Dr Noah Charney, the host: Welcome to this special food-themed episode of Feel Slovenia, the podcast. Today I'm joined by two award-winning sommeliers, both of whom have restaurants that are part of a rich family tradition of culture and gastronomy here in Slovenia. 

Nina Bratovž, who was JRE Sommelier of the Year in 2024, is part of her family-run restaurant JB. I've known Nina and her family for a long time. We co-wrote a cookbook together called Slovenian Cuisine, and their family restaurant recently moved from Ljubljana to Kamnik, right near my home. They're based in Arboretum, which is about a three-minute drive from the center of Kamnik. 

My other guest is Grega Repovž of Gostilna Repovž, which he runs with his sister and his wife, and together they won the JRE Sustainability Award recently. And they run their family restaurant, which has been in the same family for centuries. JRE, Jeunes Restaurateurs, is an international organization based in Europe of young chefs and restaurateurs. There are more than 400 restaurants and 160 hotels in 21 different countries that are part of this important association. The recent conference, which was held in Cologne, brought together 450 chefs, partners, experts, and members of the media, and Slovenia made a very strong presence. And it's exciting news to learn that Slovenia will be hosting the major conference of JRE in 2028, which is an excellent opportunity for Slovenia to showcase its cuisine and cultural traditions.

And to talk about that today, I'm joined by Grega and Nina. Thank you both for joining me today. So you both come from family-run restaurants with a deep tradition, so we can say that hospitality and good food is in your DNA. Can you tell me a little bit about what that brings to the table now that you're leading your family's tradition in a new chapter, let's say?

Maybe we could begin with you, Grega. 

Grega Repovž: Thank you very much for your invitation, of course. What brings us? It is hard to work. I would say it's very nice that you are coming from a family tradition, but on the other hand, it's also tough because you're all the time afraid that you will do something wrong what your ancestor did.

So you're always in some kind of a stress, but this is also a beauty of it. So you know that, you cannot disappoint your parents and grandparents and all that, all that work that was done before. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Can you tell us a little bit about the history of your family's restaurant and now how it's different under your leadership?

We are classic Slovenian inn in the middle of a small Slovenian village where usually is a church and beside the church is a restaurant, which usually also have a little bit of farm. So this is our story. Our place is there for a couple of centuries already.

Always in our family run. Always together with farm and gostilna or restaurant, whatever you want. In past decades, this was some kind of a village service for weddings, for example, or funerals also, and for some good wine and meals with wine.

But nowadays we are trying to be – to also survive on the first place. So we are acting a little bit different than my parents and grandparents. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: I'm curious if you inherited any tradition or specialty dish that was associated with the inn with past generations that you have either updated or felt the need to continue to serve 'cause people still associate it with the establishment.

Grega Repovž: I think that customers who knows us, they know that there is a lot of it, not just in the food, but also in the space, in materials, in some old plates, old wooden oven which is still in the middle of the gostilna. I think we are trying to put a lot of details from my ancestor in not just food, but all the details.

Dr Noah Charney, the host: That's one of the things I love about Slovenian cuisine, is there's an appreciation for tradition and indigenous ingredients, even when it's modernized and taken in new directions. Nina, we've known each other for, I think, 15 years now, and I've collaborated with you, your brother, and your father on various projects, including this cookbook, Slovenian Cuisine.

But you recently moved to a new location with the famous family restaurant, and now you're running it with your brother, Tomaž. Same question for you. When you are taking over a family tradition, what are the things that you feel you are responsible for maintaining, and how do you take it in a new direction that makes it feel yours?

Nina Bratovž: When we, with brother, put the shoes of our parents on, it was hard of course. You want to be even better. Everybody's comparing you, and it's hard to get your own face. So this moving was actually for a big opportunity, but still very hard decision because I think now we could start our story, but still we want to have this feeling of JB. Our family has now moved to a new location, and that's the quality, the passion, and good vibes, I think we, we want to have it also now. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: I'm curious, does the menu change with the new location significantly, or are some of the classics that regulars tend to expect and look forward to going to still be on the menu?

