About Plancha

Plancha is a newsletter for people who run restaurants, hotels, and hospitality businesses in Central and Eastern Europe.

If you’re an owner, general manager, head chef, F&B director, operator, or the kind of creative leader who carries a P&L in their head whether they want it or not: this is for you.

We’re building Plancha because the industry deserves something better than the usual mix of press releases, “thought leadership” that’s secretly an ad, and trend-chasing that never makes it back to the realities of staffing, margins, suppliers, or guests.

Our promise is simple: utility first. Every issue should help you make at least one better decision: about your business, your customers, or the forces shaping the industry.

We land in your inbox because that's where your professional life already happens. No algorithm deciding what you see. No app you need to remember to open. Just useful information, delivered directly.

What we actually cover

We've organised everything we do around three questions you're probably already asking:

How do I run this place better?

Operations, HR, supplier relationships, technology, marketing, training. We're not interested in vague advice. We want to show you how successful operators actually renegotiate supplier contracts, how they handle scheduling, what tools are worth the money and which ones aren't. Real solutions to real problems.

Who are my customers, and what do they want?

The twenty-something in Budapest doesn't eat the same way as the forty-something in Vienna. Tourists have different expectations than locals. We dig into demographics, preferences, and emerging trends across the region: combining actual data with on-the-ground reporting so you can make smarter decisions about your menu, your pricing, your service.

What's happening in this industry that I should care about?

The big-picture stuff: regulations coming down the pipeline, economic shifts, cultural changes, new business models worth paying attention to. We talk to the people shaping the industry and translate what they're seeing into something you can actually use.

What makes this different from trade press

We like the industry. We also think a lot of industry media has a credibility problem.

Too often, “coverage” is sponsored content wearing a trench coat. Too often, the incentive is to keep advertisers happy, not to help operators make better decisions.

Plancha is built around a different set of incentives:

• Service journalism, not PR. If it can’t help you, we won't publish it.
• Clear separation of editorial and sponsorship. If something is paid, it will be labeled. No games.
• Evidence and transparency. We’ll use data where possible, cite sources, correct errors, and be explicit about what we know vs. what we’re inferring.
• Respect for the reader. You’re busy. We know that and we won't waste your time.

We’ll also publish deeper resources: explainers, benchmarks, checklists, calculators, templates, and research-driven reports, the kind of stuff you can forward to your team with a “let’s do this” note.

How it will be funded

We’re building Plancha to be reader-supported. If we do our job, this should be worth paying for, because it helps you run a better business.

The plan is:

• Start free at launch, so you can try it with zero friction.
• If you want, you’ll be able to pay early because you want this to exist and you want more of it.
• Over time, we’ll introduce paid-only extras: premium analysis, tools, deeper reports, and member benefits.

We may also run limited sponsorships with partners we’re comfortable with. If/when we do, we’ll be transparent. Sponsored is sponsored. Editorial is editorial.

Who's behind this?

We're journalists and industry people, and we think that combination matters.

Peter Erdelyi (Hungary & Austria) (that's me) has spent more than two decades in journalism and media management. I co-founded multiple digital media projects, run the Media Finance Monitor newsletter read by thousands of media executives globally. I also advise major publishers and media investors internationally, and teach digital media strategy for MA students in Budapest.

Alexei Korolyov (Austria) is an award-winning broadcast and print journalist who's covered politics, culture, and business across Austria and Central and Eastern Europe for fifteen years, most recently as the Vienna correspondent for Monocle. He knows the restaurant scene in this city inside and out, and he brings the kind of storytelling craft that makes complicated things interesting.

Zsófi Bajor (Hungary) bridges the gap between media and gastronomy. She's spent fifteen years in food television, founded a successful catering company, and co-hosts a popular gastronomy podcast. When we're writing about what operators actually need, she's often the one keeping us honest.

Georgiana Ilie (Romania) is a senior editor for an industry magazine and runs a 22,000-member community focused on sustainable cooking. She's been doing B2B publishing long enough to know what readers want and what makes them come back. Contact her at ilie.jo@gmail.com.

Miklós Rózsa (Hungary) keeps the operation running. More than twenty years in publishing and media management means he's the one making sure we can actually deliver what we promise.

Between us, we've started publications, managed newsrooms, run businesses, worked the industry side, and covered it as journalists. We understand both what you need and how to deliver it at a level you can trust.

What we're asking from you

Sign up. Even if you're just curious. The more people who join, the better we can make this.

Tell others. If you know someone who runs a restaurant, manages an F&B operation, or cares about where this industry is headed—forward this to them.

Talk back. Tell us what's useful and what isn't. What questions do you have that nobody's answering? What would make this worth your time? We're building Plancha for you, and the best way to get it right is to hear from you. Reach out to us on hello@plancha.food

That's it. No grand manifesto, just a publication trying to be genuinely useful to people doing hard, important work.

Welcome to Plancha.