Austrian Cooking Class

Cooking has always been one of my passions. Traveling, getting to know more places and their food, and then bringing some of these memories home. Recipes of food are an amazing way to bring home those memories, and let them live by periodically cooking some of them, preparing a dish I have eaten years ago in a small street stall in Japan, or in a London luxury restaurant. With food, I get back all those memories.

A very special memory, of course, will always be my heritage, the country I come from: Austria. That’s why I devoted some time to learn Austrian cooking from one of the masters in this beautiful country: Georg Essig. He has perfected upper-austrian cuisine and is one of the top chefs in Austria. He has his own restaurant in Linz, and he is very successful with it. Since his very beginning as a master chef, he has been giving cooking classes for a selected few.

Not only being a foodie, but also a food photography enthusiast, I have been so fortunate as to be part of one of these amazing days, and have documented this experience with photos and some good tips for cooking. Hang on!

We started the day with shrimp & scallop skewers, as well as grilled fish. The secret to all of the grilling & sizzling is, apparently, temperature. And the moderate use of those secret spices of the grand chefs: Salt & Pepper!

As Georg explains, cooking meat involves using a frying pan with hot oil in the beginning, and then finishing the cooking process in the oven. He recommends around 190°C (375°F). After cooking, we need to let the meat sit for a minute or two, so that the juices are able to re-distribute evenly within the meat. A simple secret, but it so makes the difference!

A delicious piece of grilled veal calf liver on red wine risotto. Did you know that the secret of risotto is to cook the rice “al dente” (still a bit hard), and to use butter and/or oil and cheese to stop the cooking process and coat the rice so it doesn’t soften any more?

Cooking steaks is one of the hardest things in the kitchen. I mean cooking good ones. U.S. corn fed beef is one of the best sources of good meat for me. Using very high temperatures is another secret. And don’t forget the oven treatment!

An important part of cooking is the presentation. We invest a lot of time into cooking the perfect meal, so we want it to sit on a plate nicely and in all its splendor. Look at this perfect piece of Crème Brûlée Tart!