Nina Bratovž: Of course, they will be, but when we started, actually we make a menu with the dishes my father started 1992 in Domžale. And we bring it again now on the plate. So actually, the dishes which are almost 40 years old are now on our plates because we started like bistro menu. It's the same, but maybe people forgot it. But now when they come and they see these dishes, they say, "Oh my God, it's like when father started." So we bring this on the plates again. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: That's very nice, and it's nice to have that tradition and also something that could now feel like a retro dish even if it was cutting edge at the time has a comfort to it, and then you can reinvent it in some way.

So that's great. Part of that is the emotional experience of going to a place, either a new place and you feel the vibe fresh the first time you go or going back to a place that you love, and a lot of that has to do with how the staff greets you, if you have a relationship with the people who run it, the chef.

When you're thinking about the experience for the customer, how do you create a genuine emotional experience? Of course, the food's gonna be great, and the wine's gonna be great, but what distinguishes something that's more cerebral, "Okay, this is really good, but I'm not sure if I wanna come back" for one, a place where you just feel at home, you feel wonderful, and you can't wait to come back.

How do you create that? Just before we turned on the cameras, we were talking about the JRE event that you helped run a couple days ago And you said that even if you went a little bit off-piste, off of the program, everyone was having so much fun that it felt warm and welcoming, and that's the important thing.

So if we bring that into how you design the experience for your guests, what do you look for to try to make sure that that emotional connection happens? 

Nina Bratovž: I think, first of all, the person needs to have it in herself, because, when you are working something that you like, you have a passion, then people will feel that.

Also, I think in Slovenia we have this is very rare, and also I think it's our positive side, that a lot of these restaurants are family business restaurant. And of course [00:11:00] you feel that. You always, when you come to the house, somebody of the family is there, and that's something very important.

Also, your waiters, your cooks are feeling that. And of course, then also the guest will feel this emotional passion and warmth. So I think this is a very big thing for Slovenian restaurants. When you go around the world, I think it's not so many of them. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: That's true, yeah. A lot of them are established as businesses. Which is fine, but it doesn't have the same sense of warmth and continuity. Grega, what would you say about that? 

Grega Repovž: Yeah. Very similar answer will be also mine. First of all, you have to have it in your DNA. Today, you have a lesson or training or coaching for everything, for sure. But it's also important that you have this in your blood. You know, I always remember even from my parents and grandparents, every time that guests came to our house, it was like, "Oh, dress nice, say hello, take their coats." You know, it was all the time a little bit stressing – the moment where guests are coming. But you know that in the moment the guests are in house, you have to be perfect in how you speak, how you feel ... So this is something that you get from your parents, your behavior. 

And then from that on, a lot of things has to be discussed every day. We are all the time talking with our team in our family, who did something wrong with behavior. Why didn't you look in his eyes. You know, we are constantly talking about that. Also because of myself and my team, my wife, my sister, because you can also forget what you learn. You can become above the guests in a moment. So we have to constantly be careful that we don't become above the guests, because it could also happen, you know, also because of the team.

Dr Noah Charney, the host: There's also a balance to strike between being present and available to guests who want to say hi, and giving them space to breathe and have a dinner on their own. There's a real art form to being a waiter. And where I come from in the US, the joke is that nobody actually wants to be a waiter.

They're all an actor or a rock star who hasn't been discovered yet – and they're just being a waiter the whole time. Whereas in Europe, there are people who have the profession of waiter, and they're proud of it, and it's what they plan to do for their whole career, and they're extremely good at it, and you can really tell the difference.

I once wrote an essay about the waiters at your place because they do such a good job. You look forward to seeing them. And you as sommelier, for example, and the waiters are the ones who are in most contact with the guests, and they still want the chef, if possible, to come out and say hello.

How do you teach your team about how to be present and available without feeling intrusive? That's a hard balance, maybe. 

