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Sofia Smith is a British-born chef of Irish-Malaysian heritage, who has been living in Prague since the late nineties. She started her career at the British Council and has since become one of the most respected experts on Asian cuisine in the Czech Republic. She is currently Executive Chef of Cafe Buddha in Prague’s Vinohrady district. That’s where I caught up with her to discuss her life in the Czech capital. I started by asking what made her leave the IT sector and pursue cooking professionally.

Czechs spend more money on eating out than people in most neighbour states, the news site Novinky.cz wrote on Wednesday, citing a report by the Statistical Office of the European Communities, Eurostat.

Christmas Eve is the most important festive day of the holiday according to Czech tradition. Although known as the “generous day” – Štědrý den – when it comes to food, one is meant to be quite modest. Few fast all day on December 24 but many do follow the Christian custom of eating meatless dishes for lunch that day, spruced up with a plaited Christmas sweetbread – vánočka.

Czechs on average spend more on food than anything else apart from housing, and it’s now rare – if not impossible – to find even a lunch special for less than 100 crowns, the daily Echo24 reports.

While pubs around Prague are vying to attract visitors with a trendy, clean environment, good food and wide assortment of drinks, a pub in Prague’s Jižní Město – a huge communist housing estate made of pre-fabricated panel buildings – has put its money on nostalgia and is making a profit from the fact that it is a throwback to the communist era.

On Friday people all around the Czech Republic began celebrating Saint Martin’s Day, which falls on November 11. According to a Czech proverb, it is the day which brings the first snow to the country. In recent years, however, the day has mostly been associated with the arrival of the season’s first wine and with the traditional feast of roast goose.

Creamy soup from leftover mashed potatoes or vinegar made from fruit and vegetable scraps - these are just some of the many recipes included in a new cook book by the Initiative Zachraň Jídlo or Save Food. Its aim is to teach Czech consumers to reduce household waste by providing tips and recipes using food scraps, leftovers and surplus seasonal ingredients.

Unscrupulous business continue to engage in dual pricing and other illegal practices, especially in areas heavily visited by foreign tourists, according to the Czech Trade Inspection (ČOI), a consumer protection agency under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Plant-based “meat” is gaining popularity the world over and it is not just vegetarians who are jumping on the bandwagon. Chicken strips, patties, burgers or sausages made from plant substitutes are now widely available in the Czech Republic and despite the high price many are willing to give them a try.

The vast majority of Czech consumers, some 97 percent, want tougher quality parameters on foodstuffs sold in the country, according to a June survey whose results were made public by the Czech Consumer Association on Tuesday. More than nine out of ten respondents also said that they wouldn’t mind if the tougher rules resulted in restrictions on cheap food imports.