Enge's Three Starts and Dumplings with Everything

The Czech Republic has never hosted a World Championship race and has one Grand Prix starter in our records, while its kitchen is built on soup, pork and dumplings.

No World Championship Grand Prix has been held in the Czech Republic, and its Formula 1 record can be read in a single breath. Tomáš Enge, born in Liberec, is the only Czech driver in our data with a race start: three of them in 2001, with twelfth as his best finish. Jan Charouz is also linked to the country in our records, but has no race entry.

Czech cooking belongs to the wider Central European family, shaped by a country at the heart of the continent, where recipes passed freely between neighbors, minorities and border towns. History left its mark as well, above all in the changing supply of ingredients while Czechoslovakia was under communist rule. A proper meal has at least two courses, soup and then the main dish, with dessert or fruit compote on festive days, and main courses tend to be a little sweeter than those next door.

Soup is taken seriously here. Restaurants offer broths with noodles and liver dumplings, or garlic soup with croutons, while home cooks turn to pea, bean, lentil and potato. Kulajda, from South Bohemia, is a thick white soup of cream, mushrooms, dill, potatoes and egg. Every autumn the forests are searched for mushrooms, boletes above all, and for berries.

Pork is by far the most eaten meat, and bread dumplings, steamed and sliced like a loaf, turn up beside almost everything with the quiet persistence of a good habit. The dish most often called the most typical of all is roast pork with cabbage and dumplings, while svíčková brings marinated beef in a creamy sauce of root vegetables, served with dumplings, cranberry compote and a slice of lemon. Guláš, a thick stew of beef or pork with onions and spices, is a reliable first step, and carp is the traditional fish of Christmas.

A taste of Czech Republic

• Hovězí guláš, Czech beef goulash
• Svíčková na smetaně, Beef in creamy root vegetable sauce
• Langoš, Fried flatbread with garlic, ketchup and cheese
• Smažený sýr, Fried cheese with tartar sauce
• Kulajda, Creamy dill and mushroom soup with egg
• Moravský vrabec, Moravian garlic and caraway roast pork
• Bezový sirup, Elderflower syrup and soda
• Svařák, Czech mulled wine
• Koláče, Sweet cheese and plum filled buns

Circuits

Drivers

• Tomáš Enge
• jan charouz