Nina Bratovž: It is. But I think, the good waiter knows when he needs to be present or not. So also I think that you feel it. They just eat something, and they talk about business, and they don't need me to be there present and telling him how was this meal prepared and everything you know? And then you have in the evening, I don't know, person who comes from America. And he wants to know each detail and everything.

And of course you need to be present. You need to give him this information, this story behind. So I think you need to feel the person and the guest. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: You feel it through experience. Yeah, of course. 

Nina Bratovž: You just get the vibe. It's not something you learn. 

Grega Repovž: It's like to be a drummer in a rock band? The singer is always the main star…

Dr Noah Charney, the host: As the chef, do you try to make rounds of each seating to say hello to the guests, or do you let the waiter tell you who'd like to say hello? What's the sort of etiquette?

Grega Repovž: We have a rule in our house that at least on the end of the meal, a chef should come out and say hello and ask if everything was okay or something, just a little speech, and give to the guests a little bit of cookies or something. So this is, in our place, this is a rule.

So, we try that all the team from the kitchen comes out in some point of the dinner, to give one plate maybe, or just say hello and go around the space so that people feel that we are a team, not just workers there.

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Could each of you think of a story related to hospitality or some event that you ran or dinner that has stayed with you over the years and feels like a resonant story that we did well this time, this is an example of what we would like to continue and have more moments like this? And when you were having guests at your establishment. Or you could have it somewhere else too. That's actually okay. If you can think of some other restaurant you went to where you felt like this was done just right, that's also good.

Nina Bratovž: I sometimes have a feeling when the day is ending and we have full of restaurant and everybody says "Thank you for, for everything, give you a hand, and when they are gone, you are emotional because you think, "Oh my gosh, what we do to those people?" Or they send a email two days after ... "Thank you for everything." I think that's, the highest point and the highest award for us. And it was a lot of that kind of moments, and few of them I'll never forgot… 

Grega Repovž: Yeah, for sure. These are really nice moments. Also, I really like to see the guests who were guests 20 years ago, and they were coming in our restaurant with children. And now those children as adults come again in our restaurant. I'm so happy when this happens, so this is really nice. So you see you've done something really right. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: That's great. I have a personal experience. I sent some American guests to your restaurant, and they actually asked me to recommend two restaurants 'cause they were there for two nights in a row in Ljubljana, and they liked it so much the first time that they came back the next night and they asked if the same waiter was gonna be there.

And then you guys made them an entirely different menu ... because they had just eaten it the day before, which I imagine was not easy to do 'cause you were prepared to offer the same menu again, and that was very special. That's the kind of thing that makes a restaurant really stand out, so thank you for that.

Nina Bratovž: Thank you. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: So in a world that's being increasingly automated, what does it mean to give that human touch? And we might have already said that in a past answer, but so much of today's experience is gearing towards these videos that I see, I've never been to Japan, but where you just press a button on an electronic screen, and you place your order, and you put the money in, and then your meal, even if it's really well made, gets slid out to you, and you never actually see a human. That's what we're ideally avoiding, even if the food may be good. In this automated age, maybe the human touch is more important than ever. What could you say about that? 

Grega Repovž: I would say details, small things that matter? You know, there are a lot of small things when you're hosting. Also, the guests who are coming, I don't know, for a picnic at your place. These are all the details. When you see a lady sitting at the table and she's feeling cold. You can just look other way and say, "Oh, it's okay” or, or you can do something. And there are many, small things that you can do. She comes to the restaurant and she doesn’t know where to put a purse... and you should be there behind her and help her. And, or a glass is empty, I don't know. There's just details, small things that matter. Just constantly being present with details.

Nina Bratovž: I think these robots and everything, I'm really afraid of them. I think they will never, make this feeling which we talk about, this feeling of warmth and everything. And people still need this kind of human touch. They want to have a  dinner or a lunch that they feel comfortable, and they see the people, and they can look him in the eyes. So I think they will not destroy us. I hope so.

Grega Repovž: You should be a typical Slovenian mother: Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Do you want some more? 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Now shifting gears from hospitality to food and wine, you're both award-winning sommeliers.

