Culinary delights on the Arlberg

“Gault Millau” toques thanks to closeness to nature

The quality of the outstanding cuisine on the Arlberg is also due to the surrounding nature - Martin Prodinger, Manu and Thorsten Probost preparing the village table.

(Bild: ServusTV / Joanna Michna)

Original taste and culinary artists who are constantly rethinking the Arlberg - this is what makes Lech/Zürs a summit of delights.

Lech and Zürs are the villages with the highest density of "Gault Millau" toques per inhabitant in the world. The two villages have a total of 65 toques per 1600 inhabitants, cooked up by very special chefs. In summer, it's time for them to get out of the kitchen and into nature! Kitchen pioneer Thorsten Probost, for example, can often be found on lush alpine meadows. Hardly anyone knows the area around Lech like he does. The first chef with three toques on the Arlberg only cooks what is currently ripe - out of respect for the plants and for the right "gut feeling". His motto: nature is the architect of the kitchen. But he is not the only one for whom she is the "sous chef".

Culinary experiments in the Culinary Lab

(Bild: ServusTV / Joanna Michna)

Roots for culinary experiments

Award-winning chef Tobias Schöpf regularly gets into trouble at home. "I'm going into the forest for a moment," he says to his wife. Hours later, he is still not back home, instead he is still hunting for herbs, buds, roots and other treasures from the mountains. Tobias needs them as material for his experiments in the culinary laboratory of the "Rote Wand". The worst thing for him is when the largest and most beautiful specimens are hidden deep in the ground and he only has a few small roots in his rucksack after a day in the forest. At the gourmet hideaway "Rote Wand", Jamie Unshelm from Solingen is the chef and creative head of the laboratory of unimagined possibilities. 99 percent of the culinary inventions here are completely new flavors that no one has ever tasted before. To taste them for the first time, you need one thing above all - courage.

The chefs on TV

Find out more about enjoyment on the Arlberg in "Hauben und Höhenflüge", Friday, May 10, from 9.15 pm on ServusTV

It usually happens to collector and nature expert Tobias Schöpf. The pair's latest project: They are creating an aerosol from the needles of the "Arle", the mountain pines that gave the Arlberg its name. The plan: to spray the smell of the forest as a "Lech forest perfume" on hot dishes. There, the essence is to evaporate and rise directly into the nose of the connoisseur - as a surprise for the senses.