The father and son duo Helmut and Philip Rachinger yesterday evening presented the three original upper Austrian Matrix recpies for the GELINAZ! DOES UPPER AUSTRIA event that takes place on Sunday.
From a Goulasch and bread of potatoes to wild caught freshwater fish and foraged ingredients from the forest and summer venison, the 22 chefs that will join the Rachingers have already started work and brainstorming to see what and how they will prepare their deconstructed and reconstructed dishes.
René Redzepi and Magnus Nilsson (freshly shaved for the occasion after having stopped shaving since June) arrived in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Mauro Colagreco who missed the early morning flight to Austria arrived late in the evening with the slow train to the idyllic Mühltalhof in Neufelden.
The last remaining chef to arrive will be Lima based Virgilio Martinez who is set to arrive this morning to join the rest of the group.
David Chang with his team composed of Lukaz Mraz, May Chow and Colombe Saint-Pierre had a late night discussion after the dinner hosted by the Rachinger’s yesterday to plan how they will work on their venison dish.
In a very informal setting, the tensions seem to be gently rising because the chefs are worried about the end results. That tension may ease as they start to work in teams and composing or creating their dishes.
Philip said he was proud to see this event taking place. “My father has spent 28 years working behind in the kitchen. He has worked hard, hosted big parties, big groups. But this event is a dream for us,” he said as he welcomed the guests for the night yesterday.
Helmut and Philip Rachinger (the latter present for the GELINAZ! headquarters event in Brussels last November) said that six months ago, the project was still inconceivable. “It was more like a dream. But it is now a dream that we are able to bring to life with the help and support of a number of visionary people.” We like to think outside the box and swim against the tide and now and again we even let ourselves go back to the roots of our local cuisine and the fine products that we now have the opportunity to introduce to our chef friends from around the world.”
The three Matrix Dishes that will be recreated by the seven teams of chefs are the following:
Goulasch and Bread of Potatoes
Ingredients for the Goulash: 3 pc white onions, 6 pc garlic, 3 tbs sweet paprika powder, 20 pc young berber potatoes, 4 pc red paprika, 3 pc tomatoes, 4 pcs ripe apricots, 3tbs linseed oil, 2 tbs apricotstone oil, caraway, oregano, marjoram, dried chili, salt and pepper.
Ingredients for the bread: 2 kg white wheat four, 1.5 kgs potatoes Agria cooked and pressed, 600ml potatoes fond, 300 ml whole milk, 70gr linseeds, 50gr bread spices (anise seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, caraway seeds), 8 grms, bird clover, 42g fresh yeast, 100 ml linseed oil, 50gr salt.
To assemble: Helmut and Philip say everybody has his or her own ideas, how a goulash should taste like and how it should look like. They said not every team has to make bread but it would be great so see what chefs could make with things like linseeds, whole milk, potatoes.
Wild-caught freshwater fish and foraged ingredients from the forest
Ingredients: 4 pc Char, 50ml Elderberry vinegar, 10gr Salt, 30gr Fresh pine, 10gr Elderberry capers, 15gr Woodsorrel, 8gr Dried red elderberries.
This dish is very minimalistic. The fish is cooked in a split wooden log or ‘schindl’ which is shaped to have enough space for the curing chamber for the fish. The idea of the dish was born in Helmut’s head around 2006 and a couple of years later Philip put it back on the menu and did a little rework. This was later used as their contribution to the World Expo in Milan in 2014. The wood does not retain the heat which means that the cooking is very gentle.
Summer venison are two to three year old male deer which are normally shot at this time of year. The hunters are taking only the smaller ones away as they will not make it over the cold winter period.
This dish consisted of a venison shoulder, a venison saddle and aubergine served with wild berries and a beetroot juice.
The teams of chefs that will have to rework the three above dishes are the following:
Milena Broger, Gabriela Camara, Rene Redzepi and Felix Schellhorn
Manoella Buffara, Magnus Nilsson, Konstantin Filippou
Margot Janse, Chiho Kanzaki, Heinz Reitbauer
Antonia Klugmann, Virgilio Martinez and Lukas Nagl,
Mauro Colagreco, Karime Lopez and Bo Songvisava
David Chang, May Chow, Lukas Mraz and Colombe Saint-Pierre
Helmut Rachinger, Philip Rachinger and Ana Ros.
It is a collective made by chefs for chefs, never repeating itself with no competition in mind and was, at core, solely created to give something back to an ever-evolving industry, adapting to unpredictable situations and charting new territory.
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