Chłodnik Litewski: A Cold Soup, Reduced to One Spoon

Some dishes belong to summer before the season fully arrives.

Chłodnik Litewski is one of them.

Known in Poland as a Lithuanian-style cold soup, and closely related to Lithuania’s beloved šaltibarščiai, Chłodnik Litewski sits in a shared culinary space between Poland and Lithuania. It is refreshing, bright, sour, creamy, herbal and unmistakably pink — a dish that carries the feeling of warmer days, young vegetables and tables where something cold can feel more comforting than something hot.

The name also carries a historical echo: Poland and Lithuania were once deeply connected through the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a shared cultural world that still lives on in dishes, memories and regional identity.

Traditionally, the soup is built around beetroot, fermented dairy such as kefir or buttermilk, cucumber, dill, spring onions and often egg. It is a dish of freshness, but also of history: shaped by the food cultures of the region, by everyday ingredients, and by the practical beauty of preparing something cooling when the weather begins to change.

At Criss Studio, we were interested in that feeling.

Not in recreating a full bowl of Chłodnik Litewski exactly as it would appear at home, but in asking what the essence of the dish is.

What makes it recognizable?

What makes it refreshing?

What makes it emotional?

How much of a soup can remain when it is reduced to a single spoon?

For our Spring Tasting Menu, we serve Chłodnik Litewski as a condensed version of a one-spoon soup.

It is not a bowl. It is not a full portion. It is a small, precise moment inside the menu — a cold, bright bite that carries the memory of the dish without trying to imitate it completely.

The idea is concentration.

Instead of giving the soup space through volume, we give it intensity. The beetroot, acidity, herbs and dairy-like freshness are brought into a tighter form. The guest receives the impression of Chłodnik Litewski almost instantly: coldness, sharpness, earthiness, creaminess, freshness.

One spoon, but with the feeling of the whole dish behind it.

To make the aromas more rounded, we finish it with lemon oil. For us, this became an important detail. Chłodnik Litewski already has natural freshness, but the lemon oil gives it a more lifted, aromatic edge. It brings brightness without making the dish feel sharper in a harsh way. It makes the whole spoon feel cleaner, more open, and even more alive.

This is exactly the kind of transformation we like at Criss Studio.

The dish is not changed in order to make it unrecognizable. It is changed so that its meaning can appear in a different format. The tradition stays present, but the form becomes ours.

A familiar soup becomes a tasting-menu gesture.

A summer dish becomes a spring memory.

A bowl becomes one spoon.

Chłodnik Litewski also fits naturally into the way we think about Polish food. It is not heavy, nostalgic or fixed in the past. It is fresh, seasonal, colorful and direct. It shows another side of the region’s cooking: one built around acidity, vegetables, herbs, dairy, coldness and relief.

For us, it is a reminder that comfort does not always need to be warm.

Sometimes comfort is cold.

Sometimes it is pink.

Sometimes it lasts only one spoon.

Chłodnik Litewski is part of our Spring Tasting Menu at Criss Studio, Hamburg.

June is the last chance to experience this version of our Signature Tasting Menu before we prepare something different for July and take our Summer Break in August. Our Signature Tasting Menu returns in its autumn seasonal version in September.

Reservations are available Thursday to Saturday evenings.