WG MAGAZINE
In the Austrian/German chef’s scene, there was and still is one really influential chef called Eckart Witzigmann, he was the one who brought nouvelle cuisine to Austria; and there was hope. So after finishing school I started to work for Heinz Reitbauer in the Steirereck. After being at home now for 4 years I can say that this was maybe the most important one during my years away from the family hotel. The way of how Heinz Reitbauer held the team together and how he came up with new dishes was just amazing. So after Vienna I left for Pierre Gagnaire and ended up working for Isaac Mchale. I was there for the reopening of their famous young Turcs at the Ten Bells pop up. It was a year later that I was very lucky to end up at Saturne, after being in Paris for three weeks, I really had a hard decision to make, to choose between l´Arpege or Saturne. I stayed at Saturne and I can say it was the right decision. After Paris I returned back home, coming back home was a very easy decision. A phone call from my father who told me that most of his old team had left and that I should come back home. Being back home together with Helmut in the kitchen was a pirority and it worked out from the first day. It is like a 4 hands dinner every night! He suggests some things which he use to do for years and I do a little rework on it. Or the other way around, I show him what I learned in the past and he is doing a remix on that. But to be honest Austria is always a bit behind when it is about food, however all Austrians are full professional skiers. WG September 2017 -
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