Martin Kudera has been in business since he was young and loved good food. When he started making kimchi in his father-in-law’s basement during the pandemic, the idea of how to connect his two passions was born. He founded the family company Živina, which, in addition to kimchi, has 135 other healthy products in its portfolio, and within three years it became a company with 35 employees.
“We are in the fermentation room,” says Martin Kudera, as he guides us through the production company Živina in Přerov, which he founded three years ago. “First, the cabbage is cut, placed in a salt solution, which disrupts its structure. This starts the lactic fermentation. After 24 hours, the cabbage is cut again and mixed with the rest of the vegetables and kimchi paste,” describes part of the production of their flagship product – kimchi, or a Korean spicy crunchy salad prepared from pickled and fermented vegetables and other ingredients.
Kudera describes the preparation with a slight smile and gives the impression that he does not have to think about the production process at all. He started making kimchi in five-liter bottles in his father-in-law’s basement during the pandemic. “I served it to my whole family and friends, who liked it. That led me to the idea that I could start a kimchi business,” says Kudera in the Přerov production plant, which he and a partner built in the original dining room of the Czech company Kazeto.
He works with Czech chefs
“I’ve always enjoyed cooking for others and sharing the joy of food with them,” says Kudera, who has dabbled in programming and digital marketing since he was young. “But I kind of missed doing something physical. Creating a tangible product that makes other people happy,” he explains by a steaming pot in which teriyaki sauce is currently cooking, and the air smells of ginger and Asian spices. The entrepreneur founded the company together with his friend Patrik Walter. He was later joined by his wife and sister-in-law.
He himself eats kimchi every day, and also drinks kombucha daily. According to a study recently written about by the Sky News server, it benefits your health. Daily consumption of kimchi helps in the fight against extra pounds and improves the level of beneficial bacteria in the intestines.
Where I didn’t feel good, I wouldn’t be there
“We want to simplify the preparation of dishes that customers know from good restaurants. That’s why we started filming videos with Czech chefs in which we advise people on what they can cook quickly and deliciously at home,” explains the owner of the company, which has an annual turnover of around thirty million crowns .
While he is talking, the song Málokdo vie by Hana Zagorová is playing in the background on the radio. The radio occasionally drowns out the sound of a moving cart with empty glasses waiting to be filled, as well as the laughter of one of the employees in a white coat. “There was a good atmosphere in all the companies where I worked before Živina. I was looking for an environment in which I would feel good,” he explains, explaining why, in addition to spices, there is also an informal working atmosphere in the air. “A way of doing business that’s all about results, whining and commanding, is not for me,” he says, walking over to the silver pot.
Author photography: Shutterstock
What is kimchi?
- The origin of kimchi dates back to ancient times. The first written references can be found in the Chinese Shi-kyung poetry, which is estimated to be 2,600 to 3,000 years old
- Although kimchi can be bought at the store, usually every Korean woman prepares it herself according to a recipe that, according to tradition, she usually inherited from her mother-in-law
- The main ingredients are Beijing cabbage, white daikon radish, spring onion, seasoning paste and salt. The spice paste is made by mixing red flaked gochugar chili peppers with ground chili, crushed garlic, grated ginger and fish sauce
- The salad created in this way is stored for several days to months in large earthenware containers and allowed to ferment at room temperature
“It’s a shame you didn’t come when we were making the barbecue bourbon sauce. We’ve been boiling whiskey in big pans almost all day, so we’re all hanging around here for a while,” he laughs, opening the pot and smelling the teriyaki sauce bubbling in it.
He imagined business naively
In the area he admits that he originally envisioned the business rather naively. “Even during the pandemic, I went for a walk and in layman’s terms multiplied how much I would earn if I made, say, 50 five-liter bottles,” he recalls. “However, of course we had to change the entire production technology. Even if, for example, we initially used five-liter jars for kimchi, it turned out that in a larger operation, washing them takes a lot of time. And that’s just one small thing out of many things,” Kudera describes.
Today, he confidently uses terms like “efficiency” and “investment strategy”. “I thought about the best way to solve the necessary finances, and I came up with the idea that we would involve the customers themselves in investing. In this way, we connected marketing with fundraising and built a community of people who support our brand not only financially,” explains the energetic thirtysomething.
Photo author: Jakub Plíhal
The nutrient is not just kimchi
In addition to kimchi, the company produces sauces, pastes, ketchup, dips, pickles and onions, or even kombucha. In addition, it also supplies ketchup for the Ambiente chain of businesses or kimchi for the Prague restaurant Forky’s. On the production of sauces, he collaborates with Czech chefs, for example Štěpán Návrat, who is behind the Asian restaurant PRU58 in Prague’s Holešovice.
His love for food was awakened in him by his parents, who liked to cook, and his 83-year-old grandmother. “She worked in the health sector all her life. She did research on people’s nutrition and always said that you can eat everything, but in moderation. From a very young age, when we meet, she first asks us if we ate, what we ate and if we had a lot of vegetables.” says the father of two, melancholicly recalling his first gastronomic experiments.
“I started cooking when I was about thirteen years old. They were quite wild experiments with scrambled eggs. I tried everything possible. I added tabasco, mustard…,” he looks back on his beginnings. Nevertheless, the desire to experiment and try new things remained with him even into adulthood. “What we use at home, we actually make. So I can cook for a lot more people than I ever imagined,” she laughs.
2024-02-09 12:19:26
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