Monika Gyenes is the founder of Best of Hungary and Monika’s Kitchen, and a specialist in Hungarian food with a particular interest in provenance, traditional ingredients and the relationship between good food,
farming and wellbeing. Raised in rural Hungary, she grew up close to agriculture and helped her veterinary father care for more than 100 pigs, giving her an early appreciation of the importance of understanding where food comes from.
From Healthcare to Hungarian Food
Before founding Best of Hungary, Monika trained as a dentist and public health specialist and played a key role in organising Hungary’s first national preventive oral health programme. After decades of service in both the Hungarian and British health systems, she retired from her professional career and established Best of Hungary with her son, Zoltan.
Today, their family food business is based in the seaside town of Aberystwyth in West Wales and specialises in bringing authentic Hungarian food and wine to customers across the UK. Monika remains closely involved in the business, from sourcing and tasting products to developing supplier relationships and helping select the artisan foods that become part of the Best of Hungary range.
Sourcing Hungarian Food at Its Origin
Monika maintains a close connection with Hungary and returns regularly to meet both new and long-standing producers. She feels particularly at home on the Great Hungarian Plain, whether visiting Mangalitza farms, walking through fields of paprika or meeting the people behind some of Hungary’s most distinctive regional foods.
During her annual sourcing visits, Monika visits farms and production sites to understand how animals are raised, how crops are cultivated and how ingredients are processed. Her agricultural background enables her to look beyond packaging and specifications and consider the quality of the raw materials, production methods and provenance behind each product.
Personal relationships are central to this process. Many suppliers have worked with Best of Hungary for close to a decade and have become friends as well as business partners. Monika tastes products at source whenever possible and is always interested in discovering new flavours, traditional techniques and lesser-known Hungarian specialities.
Curating Quality for Best of Hungary and Monika’s Kitchen
Monika’s healthcare background made her particularly conscious of ingredient quality, provenance and production standards. She was therefore keen for Best of Hungary to develop a stronger organic range and pushed for independent Soil Association certification, giving customers additional reassurance that products marketed as organic are covered by recognised certification and traceability standards.
Monika also strongly advocates independent assessment as an additional measure of product quality. Products selected for the Best of Hungary range are regularly entered into the Great Taste Awards, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, where blind judging provides independent feedback on flavour, texture, aroma and overall quality.
The judges’ detailed comments are valuable not only as recognition but also as practical feedback. Monika uses them when working with producers to refine recipes and improve products, helping maintain the high standards expected across the range.
She created Monika’s Kitchen to bring together a curated selection of products from smaller artisan producers and family-owned farms under one distinctive brand. Each product is tasted and selected with an emphasis on excellent flavour, traceable ingredients and a clear connection to its place of origin.
A keen amateur cook, Monika also tests many of the products herself. She uses everyday pantry ingredients such as raw honey and organic rice in her own kitchen, while developing more specialist products, including black truffle delicacies, in close collaboration with their producers.
Sharing Hungarian Food and Culture in the UK
For Monika, food is also a way of building connections between Hungary and the United Kingdom. She regularly attends trade tastings, food festivals and industry events and enjoys visiting customers and partners ranging from acclaimed restaurants such as the two-Michelin-starred Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms to independent local delicatessens.
She also continues to cook from and adapt recipes found in her mother’s much-loved cookbook. Traditional family dishes such as chicken paprikash and rich lamb stew remain among her favourites, reflecting the same Hungarian food traditions that inspire much of the Best of Hungary range.
Away from food and work, Monika enjoys walking along Ynyslas Beach near Aberystwyth with her Cavachon, Belami.