Prague. He was also doing Gourmet workshops for Miele company in Prague, Brno and Ostrava.
In 2008 he was an Ambassador of “Gustino” campaign for Accor Services Company.
This year he is working on putting together two restaurants located in a brand new four stars spa hotel in the Moravian mountains. He is as well doing food shows for Miele, Interspar stores and other companies.
He is looking to yet again, leave the country to gain new experiences. Maybe he will end up near by you!! Keep on checking his website to see where the road will lead him! ,-)
Curriculum Vitae - Year by Year
Education & qualifications history
1989 – 1993
1989 – 1993
1996
2001
Employment history
June 1993 – March 1995
April 1995 – April 1996
July 1996 – November 1996
January 1997 – March 1997
April 1997 – November 1997
December 1997 – April 1998
May 1998 – December 1999
January 2000 – November 2000
December 2000 – December 2003
January 2004 – January 2005
February 2005 – December 2005
January 2006 – July 2006
August 2006 – April 2007
May 2007 – until now
References available upon request.
My diary
March 18, 2009Food show - Presenting Bio products at ...March 17, 2009
Cooking with Models at Miele Kitchen Ce...February 27, 2009
Creating special Spice Blend for an eve...February 19-21, 2009
Presenting Roman´s Spice Blends at the...January 27, 2009
Shooting for Czech TV - food TV show "P...January 17, 2009
Presenting how to prepare meals from Bi...January 13, 2009
Shooting for Czech TV - food TV show "P...