This is very cool. How does your deep understanding of wine influence the preparation of food on the one hand and the pairing experience on the other? You could probably teach a whole class about this. This is a very open-ended question. Just a thought about each. 

Grega Repovž: I think the beauty now when we know really a lot of about wine and food pairing and all the stuff around that, it's nice that you do the things without thinking.

It's just by the feeling. I think I do by the feeling more now than 15 years ago. Maybe not just what's the perfect combination in mouth, but you can also see different guests, how they behave, how old they are, how the weather is outside, all the stuff that matters and the feelings. So maybe this is the beauty now than we know a lot about wine. I don't know. 

Nina Bratovž: Yeah, I agree with Grega. Many young persons came to me and said, "How is that?" You know, "Teach me how to compare wine and food” and I said, "You, you need to practice. You need to try a lot of wines, a lot of food, and then you get this feeling which Grega mentioned. I think, you need practice and you need to have this…

Dr Noah Charney, the host: You need kilometrina. You need to have a lot of experience… and the more you have, the more it becomes an instinct, right? Exactly. So a lot of it you can read about in one article that's, okay, red wine with steak, but that's very basic level, and then all these levels of sophistication.

It's maybe like learning a foreign language or like cooking, that you do it the first thousand times you have to think how to do it, and then the thousand and first time you just do it instinctively. 

Nina Bratovž: Yeah, but I really don't like this red wine, red meat, and I don't know. You never know how this meat is prepared. And maybe, some white wine will go well beside.  And red not. I don't like this kind of things, but, yeah… There needs to be. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: If we can borrow your wine knowledge, so I'm always a fan when I travel to a new country of trying things that are local specialties or indigenous.

Can you each recommend at least one grape varietal that is either especially well done in Slovenia or is indigenous to Slovenia that people who are interested in wine and coming as a tourist and watching this should definitely try when they come here? Do you wanna start, Nina? 

Nina Bratovž: I will because I know how, what he will say… So, I will choose probably pinela. Pinela from Vipava Valley because it's a nice variety. I like it because it's fresh and very fruity. And I think it's something that's hard to compare with other variety. And you could have it sparkling, fresh, lighter pinela or some strong, older pinela, which is perfect for pairing with the food.

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Did I read that it's famously difficult to work with for vintners, and so it's sort of a good test if you can do a pinela well… 

Nina Bratovž: This is more for zelen. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Zelen. Okay. That's what I was thinking 

Nina Bratovž: Also zelen. I think ...  I love pinela and zelen from Vipava Valley, for pairing with the food, they are very special. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Okay. So you're not allowed to pick pinela or zelen. 

Grega Repovž: We have a lot of similarities, but in the wines we are ... I'm more probably to connected to eastern part of the country. You're more for the west. But yeah, I also love pinela and zelen. I think Slovenia has quite nice autochthonic varieties, like pinela and zelen. Also rebula is nice. It's not my favorite, but if you're Slovenian you, you have to try it. But on the other side, so in the east part of the country there is blaufränkisch, which is a really nice variety and I think it has a lot of potential. But of course also sparkling wines, wines from our part of the country, so penina. Also a nice Slovenian word… which also has Nina – her name in it. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Actually, you have a special line of wines that say Penina on it as a joke with your name Nina, right? Yeah. It's 

Nina Bratovž: Yeah. It's not  joke. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: It's a very serious thing. But it's a fun pun. I saw it and I thought that's genius. Can you just tell us how that came about and what that is? 

Nina Bratovž: Actually, our cellar who make the sparkling wine, they called me and asked me if we could do some sparkling wine together.

And I said, "Of course." And then, I went there, I tried a few of them, and I really liked this one. And then, I didn't know what kind of label to put on it and then my husband said, "But you can say it’s Penina, right? Because your name is Nina." And I said, "Oh, really?" 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: That's genius. 

Nina Bratovž: And then my friend made this label…

Dr Noah Charney, the host: So Blaufränkisch, that's a German word. In English, is there a different word for the varietal, or is it still used? 

