Our story
At Onyx Műhely, diversity is not only celebrated but also our driving force! Regardless of age, gender, and professional background, we are all indispensable to rewriting the rules of fine dining with passion and creativity.
At the beginning of 2020, after 14 years of operation and earning and keeping two Michelin Stars, the Onyx Metamorphoses, the restaurant's complete transformation, began.
This is how the Onyx Creative Community was created.
"Was, Is, Will be..." was a 9-step, all-night interactive dinner program during which we recalled three different eras in three different locations. At the beginning of the dinner, we evoked the bygone elegance of the 1800s within the historic walls of the Gerbeaud Confectionery and Café. Later, we gathered around the community table in the innovative and creative playground of the Onyx Creative Community and showed our presence. At the end of the evening, we gave a glimpse of the transformation of the new ONYX, and our guests could taste the flavours of the future we envisioned for one course.
At our event called The Last Route, we revived the defining milestones of the three years of Onyx Metamorphosis in a house party atmosphere, and together we said goodbye to our "waiting room" before handing it over to the future ONYX!
We awaited our guests with a truly unforgettable evening, where everyone could leave their handprints on the walls of Onyx in addition to the emblematic dishes of Metamorphoses in the framework of community graffiti and champagne.
We invited our guests on an imagined trip to a big city as part of our Metropolis conceptual menu in 2023.
As part of our METRO and METROPOLIS menu, we presented the big city where we live in 10 and 13 steps. In the spaces of Onyx, which was turned into a waiting room, and Onyx Műhely, we brought to life the contrasts of urban life through our dishes and special serving utensils. During the dinner experience, we discovered the everyday images that inspired our dishes.
What is food? Why isn't it enough to just live well?
What makes a meal a memorable experience?
Márta Merkl, the food design researcher of the Onyx Creative Community, invited self-taught foodies and enthusiastic gourmets to dinner, where we discussed these questions within the framework of her doctoral research at the Doctoral School of Economics of the Corvinus University of Budapest.
During the experience research, we invited our guests to our 16-person table for two consecutive free dinners and the associated group discussion. During the evening, the chosen ones will be asked about their dining experience from our METROPOLIS menu, which presents the contrasts of big city life, so that during the mutually reflective conversation, we can learn more about ourselves from the guest's perspective.
In less than a year, we were able to achieve what we had already set as a goal in 2019 before the ONYX Metamorphosis period started. A lot of work and sacrifices take place in the background to combine culinary with environmentally friendly commitments in our everyday lives, but we hope that we can be an inspiration for the hospitality industry as a whole. With Alexandra Végh, ONYX's Creative Community sustainability manager, we developed a sustainability strategy that goes beyond environmental considerations, addresses issues related to ethics and well-being, and contributes to local initiatives and educational projects. The 7 main areas are food raw materials, equipment and accessories, energy consumption, detergents, waste management, shaping attitudes and carbon footprint calculation.
On our three study trips - through the lens of a tourist - we marvelled at the forgotten or never-discovered beauties and curiosities of our metropolis. The lights, sounds and smells hit you almost like a shock when you arrive in the big city. It is an unknown, exciting chaos waiting to be explored. Speaking of which, it was METROPOLIS, our 2022 conceptual menu about the experience of urban travel.
III. Műhely x Unicum: Journey home
II. Smells - Scents
I. Departure - Arrival
At the unusual series of events called FOUNDATION, our guests could try and comment on our dishes, drinks, and tools at the workshop table together with the Creative Community. Every week from November 18, for 3 days, the participants could go to our first conceptual Műhely, taste the dishes of META/ MORPHOSIS and give feedback on them. When planning the dishes and the menu, we looked back at the events of the past year.
At the RELIC market, we sold some of the iconic items that have helped us turn every meal into an experience and that helped Onyx become the first two Michelin-star restaurant in Hungary, and all proceeds are going towards creating a completely open library focused on culinary and design topics, the first of its kind in Hungary. With this library, we aim to support the future generation of the gastronomy industry, so they can become prominent members of their profession.
For four nights, we opened the under-remodelling Onyx to give a glimpse into the next stage of the restaurant's Metamorphosis.
We demolished the restaurant, took apart the old menu and created something completely new.
This was DECONSTRUCTION.
With the Last Supper, the external-internal transformation of the restaurant, the ONYX Metamorphosis, began. Our transformation has reached another milestone: we have finished the demolition! The waste, broken bricks and concrete created during the renovation are slowly giving way to construction. We celebrated the end of the demolition with the SITT event, which was also the inspiration for the dishes created especially for this evening. The location of SITT was at the Oroszlános well in front of the restaurant, where we dreamed up a street fine dining event with three tasting courses and the ONYX14 birthday cake.
In 2020, a new era began in the life of Onyx: we embarked on the Onyx Metamorphosis, the renovation of the restaurant's exterior and interior, and in November we organized a dinner shoot called The Last Supper, with which we said goodbye to a period of success and embarked on an exciting new path. The eight participants of the Last Supper were selected at a casting, we served a hammer as the last course of the dinner and together we began the symbolic demolition of Onyx.
The Onyx restaurant, which opened in 2007 and was the first restaurant with two Michelin Stars in East-Central Europe, pioneered the spread of fine dining in Hungary. In 2020, after 14 years, a lot of experience, success and 2 Michelin Stars, a period came to an end, and we opted for complete renewal. Interior, food, philosophy, and work processes are all transformed during METAMORPHOSIS. Onyx Műhely restaurant was created as one of the milestones of this, which also functions as ONYX's research, development, and innovation space.
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