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A new campaign meant to encourage consumers to buy products grown locally will come to Czech supermarkets next year. Funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, this campaign will support Czech farmers and help consumers discover the best of what their region has got to offer.

Prague-based chef Ari Munandar moved to Prague in 1997 from his homeland Indonesia. The city is, at least for now, his latest stop after cooking jobs in Bali, South Africa and the UK. In May 2009, the Prague Hilton Old Town Hotel recruited Munandar, then the executive chef at the Mandarin Oriental, to help launch their new restaurant Zinc, a sign that he had truly arrived as a chef. When we met at his restaurant, I asked Mr. Munandar about the beginnings of his career that started 20 years ago.

When you ask foreigners living in the Czech Republic how they perceive Czechs and whether there are any typically Czech qualities, they usually avoid answering the question, saying they don’t want to generalize. However, after spending nearly two years in an office with three Brits, I couldn’t fail to notice some of their remarks. Talking about Czech stereotypes may be a dangerous thing if you are a foreigner, but as a Czech, I feel I have the right to do so.

In this week’s Business News: Janota’s second package; the crusading central banker; end of the road for Tatra workers; a brash US restaurant concept comes to the Czech Republic; and the tale of the slow burning merger.

Laura Baranik is one of the Czech Republic’s best known restaurant reviewers, writing a regular column in the Saturday edition of the newspaper Lidové noviny, as well as running her own blog, The Prague Spoon. During her short career, the 25-year-old has developed a reputation for demanding high standards, and earned the enmity of some restaurateurs, who are perhaps unused to such exacting criticism.

A month ago CzechTourism, in cooperation with the Association of Master Chefs and Confectioners and other partners launched a new project called “Czech Specials” – promoting national and regional cuisine across the country. The aim is to boost gastro-tourism by making tourists aware just what goodies they are missing: everything from black soup in Prague to wild boar in the Krkonoše Mountains. Jan Velinger asked CzechTourism’s Filip Remenec to tell him more about the project.

It’s the thief’s turn to cook dinner! Why are so many tourists spending hours in a certain public toilet. And, how many men in the Czech Republic can say they are Vaclav Havel? Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.

The Senate has passed an amendment to the tobacco act, requiring restaurant and pub-owners to choose between allowing – or banning - smoking on their premises. The amendment is a long-sought compromise among lawmakers but one that has come under criticism. Anti-smoking activists charge it should have gone farther, while opponents say it violates personal freedoms. If signed by the president and passed into law, restaurants will be required to display clearly whether or not smoking is allowed within. Besides outlining provisions for restaurateurs, the bill defines public areas where smoking is banned and sees tougher sanctions for anyone selling tobacco or alcohol to minors.

The truffle, often referred to as the king of all fungi, has long been considered one of the world’s finest delicacies - found in five-star restaurants around the world. In the Czech Republic the edible fungus is extremely rare, but that is changing. The reason is due changes in temperature and humidity: just recently samples of the rare fungus were uncovered in Moravia.

The Czech lower house voted on whether to ban smoking in restaurants on Wednesday, and decided that it should be left up to restaurants themselves to decide whether smoking was, or was not permitted on their premises. This was the least strict of the three proposals put forward. If approved by the Senate and signed into law by Czech President Václav Klaus, the new legislation will come into effect in July 2010. Smoking is banned in public buildings, trains, in stations and at bus stops in the Czech Republic though there is no smoking ban in the country’s bars and restaurants.