Grega Repovž: International name is Blaufränkisch. So Kekfrankos also, or Lemberger. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: And what's it like for someone who hasn't encountered it yet?

Grega Repovž: I would say it's a light, fresh, very fruity wine.

Dr Noah Charney, the host: And it's red? 

Grega Repovž: Red. Yeah. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: There’s a separate German podcast for the tourism… 

Grega Repovž: …industry.Also in Slovenian, there is a word for it: Modra Frankinja, which mean blue, blue Franconian.

Yeah. Okay. Something like that, yeah. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: So blue is a good word for red in this case. 

Grega Repovž: Yeah. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Okay. Totally understand. 

Grega Repovž: It's like modri pinot. In the international terminology, it's usually noir, like black. But in Slovenian, it's more blue for red wines.

Dr Noah Charney, the host: The one I'm gonna pitch for is a rebula because I wrote a whole book about Rebula. So I'm a big fan, and I think I've tried every Rebula that exists in the country. Which was tough work, but somebody had to do it. But I'm sure you guys have too. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: What is it like when you were training to be a sommelier? What does that process look like? I'm so curious. It's blind tastings and, and you have to try every wine in the country you're in, or is it international? 

Grega Repovž: A lot of tastings. Shortly a lot of tasting. You have to learn also your brains how to recognize the wine. So, blind tasting is of course very important. But talking about the wine with different people who know already a lot of wine, so you can learn what you smell in a wine. You can learn what you taste in wine. It's just a matter of training and.

Nina Bratovž: And I think very important to visit the winemakers and talk with them because then I think you have the whole story behind. And I think that's very important to understand why is that kind of wine like that. Because probably everybody have this experience when you go to some winemakers and you have so nice day and everything was so good, and then you buy it, bring it at home, and then you try again and it's not so good. But when you are there, the feeling and this hospitality and everything gives you this feeling of warmth. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: It's a complete process. It's not just about the wine in a vacuum. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Um, when you're training, do you specialize in your own country or is it very international, so you need to know about Australian wines and California and everything?

Grega Repovž: There are different lessons. There are different lessons. So, of course for Slovenian sommelier it's important that you focus on Slovenian wines. But if you want to focus on Slovenian wines, it's necessary that you know a lot also about the international stuff. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Do either of you teach courses for amateurs like me, for example, on understanding wine better or is teaching not part of your lineup yet?

Nina Bratovž: I have a few lessons, but just for some visitors. So for people from other countries, they come here and I make the tasting for them and explain Slovenia and everything. And also I have actually exported wine to America. And I was now two times there, and I had lessons sommeliers from America, from New York. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: That's very good. So they'll be able to offer your wines. 

Nina Bratovž: Yeah, exactly. They know Slovenia. They understand Slovenian wine, and then they can sell it. It's easier then.

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Shifting from wine to food, so I had this fantasy years ago. I'm not sure if I'm ever gonna do it, but there are 24 culinary regions in Slovenia according to our culinary ethnographer, Janez Bogataj. And I had this idea to find a little old lady from each of the regions and drive to visit her and ask her to teach me a hyper local dish that's so local that Slovenes from elsewhere have never heard of it.

And we would film it, and she would teach me how to make it, and it would be a little bit of an interview about her life story. And it was like, behind the scenes through really local dishes and grandmothers. Probably never gonna happen, but this is my fantasy. So I'm interested in these super local dishes, like potica is great, but it's everywhere.

Dr Noah Charney, the host: What about something that's so local that if someone is from 10 kilometers away, they might not be familiar with it? Could you recommend a dish or two that if someone happens to be in a certain region as a tourist, they should seek out, but that is probably not universally known around Slovenia?

Grega Repovž: Oh, this is hard one, huh? 

Nina Bratovž: I moved a lot, so I don't know where I belong. 

Grega Repovž: Štruklji with beans, for example, the thing that you cannot get everywhere, but in Dolenjska region they are famous. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Okay, I've never had that combination. 

