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ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN TO Prague in recent years will have enjoyed a vibrant restaurant industry. In addition to Czech restaurants whose sandwich boards beckon tourists with traditional Bohemian cuisine, one finds several exciting additions to the culinary scene: three Michelin-starred establishments, a multitude of international dining options, and a variety of choices for the vegetarians who, until recently, were confined to fried cauliflower appetizers. Most tellingly for the rise of foodie culture is the appearance of “New Bohemian” cuisine, upscale and upsold reimaginings of classic Czech dishes. There is an unlikely hero behind the development of the Czech restaurant industry (which is not to say Czech cuisine). He is not a chef or even an entrepreneur but a poet. In the early 1990s following the fall of the communist regime, the identity and priorities of the newly established Czech Republic were up for debate. The main concerns of the poet Petr Král emerged when, dining at a tavern, he tried to send back a plate of štěpánská, a dish of roast beef with hardboiled eggs, that he found too dry: