The Malinowa Restaurant at the Bristol Hotel now features a brand new image. Karol Okrasa, the star of the television program Gotuj z Okrasą (Cook With Okrasa), became Malinowa's new chef in March. There he promoted his new book of the same title May 29. Okrasa serves original dishes, inviting guests to "culinary performances."

Okrasa, only 30, is the youngest of the prestigious restaurant chefs in Poland. He wants to revamp the menu and add new value. The restaurant, while remaining prestigious and elegant, is no longer "stiff." The new chef makes guests feel at home, coming out to greet them, chatting and listening to their comments. "I present my vision of refined Polish cuisine," says Okrasa. "I use products such as pike-perch, and home-made pate venison." He likes playing with ingredients. This results in innovative dishes, for example sturgeon with potato dumplings in a roasted apple sauce, Roquefort cheese with a lemon sauce, and pierogi in a sour cucumber sauce seasoned with bacon. Okrasa does not conceal that he occasionally courts "culinary risk," but that apparently allows him to surprise you with unusual new tastes.

The menu also has eel broth with minipierogi filled with crawfish mousse and buckwheat-zl.28, and cabbage cream soup with ewe's cheese pearls-zl.26. Other interesting proposals include tournedos of venison with slices of fried duck liver served with goulash-zl.105, and sturgeon filet baked in Polish Bison Grass Vodka sabayon-zl.100. Finally the desserts: raspberry soufflé with a ginger sauce-zl.31 (in Polish, Malinowy soufflé, named after the restaurant), and coffee parfait with almond cookies-zl.31.

Malinowa has for years boasted one of Warsaw's richest wine lists. The restaurant team under the new chef has set itself a concrete goal: to restore Malinowa's former splendor and its faithful patrons.

Malinowa Restaurant in Bristol Hotel, 42/44 Krakowskie Przedmieście St., tel. 0-22 55 11 000; open Tue.-Sat. 6 p.m.-11 p.m.