Nina Bratovž: Okay, in Škofja Loka we have Loška medla. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Describe what that is...

Nina Bratovž: Actually, I don't know exactly, but I know it's some turnip. And it's something inside that I don't know it at the point. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: So it's so hyperlocal that you're not quite sure what it is. 

Nina Bratovž: I never do it. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Okay. We have to find a little old lady to teach us, I guess. I like some things, like, so an easy one is dumplings from Idrija. But that's, that's very well promoted. But there's some other ones, like if you go from Kamnik to the Logar Valley, and there's the Upper Savinja and Lower Savinja, and they make a cured meat called želodec. And they're different, and they're, like, three kilometers apart from each other. But 100 years ago, you had to have a really good reason to go from the Upper Savinja Valley to the lower one. It was really hard to do, and they developed different traditions, even though on a map they're right next to each other.

To me, that's cool. And I would like to do a tasting of these two different types of cured meats side by side. So these are the kind of things that I look out for.

Grega Repovž: This is an exampe with lots meats, with the sausages and stuff. I like jetrna klobasa, so sausage from livers, which is known in cities around Hrastnik and Trbovlje, from the area around Sava River, Zasavje. There, they  serve this sausage a lot. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Do you feel any responsibility to preserve and interpret the Slovenian identity through your food when you're cooking at your restaurant, or is that more something that collectively Slovenian chefs should do, but for your restaurants in particular, which are quite contemporary and doing new and interesting things, it's maybe less important?

Nina Bratovž: Of course, that's very important. I think it's the most important. Because we are so small country, I think, and we have good ingredients, very good dishes, which are not so known. So I think, for us, this is the thing that we need to do.

Dr Noah Charney, the host: What about in your region? Are there local indigenous ingredients that you like to showcase or traditional dishes? 

Grega Repovž: We do this all the time. This is our focus. We serve food just which is from local ingredients or local recipes, so yeah, of course. We do it all the time. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: I've encountered a lot of chefs who say similar things, and I think that's really nice because let's say in the '80s and '90s, it was a big thing where if you could get an exotic-sounding foreign ingredient, people would pay extra for it. Like I flew in a steak from Denmark or Argentina, and that was exciting. And now we see a shift that's more environmentally friendly and also more interesting for localities, like with Ana Roš's idea of a zero-kilometer policy, which can be quite restrictive. She wants all her ingredients to come within one-kilometer radius of her restaurant. That may be so extreme that it's difficult. It could inhibit your kitchen. But the concept of it is cool. And for example, this cookbook that I did with your father, Nina, we spent a summer driving around the country and visiting the producers of his favorite indigenous ingredients, and the whole cookbook is 20 indigenous ingredients and the stories behind the people who make them.

And for me, that's really cool because it's Slovenian specific, and there's no other place that has the same indigenous ingredients, and look what all you can do with them, and it's a gateway to learn about the culture and the people. So to me, that's the best gateway. I would be eating my way through as many countries as possible.

Nina Bratovž: Yeah, but I think, probably 10 years ago, the world started talking about the zero waste But I think in Slovenia we lived like that all the time. And each family has their own garden.  Probably three chicken for the eggs and the milk opposite of your house. So I think this is normal for us, and it's nothing special. It's in our blood that we live like that, we have everything in our neighborhood. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: I love that 'cause it’s every day for you, but for foreigners it feels special and something unique and that they're excited about. The other thing that, foreign guests get excited about is the forest-to-table traditions here, which in other countries are a bit exotic, and here just about everybody has a relative, usually named Teta Minka, who goes into the forest every weekend and goes mushrooming.

Or someone else who makes homemade schnapps or something like that. And then I always thought this was interesting, so there's a supermarket chain here called Mercator, and their slogan is “vaš najboljši sosed”, your best neighbor. And to me, that suggests if you don't have a product, you take the product you do have, and you go to your neighbor and you swap it, and I love that that's still resonant enough that it became the slogan for a supermarket.

