In the heart of Austria, amongst the mountains of Schladming-Dachstein, WINELIFE joined The Heart of Food at the end of March. A culinary event where chefs, winemakers and producers come together to convey a single message: provenance matters.
Text and images: Jody Mijts
The Heart of Food serves as the overarching platform, on which events such as masterclasses and tasting sessions – including Bite into Regions – showcase Austria’s culinary identity. The event comes at a significant moment: since last year, Michelin stars have once again been awarded throughout Austria, whereas previously this had been limited to Vienna and Salzburg. The country now boasts 101 restaurants with one or more stars. During ‘Bite into Regions’, one of the components of ‘The Heart of Food’, the focus shifts from theory to taste. In three mountain huts in the Untertal, chefs from across Austria prepare regional signature dishes in an informal setting, as part of a culinary stroll through the countryside.
The various mountain huts showcase the diversity of the country: we sample all sorts of dishes, ranging from Styrian runner beans with trout roe and rowanberries to Carinthian cheese dumplings with truffle and brown butter. Dishes from Salzburg and Burgenland include Blunzn-Tascherl, black pudding parcels, served with pointed cabbage and horseradish, and huchen, a freshwater fish related to both trout and salmon, from Austrian mountain streams. The most striking example comes from the Vorarlberg region. There, chef Jeremias Riezler is breathing new life into riibl, a nearly extinct variety of maize from the Alps. Not only as coarse polenta with mountain cheese, but also used in whisky and ice cream.
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