So this to me is fascinating. Okay, we're gonna shift gears a little bit and talk about JRE, because this is a place, you're both heavily involved in. What was the event a couple of days ago? Can you tell us about that, that you were involved in organizing and running? 

Grega Repovž: About event or about JRE?

Dr Noah Charney, the host: Both... because they're connected. 

Nina Bratovž: You talk about JRE. 

Grega Repovž: Okay. JRE is an association of young chefs and good friends and nice people. I would say that there is a lot of good restaurants in Slovenia all over the world, a lot of people who stand up every morning to do all the best for their guests, and they do good food, good service, everything.

But among them, there are a couple of them who have a big fire in their eyes, who are more innovative, more passionate, more... They constantly want something new and more, and more, and more, and these are JRE. And beside that, we are nice people.  We are association who want to help the industry, but of course, we want to help ourselves. We want to put something good to the farmers, the winemakers, the gastronomy overall, and so on. 

Nina Bratovž: We're not connecting the people... We are like family, so if somebody needs something, we are there. So if they need advice or whatever, we have WhatsApp group. "I need," I don't know, “new table napkins. Where can I get it? What do you think?" You know, and so on. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: That's great because in other countries, there may be a sense of competition among, uh, restaurants. But in practice, you're all in the same worlds together. Everybody's gonna wanna eat. There's plenty of room for everyone, and it's great that you're mutually supportive.

If you're a member of JRE, what does it mean for your restaurant? Is it like a quality standard, or is it... You mentioned it's a professional community. Um, it's a network, or is it all of those things together? 

Nina Bratovž: All of them, of course. It's important that, first of all, it's important that it's family business, so you need to be the owner of a restaurant, and you need to have this passion. You need to have this sparkle in your eyes. And that's quite, a thing. And we always said everybody can have a Michelin star, but if you are in the JRE… No, just our joke…. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: What was the event a couple days ago? Can you tell us what that was? 

Nina Bratovž: Actually, we such an event every year, we have one event which is called Black and White event, and it's actually event for our partners and for our members. Each years it's something different, something, special. And this year we wanted to sit down and have nice dinner, talk to each other. So, we had 13 tables, and at each table was one chef, and they hosted this table. It was a really nice evening. We ate very good food, very good wine, but talked with each other and have fun. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: I love that it's not just a business thing. It's social. It's for you as well as your businesses, and it feels like something that you're passionate about and really enjoy, and that's important 'cause that enjoyment translates, and we guests will feel that as well.

Grega Repovž: Yeah, it's socializing on the first place. And really bunch of a great people together. You cannot join JRE if you're a jerk. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: For example. There's a no jerk policy. That's good in general to have everywhere. Okay, last question.

Slovenia's going to host the official JRE Conference in 2028. So, how significant is that for Slovenian tourism and gastronomy, and what will that mean for Slovenia? 

Grega Repovž: I think it's a huge thing for all of us. So, hosting more than 400 chefs all around Europe and the world, I think is a really big thing. You know, we constantly get questions about our guests and people, where to eat, where to go on a vacation, where is a good destination of food. So I think that chefs are also nice messengers too, about good stuff in the world. So, hosting 400 or even more chefs from around the world here in Slovenia, I think is really nice and a big commercial for everybody. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: It's excellent. A few years ago, Slovenia was the featured nation at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and that was a chance to introduce Slovenian writing to the world, and this sounds like a similar thing for Slovenian gastronomy, introducing it to the people who are going to get excited about it, to share information, learn things from it. A bunch of nice non-jerk people will be coming to Slovenia. 

Grega Repovž: Exactly. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: This is good as well. Um, so thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. Thanks to all of you for tuning into the latest episode of Feel Slovenia, the podcast. If you are in Slovenia, I can recommend two excellent restaurants to visit. And there are lots of others. Anyone that has a J-R-E is probably gonna be run by a nice, conscientious person who's a good chef. I think that's safe to say. 

Nina Bratovž: Exactly. 

Dr Noah Charney, the host: So, thank you both, and we'll see you next time. 

Nina Bratovž: Thank you. 

Grega Repovž: Thank you.